Malachi chapter 1. We're starting a new series. A friend of mine conducted a wedding recently and he showed me the wedding programme that he'd been given.
! The groom was an actor and the service sheet went like this. Wedding St. Clemens starring Elizabeth and James and James and music by Pachelbel and William.
conducted by Mark Jones based on the text of the Book of Common Prayer. World premiere 4th of December 2023.
You opened it up and on the other side of the front page was the cast. Bride, the bride, the groom, the bridesmaids, the best man, the ushers.
It said in small print, understudies not required today.
Act 1, some songs and wedding vows. Act 2, Bible readings including some audience participation. Act 3, etc.
And the conclusion was the curtain call.
On the front of the service sheet for this wedding, it said, marriage, the ultimate theatre piece.
James and Elizabeth, the groom and the bride, were aware that weddings are a piece of theatre.
There's a ceremony. There's a ceremony. There's rings. There's dresses. There's the churches.
But none of those things make a marriage. They only make a wedding.
And a wedding is really, isn't it, only half a day in a lifetime of relationship.
Of course, in the context of that relationship, a wedding is a beautiful thing.
But it's the relationship is far more important, isn't it?
The relationship is more important than the wedding.
The same is true of our relationship with God.
Ceremonies, the outward actions, the vows we make with our lips.
Well, they're important.
But they're not the most important thing.
What counts most is the inner reality.
If you like, the inner reality of our relationship to God.
And that's the issue that is right at the heart of this little book at the end of the Old Testament, Malachi.
Malachi contains God's last words to his people in the Old Testament.
It's written about 430 BC.
Chapter 1, verse 1, if you look down, says,
The oracle of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi.
The message is called an oracle.
It's a word of authority, a word that has come from God.
But it's not just any divine word.
It's a word from the Lord, capital letters, L-O-R-D.
It's God's special covenant name to his people.
That was the name by which God had given himself to his people.
And he'd marked himself off from any other so-called God.
The word Lord, L-O-R-D, in capital letters, speaks of his special relationship with his people.
So what we've got here is Yahweh, the Lord God's word to his special people.
The name of Malachi just means messenger.
And what follows is a record of the one true God, the God of the universe, speaking through his messenger to his people.
For the last time.
Under the Old Covenant.
After this prophecy, there's 400 years of silence until John the Baptist turns up.
And so look at verse 2.
I have loved you.
That seems simple enough.
But Israel's response to the question is, you say, how have you loved us?
And that introduces us to one of the major themes of Malachi.
How you can understand this book.
That it's structured behind a series of statements and then questions.
We're going to call them disputes.
There's six disputes in Malachi.
Six disputes where God and his people have this kind of argument.
The first dispute is that they dispute God's love.
They call God's love into question.
I think it's a pretty foolish thing to do.
It must have broken God's heart to hear the question.
Let me tell you why it's foolish.
If you know anything about the Bible and you know anything about the people of Israel,
you do not have to be Einstein to realise that God has loved them faithfully, patiently, generously, extravagantly.
From the very beginning.
And yet Israel questioned God's love.
I want you to listen to God's unexpected answer.
Look at the end of verse 2.
I have loved you, says the Lord.
But you say, how have you loved us?
Is not Esau Jacob's brother, declares the Lord?
Yet I've loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated.
I've laid waste his hill country and left his heritage to the jackals of the desert.
If Edom says, we are shattered, but we will rebuild the ruins.
The Lord of hosts says, they may build, but I will tear down.
And they will be called the wicked country and the people with whom the Lord is angry forever.
You might not be familiar with the Bible, but Esau and Jacob were the twin sons of Isaac and Rebecca.
And Isaac was the son of Abraham, who you probably have heard of.
And right back at the start of the Bible, in Genesis 25, we're introduced to these twins, Jacob and Esau.
Before they were even born.
And so I want to read you just a couple of verses from Genesis 25, 22.
The story of Jacob and Esau.
It says about before they were born, the children struggled within their mother.
And she said, if it is thus, why is this happening to me?
Why are they fighting in my womb?
So the mum went to inquire before the Lord and the Lord said to her, two nations are in your womb.
And two peoples from within you shall be divided.
The one shall be stronger than the other.
And the older shall serve the younger.
Jacob was the younger of the two.
And he became the founding father of the people of Israel.
Esau was the older of the two and he became the founding father of the nation of Edom.
You can see Edom is mentioned in verse 4.
The Israelites, do you remember?
In the Old Testament, they became the people of God, his treasured possession.
The Edomites didn't.
And that's what God is reminding the Israelites here at the start of Malachi.
When questioned about his love for Israel, he points to the fact that they found favour in his eyes.
Even though other nations like Edom didn't.
The descendants of Esau, they didn't share.
They didn't share the favour of God like Jacob's descendants did.
God appeals to their chosenness.
That's his answer to their question.
How have you loved us?
It's an unexpected answer, isn't it?
When Israel, the people of God, questioned God's love, I think I would have expected God to say,
Well, look at my rescue, how I rescued you in Israel, out of the wilderness of Egypt.
I would point to my patients when they grumbled and when they complained and when they went astray.
Maybe God would point to his willingness to be their king, to their military triumphs, to a promised land.
The list could go on and on, couldn't it?
But God doesn't point to any of those things.
He goes way further back and he says,
You can know I love you because I chose you.
I chose you out of all the nations of the earth to be my own.
And what is even more unexpected is the way that he talks about his choice of Israel.
I want you to imagine for a moment that I take my wife Claire,
I haven't got another wife,
I take my wife out for a very romantic dinner at a restaurant.
And I want you to imagine that she looks longingly at me over the dinner table and she says,
How do I know that you love me?
Imagine for a moment that I responded like this.
Claire, you see that woman at the table over there?
I let her tyres down and I threw a brick through her window on the way into the restaurant.
That's how I love you.
That would be a very odd response, wouldn't it?
I don't think that God is saying something as ridiculous as that.
But it is surprising what he says.
You see, he spoke about his love for Israel and his choice of Israel
by focusing on what life has been like for those he hasn't loved and he hasn't chosen.
Edom.
And he uses really stark language in verse 3 and 4 to make his point clear.
God's choice of Israel, the people of God, creates a significant distinction.
It's as if the chosen ones are loved and everyone else is hated.
And these verses spell out the implications of what those choices have been.
Their land is wasted.
Even if they try to rebuild, God will not allow them to.
Because of his wrath against them because of their sin.
And all of that is because of God's choice.
And the point that God is making is,
I chose you Israel and I chose you alone.
Why did God do that?
Well, even from the very beginning of God's relationship with his people,
God made the reason for his choice very, very clear.
Let me read to you this time from Deuteronomy 7, verse 6.
You don't have to turn to it.
But I'll read to you from Deuteronomy 7, verse 6.
And God said to Israel, and he addresses them, and he says,
For you are a people holy to the Lord your God.
The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people
for his treasured possession out of all the peoples on the face of the earth.
It was not because you were more in number than any other people
that the Lord set his love upon you.
For you were the fewest of all peoples.
But it is because the Lord loves you
and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers
that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand
and redeemed you from the house of slavery,
from the hand of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt.
Know therefore that the Lord your God is God,
the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love
with those who love him to a thousand generations.
It's because of God's love and his faithfulness
that he chose Israel the way he did.
Which of course makes the logic of Malachi chapter 1 even clearer.
God's choice of Israel is evidence of his love for Israel.
In fact there's no other reason why he chose them.
There was nothing about the people of Israel
that made them inherently attractive to God.
It was simply because of his undeserved love for them.
And the whole question of God choosing some
and not choosing others is very troubling isn't it
for many Christians.
Maybe for you.
It can be hard to understand
and it can be very hard to accept.
And sometimes we ask why.
Why does God choose some and not others?
And people often say the Bible doesn't tell us why.
But that isn't quite right.
The Bible does tell us why.
God's choice is because of God's love.
It's the follow-up question
that the Bible chooses not to answer explicitly.
Why does God love some in this way
and not others?
And the Bible's response to that
is to encourage us to trust God.
Not to grasp at the depths of God's wisdom.
To recognize that he is God and we're not.
And we don't understand him fully.
And we'll never fully comprehend.
And that is a question isn't it
that requires real humility.
But we must remember
that the Bible's answer to the first question,
why does God choose,
is because he loves.
And that's not just about God's
Old Testament relationship
with the Jewish people.
It's also the way that the New Testament
talks about God's relationship
with us as Christians now.
Those, if you are a Christian this morning,
the Bible says
it's because God chose you.
And he called you to himself.
And why did he choose them?
Because he loves them.
Paul connects the two things
in Ephesians chapter one.
He says to the Christians in Ephesus,
in love,
he predestined them.
And it's always been that way with God.
And that is why God responded to Israel
in Malachi chapter one
in the way that he did.
How could Israel be sure
that God loved them?
Well, they only had to look
at the Edomites
to see what life was like
for those whom God did not love
and God did not choose.
And God is saying
that ought to be enough
to assure you once and for all
that you are his chosen people.
And therefore that they were loved.
Now before I move on from this,
I want to ask another question.
I want to ask the question,
is God's reply foolish?
And I want us to consider that
because it is unavoidable
when you put these two key elements
of the opening verses together.
God is giving evidence of his love.
Yes.
But he's giving evidence to people
who've called his love into question.
Why is he even answering
their challenge at all?
God is not answerable to you and I.
He doesn't need to defend
his love to his people.
The evidence is all there.
They don't need extra evidence.
What's more,
this isn't the first time, is it?
It isn't the first time
that Israel have called
God's love into question.
In fact,
the whole history of the people of God
is riddled with them
questioning
and rejecting
and disobeying.
They've run away from God
again and again and again.
When is God's patience
with his people going to run out?
When will he finally refuse
to answer that question?
When will he cease to love
such an ungrateful people
so persistently and so completely?
You can see
why God's love may seem foolish.
Because it's a love for fools.
Fools like you and me.
It's a love that continues
to take a beating.
It's a love that keeps
getting thrown back in his face.
A love that continues
to be rejected.
If I could say it reverently,
is God not a fool
to show love to those
who show no love in return?
We need to be really careful,
don't we,
how we answer that question.
But the Bible's answer is this.
What seems foolish
in the world's eyes
is often the wisdom of God.
But call it what you will,
it is true,
it is true that
at the very heart
of the God of the universe
is a God of love.
He is so deeply
and profoundly committed
to those he loves
that he will not give up on them.
Human sin
and rebellion
can never overwhelm his love.
His love overwhelms
the worst that his people
can throw at him.
And that's the story
that Malachi 1
is attempting to tell.
It's a familiar story.
It's the story,
if you look through the Bible,
of people like Abraham
and Moses
and David.
People who failed God
in big ways
and in small ways,
but who were still
his chosen people.
It's the story
of Israel
from the beginning
to the end,
despite their constant
rebellion and sin.
And it's our story too,
isn't it?
It's the story
of the whole Bible.
God's
soft-hearted
love
for a hard-hearted
people.
God's soft-hearted
love
for a hard-hearted
people.
Let's go to the
second dispute.
And that starts
in verse 6.
Because the faithful
love of God
for his people
means that
he deserves
better
than what they
were offering him.
chapter 1
verse 6.
Look down with me.
A son
honours his father
and a servant
his master.
If then I'm a father,
where's my honour?
And if I'm a master,
where is my fear?
Says the Lord of hosts
to you,
O priests
who despise my name.
And here God
is suggesting
his need to the
Israelite priests,
to the religious
leaders,
that they hadn't
shown him the honour
and the respect
that he deserves.
God is saying,
I am your heavenly
father,
I am your master
in heaven,
yet you've shown
me contempt.
God has guided
Israel,
saved Israel,
been patient
with Israel,
loved Israel,
yet they've rejected
him,
they've been
ungrateful to him,
they've sinned
against him,
and God is saying,
I deserve better.
They've shown
contempt for
his name.
But as we just
read in verse 5,
as Malachi says
again and again,
God's name is great
and worthy of praise
and honour.
So look at verse 11.
For from the rising
of the sun
to its setting,
my name will be
great among the nations,
and in every place
incense will be
offered to my name
in a pure offering,
for my name will be
great among the nations,
says the Lord of hosts.
Then look at the end
of verse 14.
For I am a great king,
says the Lord of hosts,
and my name will be
feared among the nations.
He's saying,
this is who I am,
and it's precisely
that which the
Israelite leaders
had failed to reckon with.
The ones who
should have been
representing
the people before God
and nurturing
their relationship
with God
were the very
ones who were
responsible for
not giving God
the respect
and honour
that he's due.
Instead,
they showed
contempt for his name.
So look at the end
of verse 6
and see the dispute,
the second dispute.
They say,
how?
You say,
how have we
shown contempt
for your name?
Listen to how God
puts it,
verse 7.
He answers them
by saying,
by offering polluted
food on my altar.
But you say,
how have we
polluted you?
By saying that
the Lord's table
may be despised.
When you offer
a blind animal
in sacrifice,
is that not evil?
Or when you offer
the lame or the sick,
is that not evil?
Present that to your
governor,
take it to your boss,
will he accept it?
Will he show you favour?
They were offering,
weren't they,
defective sacrifices.
Animal sacrifices
were a central part
of Old Testament
worship,
of their relationship
with God.
They were the way
that God had provided
for Israel's sin
to be dealt with
and for Israel
to express devotion.
Way back when God
introduced
sacrifices,
he made it clear.
He says,
when you come to me
to worship,
second class
sacrifices won't do.
Let me read you
from Leviticus chapter 1
verse 10.
It says,
if his gift
or burnt offering
is from the flock,
from the sheep
or the goats,
he shall bring a male
without blemish,
the best of the sheep.
Offering
an animal to God
without any defect
was to be an expression
of our love
and worship to God.
That they'd show respect
by an honouring him
by bringing the best.
The best animal
from their flock
or herd.
But a thousand years
on from that,
when God had given
an instruction
to these priests,
we find that
they were disobeying.
They were bringing
any old animal
will do,
anything will do
for God.
And so Malachi
brings God's
word of rebuke
to them
and he says,
you're cheating me.
Look at the end
of the chapter.
It says this,
when you bring
what has been taken
by violence
or is lame or sick
and this you bring
as your offering,
shall I accept that
from your hand,
says the Lord?
Cursed be the cheat
who is a male
in his flock
and vows it
and yet sacrifices
to the Lord
what is blemished.
For I'm a great king,
says the Lord of hosts
and my name
is to be feared
among the nations.
And what is even more,
just two verses before
in verses 12 and 13,
they say the whole thing
is just a burden, God.
You profane it
when you say
that the Lord's table
is polluted
and its fruit,
that its food
may be despised
but you say
what a weariness
is this?
And you snort
at it.
Even offering
bargain basement
disabled animals
was something
that they considered
a real drag.
Israel were giving
second best
blemished sacrifices
to God
and they're even
doing it begrudgingly.
And they're treating
something very sacred,
very important
in their relationship
with God
with contempt.
As if doing it
the way that
God wanted
didn't really matter
despite what
he deserved.
And God responds
verse 10 with anger.
Can you see that?
He says this,
Oh,
that there was
one among you
who would shut
the doors
that might not
kindle fire
on my altar in vain.
I've no pleasure
in you,
says the Lord of hosts
and I will not
accept an offering
from your hand.
The word there
is useless fires.
The animal sacrifices
they were usually
burned,
but God says
the fires
that you Israelites
are lighting
to burn your sacrifices
are useless.
These sacrifices,
they make no difference
at all
to your relationship
with me.
There may be fires
but they're leaving
God cold.
And he's saying
I'd rather that
someone came along
and shut and locked
the doors of the temple.
I'd rather you
didn't even come
into the temple
than to have you
continue with your
half-hearted,
ritualistic excuses
for worship.
Do you see,
the Israelite leaders,
the priests,
they are presiding
over a religion
that has got no heart
and no reality.
It's not a genuine
relationship with God.
They're going through
the motions,
through the outward show,
but there's nothing
of God in their hearts.
And they might have
thought,
our coming to church
were keeping God happy
but they weren't.
In fact,
they were making him angry
because their relationship
with God
was just a theatre piece.
It was all wedding,
no marriage.
And it wasn't just
a one-off problem,
was it?
Because 300 years earlier
the prophet Isaiah
had said about the people
then,
he says,
they come
and they draw near
to me with their mouth,
they honour me
with their lips,
but their hearts
are far from me.
And their worship
actually is made up
only of rules
taught by men.
And 400 years
after Malachi,
in the time of Jesus,
the Jewish leaders
were still at it.
And Jesus' conflict
is about this very issue,
isn't it?
In Mark 7,
remember all the Pharisees
and the teachers
of the law,
they were upset
because Jesus' followers
were eating food
with unwashed hands.
And Jesus quotes
to them,
Isaiah 29,
13,
he says,
you people,
you worship me
with your lips
but your hearts
far from me.
It's all outward forms,
it's all rule keeping,
it's all rituals,
it's all being seen,
but no heart.
No inward reality,
it's a theatre piece.
And Jesus warns us,
doesn't he,
really clearly
that we need
to be careful
of being hypocritical
like them.
To not be like
the Pharisees
in the days of Jesus' day
or the priests
and the people
in Malachi's day
because the problem
is still with us
right now,
isn't it?
Sometimes we get
caught up
in the outward displays
of religion
while inwardly
we're really cold
towards God.
And we do
all the right things
but our hearts
are far from him.
And so you can wear
a cross
around your neck.
You can say
on your CV
that you are a Christian
and you go to church.
You might carry
a well-worn Bible
with you to church maybe.
Maybe you read your Bible
on the tube.
Are they signs
of mere religion
or relationship with God?
You might turn up
to church
and sing heartily.
You might
take of the Lord's Supper
when it comes around
but is it just
outward observance?
Or do those things
reflect a genuine
love for God?
You may have been
baptised in a church,
confirmed in a church.
You may have been
in church all your life
but was that because
you honoured
and respected God
or because
you're just going
through the motions?
You might read your Bible
and pray every day.
You might lead Sunday school
or youth group.
You might even
preach a sermon.
But is it just
because of what you do?
Because it's possible
to do all those things
with a heart
that's far from God,
isn't it?
Is it just habit?
What others expect
or do you do them
out of a heart
that burns
a deep longing
to please
the God that you love?
And that's the kind
of hard question
Malachi asks you
and I this morning.
He's asking us
about our willingness.
The Israelites
sniffed at their
or snorted
at their obligations.
They said,
what a burden.
Are we like that?
Dragging ourselves
out of bed
or off the sofa
begrudgingly
on Sundays
for church.
Or do we
leap at the chance
to meet
with the people of God?
Do we transfer
our money
to the church
joyfully
or are we thinking
oh,
I could have bought
loads of that?
Saving others
with joy in our heart
or just wishing
they'd get their act
together
and sort their lives out?
There are many things.
There are good things
that we do
but things
which have no value
before God
if they're done
begrudgingly
or if we do them
just because we're
going through the motions.
God wants us
to give, doesn't he,
to him cheerfully
and wholeheartedly.
And so Malachi 1
is so challenging
isn't it
because it says to you
unless the things
we do flow
from our hearts
that truly honour God
they are what Malachi
calls useless fires.
And God says to us
this morning
rather than carry on
with your rituals
and your religious duties
God would rather
that we built a wall
at the front
of the entrance
and put a chain
around the gates
and boarded up
the entrance
of the church
and carry on
and closed down
the youth group
so that we'd
no longer insult him.
It's not an issue
of us doing good
for bad reasons.
It's not as if
they kind of cancel
each other out.
It's not neutral.
It is offensive
to God.
It's not what
our Father in Heaven
or what our Master
in Heaven deserves.
It's not what
our God
our Saviour
our King
deserved.
And if that is
what you're engaged
in this morning
God's word to you
is
I wish you
wouldn't bother.
I'd rather receive
nothing from you
than be insulted
like this
by your sacrifices.
They don't move me
they actually show me
contempt
they're pieces of theatre
they're useless fires.
I meet
lots of people
who are not Christians
and maybe you're not
a Christian this morning
and one of the things
they really hate
is they hate
the hypocrisy of Christians.
And I want to say
to you
if you're here
this morning
and that's you
you don't hate it
half as much
as God does.
He says to his people
don't burn the sacrifices
any longer.
And Israel's problem
the Pharisees problem
is my problem too.
And we maybe
need to recognise
how displeased
God is with us
how rude we've been to him.
He seeks the fruit
of a genuine relationship
with him
not mere religion.
He looks for a fire
in the heart
not our useless fires
which are really
no sacrifice at all.
That's the challenge
God's word has
for us today.
But what are the answers?
Do I leave you in despair?
Let me give you
what I think are
God's two answers
to this
this morning.
The first one
is the word repentance
which means
stopping what you're doing
and expressing sorrow
and turning
in another direction.
For Israel
it meant
didn't it
in this passage
stop offering
the
kind of
blemish sacrifices.
It meant
doing things
with a heart
to God
with gladness.
And we live
a long time
after Malachi
because Jesus came
and he is
the great sacrifice.
we don't have to come
with animal sacrifices
thankfully.
But the New Testament
calls on us
to offer our whole life
that's our sacrifice.
Listen to what
the Apostle Paul says.
He says
I appeal to you
therefore
brothers
by the mercies
of God
to present
your bodies
as a living
sacrifice.
Holy and
acceptable to God
which is your
spiritual worship.
All that I have
all that I am.
and that's going
to involve me
trusting God
isn't it?
But as Malachi
reminds us
we'd be really
foolish
not to trust
God
even with our
lives.
It's really
what a Christian
is.
A Christian
is someone
who trusts
God
with their life.
And that is
what God
wants of us.
He wants
our all.
He wants
everything.
He wants
our whole life
to be an act
of worship
to him.
that we may
live the way
he wants
with hearts
of gladness.
And actually
repenting
means expressing
right sorrow
and turning
away from
anything less
than that.
But the
second answer
to the
question is
this.
We can't
do that
can we?
I certainly
can't.
You see
God does
want me
and he
wants you
this morning
to repent
but ultimately
that won't
do.
he wanted
Israel to
repent
but even
if they
did that
wouldn't
have made
everything
right.
Because
we're still
sinful human
beings aren't
we?
And we
will continue
to fail
and God
knows that
of course
he knows
that and
we're so
foolish
that we
hear a
challenging
word like
we hear
today from
Malachi
chapter 1
and we
think
do you
know
what
I'm
going to
try a
bit
harder
I'm
going to
lift
my
game
for a
while
but I
can
promise
you
what will
happen
is you'll
fall back
into your
old habits
you'll be
lighting
useless
fires
within
days
because
my
sacrifice
to God
and your
sacrifice
to God
will never
be perfect
never be
without
blemish
so listen
to me
for a
moment
what
Peter
says
to
the
Christians
in
1 Peter
1
and I
want you
to soak
in this
today
knowing
that you
were
ransomed
from
futile
ways
inherited
from
your
forefathers
not
with
perishable
things
such
as
silver
or
gold
but
you
were
ransomed
with
the
precious
blood
of
Christ
like
that
of
a
lamb
without
spot
or
without
blemish
the
Lord
Jesus
rescues
us
from
an
empty
way
of
life
he
rescues
us
from
empty
fires
kind
of
way
of
life
and
how
does
he
do
that
he
does
that
by
offering
himself
as
an
unblemished
sacrifice
to
God
he's
the
only
one
that
ever
needed
to
be
offered
in
fact
it
is
only
because
Jesus
made
that
sacrifice
that
God
will
allow
you
to
make
a
sacrifice
for
him
our
feeble
attempts
at
sacrifice
are
only
acceptable
because
of
his
ultimate
sacrifice
in that
sense
even our
repentance
is a
waste
of time
isn't it
without
Jesus
but because
of Jesus
it's not
Jesus
did
what
Israel
could
never
do
perfectly
or
consistently
and
Jesus
did
what
you
and
I
can
never
do
consistently
or
perfectly
and
Jesus
sacrifice
today
brings
forgiveness
to those
who will
trust
him
the
blemishes
on all
our lives
are swept
away
Jesus
can put
out our
useless
fires
and he
can
ignite
a fire
in our
heart
that will
never
go
away
that will
never
go
out
Israel's
story
is my
story
and yours
love
we
too
call
don't
we
God's
love
into
question
and yet
he
can
say
to his
people
with
perfect
integrity
I
have
loved
you
we
too
have
found
that
God
is
full
of
a
soft
hearted
love
for
a
hard
hearted
people
his
love
is
ultimately
unquestionable
and his
love
changes
our
hearts
forever
in the
words
of our
closing
hymn
love
so
amazing
so
divine
demands
my
soul
my
life
my
all
and so
the
apostle
Paul
says
in view
of
God's
mercy
brothers
and
sisters
I
urge
you
to
offer
your
body
as
a
living
sacrifice
holy
and
pleasing
to
God
that
is
your
spiritual
act
of
worship
let's
pray