Lord's supper: are we willing to give God the best?

I was pleased to the book of Malachi, very easy to find, the very last book in our Bibles, our Old Testament, Malachi and chapter 1. I just want to follow on with our brother Brandon on just the freshness of the truth that's found in the Word of God in relation to the Lord's Supper, what we would do on a Sunday morning, the breaking of bread. You might find this a strange place to start but I trust you'll see my connection in a minute. Malachi, as you know, is the last final prophet of the Old Testament era.

You're probably at least 200 years after the Jewish people have been taken back to the land of Israel and the children of Israel have fallen into sin again and it's kind of a sad note the way the Old Testament ends but we can learn a lot of practical things from it. So Malachi chapter 1 and verse 1, the burden of the Word of the Lord to Isaiah by Malachi, it starts off with love. Verse 2, I have loved you, saith the Lord.

And then it's hard to believe the people would say, yet ye say, wherein has thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother, saith the Lord? Yet I loved Jacob and I hated Esau. Now, just stop for a moment. It's very interesting the context of that statement.

I loved Jacob, I hated Esau. The children of Israel, as I said, have been brought back from captivity for a couple of hundred years now. And here they are questioning, wondering about the love of God for them.

And really what Malachi does is Malachi gets them to reflect upon this. Where is Esau? They were not taken back. They were still dispersed in amongst the nations.

And he's really using it as a loud voice to them. Because you have been taken out from captivity, brought back into the land, Jacob have I loved, the seed of Jacob. God has purposes and God has plans for you.

But here are these people doubting the love of God after such a demonstration of the love of God. So I ask myself, can I, many years on the road to heaven, start to doubt, does God really love me? Well, let's keep on reading. Look at the effect that this had upon these people.

You come down to verse number six. God is actually looking for his honor. A son honoreth his father and a servant his master.

If I then be a father, where is my honor? And if I be a master, where is my fear? You'd almost find it hard to comprehend that people redeemed by the Lord, witnessing such a miraculous God, how could they not honor him? How could they not fear him? Well, keep reading. Look what happened in verse number seven, end of verse six. And ye say, wherein have we despised thy name? And now God gives the answer.

Verse seven, ye offered polluted bread upon mine altar. And ye say, wherein have we polluted thee? In that ye say, notice, 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 sick, is it not evil? And look what God says to them.

Offer it now unto thy governor. Will he be pleased with thee or accept thy person? Really what he's saying to them is, you wouldn't even take the offering you're giving to me, you wouldn't even take that to a man. The man would be offended because you're offering the sick and the lame and the diseased animals.

God, God is better than that. We know that. He deserves our best.

Come down a little bit further, look what he says in verse number 10. Tremendous words. Who is there even among you that would shut the doors for naught? Neither do ye kindle fire in mine altar for naught.

I have no pleasure in you, said the Lord of Hosts, neither will I accept an offering at your name. You know really what God is telling these people through Malachi? He says, I wish someone would shut the doors to the temple and put the fire out on the altar because I don't want what you're giving me. My brother prayed this morning, how can you say I love if your heart's not with me? And that's really... Sometimes we can get so taken up with form, can't we? It looks impressive, but God is looking at the heart.

That's what he wants, and that's what he was missing in these people. But here's the sad thing, positive but sad from their perspective. Verse 11, For 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.

You know what God was really telling these people? I will be praised. There are people that have their heart in the right place, and I will accept their sacrifice, and it will thrill me. And really, when I stop to look at myself and I ask myself, what really am I bringing to the Lord? When I fail, God will get his praise.

I've missed out because I haven't been able to get my heart into the right condition, and I haven't been able to bring something to God and to thrill his heart. But God is guaranteeing this nation, I will get my praise. So I think it's an incredible thing that we can all be encouraged today to go in for serving God and sacrificing to God, because God will get it.

But God help us that he gets it from us, the praise that is due his name. So then he comes back again, verse number 12, 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 said also, Behold, what a weariness is this.

The children of Israel, they were bored by the rituals God had given them. It had become so...it was a weariness to their soul. Oh, we have to do this again.

Oh, we have to function on the priesthood. That's the level to which they had stooped. Now, listen to this sad rebuke.

And ye have snuffed, ye have turned your nose up 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? Here's the rebuke, verse 14. But cursed be the deceiver, which hath in his flock a male. You know what the sad thing was? God was telling these people, You have what I want, but you won't give it to me.

So here...before we go into the New Testament, let's just sort of cap up what Malachi is saying to us by the Spirit of God. Here's a Jewish person, redeemed, back in the land, and he's looking over his flock. And there's a nice, healthy lamb.

And there's a sick lamb. Not much good to me. Now, it's very easy.

Well, I mean, my future lies in this nice, healthy lamb. I can benefit from this nice, healthy lamb. And what's this? I mean, this lame, sick thing, it's going to die anyway, isn't it? Well, isn't that what's going to happen when it comes to the altar? It's going to lose its life.

Logically thinking, let's just take the sick lamb and let's just bring it to the temple and put it on the altar, the table of the Lord, we're told in Malachi. This is what God is going to feed on, and let's just sacrifice this sick, lame animal to God. God says, I don't want it.

God says, I want the best. Now, are you and I willing to give God the best? That's really what I'm coming at. We often hear about the Feast of Firstfruits, and we know what it all means.

Let's take an example. Here were the Jewish people standing before a big field of wheat or grain or whatever. And before they took the harvest, they were to go and take a section of it, the firstfruits.

And before they got anything themselves, they were to take this section of the harvest, and they were to bring it into the temple, put it on God's table, the sacrifice, right on the altar, put the fire to it, and they were to give God his portion. And then God said, go out and enjoy the rest of the field. Now, I want to bring this down to you and I. When it comes to our time, are we giving God the best? When it comes to our finances, are we giving him the leftovers? Are we giving him the best? Really where I'm driving at this is what we're going to get to now in the New Testament.

When we come into 1 Corinthians, well, let's go there now. Actually, 1 Corinthians 10, let's read it before I make a comment on it. I find it a very interesting statement and what's said with it and the context.

I'll prove to you in a minute that I feel that it is the Lord's Supper, which we would do every week by the grace of God. Look at 1 Corinthians 10. Now, you know that 1 Corinthians is written to a New Testament church.

That's the whole context of the letter. And I always try to fit myself or place myself in the assembly where the letter's being written. I'm there for the first time hearing it and I try to just how would this impress me? What would I be thinking of? So you look at 1 Corinthians 10.

Look what he says. Verse number 14. Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry.

1 Corinthians 10, verse 14. I speak, verse 15, I speak as to wise men, judge you what I say, the cup of blessing which we bless. Obviously, we're talking about the cup now, that cup that's on the table.

Is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? I take that body of Christ to be a reference to his physical body in verse 16. Then we come to the spiritual one in verse 17. For we being many are one bread and one body.

For we are all partakers of that one bread. Now, look what he does in verse 18. Back to the Old Testament.

Behold, Israel after the flesh are not they which eat of the sacrifices, partakers of the altar. What shall I say then? That the idol is anything or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is anything? But I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils and not to God. I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils.

Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord. Obviously, a reference to the cup that we would have on a Sunday morning. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils.

Ye cannot be a partaker, partakers of the Lord's table and of the table of devils. Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy or are we stronger than he? Now, I know there's two different thoughts on this passage. I know some people take the Lord's table here to be the provision that God has for his people seven days a week, 24 hours a day.

But in my understanding of the chapter, in the context of the chapter, I believe it's referring just to the Lord's supper on a Sunday morning. If you want a provision in general, I go to Psalm 23, the Lord, he provided the table in the presence of my enemy. That to me is the general feast that God has for his people wherever they are.

But you know yourself, it's a very prominent thought throughout the book of Corinthians, Lordship, Lord Jesus Christ. You get it appearing the most than in any other epistle. So there's something very unique.

Another thing I find interesting, when you go into the book of the Acts, you're going to find a Greek word that's used four times in the book of Acts, and they were added to the Lord, added to the Lord, added to the Lord. And it always has the context of being added to a New Testament church. So there's something very unique in the aspect of acknowledging lordship, being part of a New Testament church.

So with that being said, lordship means number one. Now, let's think about it for a minute. Is he number one? Now, when I think of Lord's table, the reason I read in Malachi was this.

God called the altar. He said, that's my table. Now, I want you to get this.

Not only did the children of Israel eat from that table, but God ate from it. That was God's food. What was on that altar in the Old Testament, God said, it's my table.

And you think of a table. We're sitting at a table today, and we're all fellowshipping, and we're taking food, and everybody's being fed that's at the table. Now, I think that same idea is brought into the New Testament in the setting of a New Testament church.

And I'm bringing it down to the Sunday morning meeting that takes place, the breaking of bread, and the Lord's Supper. And here's my question to me. What am I putting on the table for God? It's his table.

I'm at his table. It's very clear in the context that he's saying this. Listen, because you're at my table, you can't be at the devil's table.

What the world has to offer. They both speak of a communion. They both speak of a fellowship, a partaking.

They speak of a Lord. That's why he says about the spirits. I mean, you go to 1 John 4, try the spirits.

That's why here in 1 Corinthians, he talks about the idol. The idol is nothing but what's behind the idol. And that's what he identifies for them.

In chapter 10, he says, listen, behind those, for those that might not know just what was happening in Corinth, Corinth was famous for all of these different guilds and groups. There was a carpenter's union, and there was a plumber's union, and there was a bricklayer's union. And all those different unions, they had a particular God.

There it is, a false God. They all had their little idol. And of course, here's the carpenter's union, and they want to drum up business.

They want business. So they feel they have to give their God, their idol something in order that he will favorably look upon them and bring business and keep the business going. So they would have their feasts, and they would offer an animal on the altar, and they would give that, so they thought, to their idol.

But what the word of God is doing is he's going behind the idol. They're literally offering to the devil, to demons. Isn't it interesting that in chapter 12, what does he tell them, and it applies to us too, when the gospel found you and I, do you know what we were? We were led onto these dumb idols.

That's where the grace of God found us. We were born in our sins. We were serving unbeknown to us.

We were serving maybe idols, behind the idol, the devil, demons. And we were caught in that system of whatever it was, good works, religion, whatever it was. And isn't it tremendous? Now we're saved, and we're serving the one true God.

Now why don't you get a hold of that, okay? See, I was thinking of it from a business perspective. You ever heard the expression, what are you bringing to the table? And maybe there's a project, and maybe you got somebody who is really smart with computers, and he's bringing to the table his knowledge of IT. And there's another person that's really good with marketing, and he's bringing to the table his skills in marketing.

And you start to look around the table, you go, okay, we got a really winning group here, because look at what's being brought to the table. So what am I bringing to the Lord's table on a Sunday morning? Is it the leftovers? Is there somebody here that would be honest with me? Because I'll be honest with you. Unfortunately, I have to tell you this, because of the busyness sometimes of trying to serve the Lord, I end up getting cold.

And the worship that I try to give God on a Sunday morning is something that I just got the five minutes before I sat down. Now, you might have sat there and went, wow, never heard that before. Boy, I heard him pray.

I thought he was in touch with God. He waxed eloquently for 10 minutes, brought a tear to my eye. But I know what my heart is like.

And above that, God knows what's in my heart. Do you know what I wonder sometimes? I wonder if God's looking at me saying, Scott, that was sick. That was lame.

But you got a really healthy one back in the field. You just didn't take time to develop it. Think about it for a minute, dear child.

I find it amazing. We know that God is all-knowing. God is, he's not lacking anything, okay? And I've got the spirit of God within me.

He's equal. He's not lacking anything. But isn't it amazing that God wants our worship? How could a God that has all, I can't tell him anything new.

How could a God like that actually give me the spirit, give me the word of God, and actually work in my life to encourage worship in my heart? To encourage thoughts. You ever read the word of God and just things are connecting? When you've had time, when you're meditating upon the word of God and you're letting something just roll over your soul. Maybe it's a verse and things are developing out of it.

And doesn't it make the world a difference when you come to a breaking of bread, the Lord's Supper, and you're just looking for the opportunity to just give it up to God? You ever stop and wonder, like, what does God need that for? Listen to what the word of God teaches in John 4. The father seeketh such to worship him. This is what God, listen, this is why God saved us. Worship.

That's what I want. He doesn't want my money. He doesn't want all the activity that goes with all the different meetings.

God wants our heart. Am I giving it to him? We have got to structure our lives in order to encourage meditation in the word of God. We have to.

It's very easy. Saturday night, it's been a rough week. I'm going to read a devotional book.

And you know, it's very easy. I'll pick up another's thoughts and I'll repackage it. And I'll make it sound like it's mine.

I can fool you, but I can't fool God. And all the while, God is looking, saying, Scott, what did you waste your hours on through the week? Oh, let me dig a little deeper now. Would there be anybody here that would be strong enough to spend only a half an hour a day on Facebook? I know half an hour in your killer.

You wouldn't have to have two hours. What if you went from two hours down to a half an hour and the extra hour and a half? He did dug into the word of God. See, that's the lamb, healthy lamb in the field that God wasn't getting.

God says, that's what I want. You just let your your day go through your mind. I find it absolutely amazing.

The Lord Jesus died for me. A real person gave his life for me. What does he ask of me? Just give me some of your time.

Just give me an open mind where my spirit can work. Give me some content. Fill your mind with the word of God so that my spirit, working with the word of God and your spirit can actually develop.

What? What is Hebrews chapter 13? Giving thanks unto the Lord, the sacrifice, the fruit of our lips. Notice it doesn't say the seeds of our lips. The fruit, fruit is something that has developed from a seed.

It's been watered. Think of the spirit of God likened to the water. And as I look over this audience today, do you realize the potential that lies here before me as God looks? Every single one of us represent a vessel, a vehicle through which the spirit of God with the word of God can develop worship to God.

And guess what? An infinite God is never bored by genuine worship right from the heart. He's never tired of it. An infinite God, how could he enjoy it? You'd almost say he knows what I'm going to say before I say it.

I mean, he's gave me the thoughts from the word of God. He's given me this, but God wants that. He wants that will come from me, just me alone.

Do you know something that I've noticed? Now, this is going to be tested here tomorrow. And maybe this is a little bit of a rebuke to us all. Isn't that amazing? I have been at a number of conferences bigger than this.

And there have been less brethren worship than in my meeting back home with only 50 people. I think, oh, these brethren. And what are we doing? We turn it into a sing song.

Brother, I want to hear your worship. God wants to hear your worship, but it's far easier to give out a hymn. Far easier.

Now, I know there's worship in hymns. Don't get me wrong. And I have a habit of saying amen after hymns because I believe they are amenable.

There's lots of wonderful things. This is not to bash hymns. It's not.

But listen, when there's so many brethren that are used to taking part and can take part well, please worship. Give me what you have in your heart. Young people, don't just sit there and let the older ones do it.

Let me hear what's on your mind. I don't care if it's 10 seconds. It might be the 10 seconds of glory that I need.

This is going on for 2 and 3 and 4 and 10 minutes. And you go around the world, eat up all the green grass. And there's nothing left to pray about.

We know that's not possible. But my dear sake, sometimes I look at my thoughts that I have. And sometimes you feel a little embarrassed where you're sitting there and you're thinking about getting up and you go, oh, that sounds awful small.

Oh, I better pack some filler in. I better put a minute of filler. And then I'll get to it.

And another, oh, we all know, but the story of the little boy with the lunch, don't we? And that mass of multitude, thousands of people. And Christ just took the meal from a little and he multiplied it. You know what it said? Every single one of those people went away full.

And then there was the 12 baskets, you know, that taken up full. So the potential, the possibilities of what worship is able to do. I'm reminded when I speak on this line of dear brother Robert McPhee.

He was a servant of the Lord over in the old country. And he's long gone to heaven by now. But he used to tell the story of when he was newly in God's assembly.

And he used to hear these older people get up and pray. And he thought, there is a bullock of the Old Testament. You might have heard me say this.

You can go and listen to him. He's wonderful to listen to. I have a lot of them on my website, is him, Robert McPhee.

Leviticus chapter 1, the bullock. It's a big, big, big animal. And then you go down that chapter and you end up with a dove and a pigeon.

Very small. But I'll tell you something I enjoyed. I never liked when people say, well, the big bullock is at the top of the list.

And the little tiny dove is at the bottom of the list, as if it's not important. But I'll tell you this, a bullock can't fly. A little dove can.

And there's something in the dove that gets up into the heavens that the bullock couldn't even come close to. So I don't think we should be writing anybody's worship or anybody's thoughts. Back to Robert McPhee.

He says, I used to listen. And then he said, I listened more carefully. And lo and behold, it was the same bullock every Sunday.

He said, I became, it was a frozen bullock. And they took it home on Sunday and they put it back in the freezer and they picked it up Sunday morning again and they took it back. I'll throw it, nothing fresh about it.

Can we, sorry, can I get like that? I can. I do. Because I just don't have time to meditate, to think, to ponder, to shut off all of these things that are just constantly bombarding us.

You ever see people, it's almost like we're so hepped up today that the minute the phone vibrates, we're just on edge. You know what we need to do? My brother Murray at last, disconnect. Just step back, settle the mind down, fill it with the word of God.

Allow thoughts of Christ to be developed in your heart. Do you know how thrilling that is to God? Let me remind you, that is the very reason why he saved you. To hear your thoughts of his son.

So God help us. I was thinking, I'll go quickly. Let's go now to chapter 11, just quickly.

Coming, bringing it right down to where the tire hits the road, right down to the Sunday morning. Just a few very practical things about the Lord's Supper that I was enjoying. Look at what it says in verse number 23.

Now, of course, this is the first account of it. Paul, by the spirit of God, and just to remind us, just to get a fresh view of just what it means. Verse number 23.

For I have received chapter 11, 1 Corinthians, verse 23. For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread. And when he had given thanks, he break it and said, Take command, eat command.

This is my body, which is broken for you. This do command in remembrance of me. After the same manner also, he took the cup when he had stopped saying, excuse me, this cup is the New Testament in my blood.

This do command ye as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat command this bread and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come. Do you know the first thing about the Lord's Supper I enjoy? It's just a fulfillment of his command.

Isn't that precious? Just try to imagine what that means for Christ looking from heaven in our midst. Here are simple believers and they're just willing to follow my word. The simplicity of that is beautiful.

Another thing I thought was this. Isn't it amazing that in the chapter here, I could have read it, but I'm not going to take time. It's just examine yourselves and show let them eat.

It's time to examine yourself. Am I real? Am I in touch? What, what's this all about? Do we do that? Like I said, once you get occupied with the form and the ritualism of it, you lose all of this stuff because all you're looking at is the form. I'm doing it, but get behind it.

Examine yourself. And I thought we read it already in chapter 10. It's actually a sign that we're in fellowship with his death.

Do you realize that? You go to chapter 10. We just read it. You're going to get two words.

You're going to get the idea of communion and partaker. Partaking is the physical act. Communion is the spiritual significance of it.

How many times when I take my bread and I take my drink of cup, the wine. How many times do I let my mind run to the cross and say he died for me? That's what it is. It's not just a mere act.

It's symbolized. It's speaking of something that you could never understand. So there it is.

I'm actually in fellowship. I am a partaker of that death for me. Wonderful.

Just think about that for a minute. Then I come to another one linked with the table. It's actually an expression that I'm in fellowship with God.

This is what God wants me to do. You ever wonder sometimes the layout of the first epistle of John? It's all about fellowship. How does first John start off? If any man confesses sin, that's linked with the examination.

Do you know what is a. If I call it first base. That you and I are in fellowship with God. We actually confess our sin.

I'm aware of sin. My brother sensitive to sin. That is the that's where it all starts.

Fellowship with God is a believer. And then I start to enter into just who God is. Because sin, as we heard, it ends up just deadening us.

Then I mentioned this just to read over it again. It it's God's food. So let's let's challenge everyone here.

Tomorrow morning, the will of the Lord. We plan to gather. Some are going to go back to their own assemblies.

I understand that those of us will stay here. What food do you plan to give to God tomorrow? Have you been enjoying something through the week? Oh, you're not preparing it to impress the other believers. No, no.

You're just been appreciating Christ. And you're going to tell the father something about his son. That's that's the food that God is looking for.

Then I thought of another one. It's actually an expression of our fellowship, one with the other. That's why I read in Chapter 10, we are one body.

Now, let me let me bring the the noose tight around the neck. How many of us are lying when we take our bread? We take our drink of wine. And we're actually expressing we are one.

Do you have difficulties with the believers? Do you have unresolved issues? Do you know what the word of God would encourage? God says, leave your sacrifice. Straighten up with your brethren. I think in 2015, you and I need to get back to this book.

And we need to get real one with the other. And all these little past issues and you know what they are? They are they're just a bitterness that fills the soul. They just they literally just dry.

They suck the spiritual life right out of you. Do you know that that's the examination? Just before God, just let it all go. You'll be amazed.

You amazed at the worship that will flood your heart. Just get away from all of the baggage. The devil has encouraged it.

He wants to encourage it. Do you know another thing I was thinking of? We could go to Acts Chapter two for this, but we won't. But it's actually an expression of I agree with the apostles doctrine.

I look at the order. They continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine. There's where it all starts.

That produced in the fellowship, a very unique fellowship that you and I are involved in. And that wonderful look, think around the world. Think of all the different things of men.

Isn't it wonderful to gather with the Lord in the midst? And we stand upon the firm foundation of the apostles doctrine. How is that unity of fellowship expressed? The breaking of bread. Are you happy with God's assembly where you are, dear child of God? Do you agree with all of its teachings? Headship, all of it, everything.

That's the apostles doctrine. And when you take your part of the bread and your part of the wine, you know what you're actually saying? I'm at one with the apostles doctrine. That's what it means.

Finally, if the Lord doesn't get worship from you. Do you know what he does get? I hope he does get your money. That's an offering.

It is a sacrifice. We're told that, you know, Canada has now introduced plastic into their money. You Americans haven't caught up to us yet.

You know, Canada is always ahead of you Americans, by the way, only in a few areas. I say, thank God for the plastic because that allows the bill to stretch. Sometimes we like holding on to it.

And you're giving it to God and there's almost you can hear this. And if you let it go, she's going to snap. I think that my God is big enough that he doesn't need that type of money.

Doesn't need the leftovers. I'm coming back to the first fruits. You and I, God, help us to give God the best.

Not the leftovers, not the sick, the lame, the ready to die. It's no good to me anyway. I'll give it to God, give it to God.

God help us to give him why? Because he deserves it. He sent his son to die for us.