Malachi: I Love & Don't Change
So often we can doubt God's love or take it for granted. God is love. All that God says and does is in love, and He does not change. Do we embrace God's definition of love or do we try to change it? God tells us clearly through Malachi, I Love & Don't Change. #malachi #2020
Starter
- What do you tend to DESPISE? Why?
- How do you feel when you get peoples left overs? Why?
Pray
Lord we pray that you would teach us about your love, that we would believe you over our feelings and opinions, we would not doubt that you are love, and we would not take you for granted. May we embrace your definition of love knowing that you say, I love & Don't Change. Help us to see overtly and subtly how we have DESPISED YOUR NAME.
Study Questions
"How Have We Despised Your Name?"
The book of Malachi reads like a text or social media conversation. As we start our study of Malachi the last book of the Old Testament, God's people have seen God continue to love them, discipline them, and explain to them clearly who He is. Yet, His people keep asking questions of Him as if they have done nothing wrong.
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- Disciss the difference between fulfilling an obligation and changing an obligation? What might our belief about the difference communicate about our view of love?
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- How might not doing what God has specifically said and clearly written down be DESPISING, dishonoring, and disrespectful to him?
- What might be the consequences to a son or servant if they continued to get by with acting this way? Why would those consequences be caring and loving?
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- Discuss what is at the heart of God's people giving God second best offerings and sacrifices?
- What are the long term consequences of giving your best in a relationship?...your leftovers?
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- Why is God so picky about the quality of the offerings given to Him?
- How does God not accepting just anything but wanting the best we have (which often isn't that great) the essence of faith and love?
- What is the difference between giving your best by legalism through works and giving your best "by grace through faith"? (Ephesians 2:8-10)
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- Do you tend to see God and His ways as more of a "nuisance" or loving? Discuss.
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- A Christian example of "deceiving" (v.14) can be found in Acts 5:1-10. Would Ananias and Sapphira have been forgiven had they admitted, confessed, and repented of their deception?
- Had God not struck them dead, they seemed to have gotten away with it, and then later they came and repented, what would God have done?
- Why do you think He took them so suddenly yet is seemingly so patient with others?
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- How might only being a "hearer" of the word and not a "doer" lead someone to greater DECEPTION?
- Can we do works for God in our own strength and power and God be pleased with them? Why?
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- The new Testament expresses to us that we are a priesthood of believers. We no longer need priests but God does give us earthly leaders and church leaders as "shepherds".
- What does that mean for us when Malachi refers to the "priests"?