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Foretold / Prophets of the Bible | Part 10 · Rewind

Rock Point Church

Pastor Bill Bush · Nov 25, 2019

Pastor Bill Bush · Nov 25, 2019 · 76 min watch · 2 min read

Foretold / Prophets of the Bible | Part 10

Devotional days

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7

Scripture in this message

Malachi 1:2
Malachi 1:6
Malachi 2:10
Malachi 2:17
Malachi 3:6
Malachi 3:13

Big Idea Key points Application

Big Idea

Quoting the message: God loves me faithfully, so I can trust Him fully, end quote. — and the equation only works in that order, not reversed.

God's love for us doesn't wait on our performance; He has always loved us, even when we don't trust or honor Him. Once we truly grasp how deeply He loves us, trusting Him with our worship, our marriages, our money, and our service stops being a burden and becomes the natural response.

Key points

1
1The Israelites doubted God's love, and that doubt was the root of every other problem.
Pastor Bill walks through Malachi 1:2, where God opens with 'I have always loved you,' and the people retort, 'Really? How have you loved us?' He explains that the Old Testament prophets are not an angry deity venting but a father with a broken heart because his children can't see his love, and that disbelief in God's love is the root issue behind every dispute in the book.
2
2Doubting God's love led to dishonoring His name through half-hearted worship.
He shows how the priests let the people bring blemished, leftover sacrifices instead of their first and best, and explains that giving God our leftovers instead of our firstfruits is a direct result of not trusting His love. He notes the harshest words in Malachi are aimed at the spiritual leaders who wouldn't challenge the people out of fear of losing their own provision.
3
3That dishonor spilled into defiling the covenant of marriage.
Pastor Bill points to Malachi 2:10-16, where men were leaving their wives for foreign women, treating marriage as about personal happiness rather than a covenant meant to point to God's holiness. He ties this back to Genesis, where Satan's lie to Adam and Eve was fundamentally 'don't trust God's love,' and says every other sin problem traces back to that same lie.
4
4They denied God's goodness by judging Him through comparison rather than truth.
He unpacks the people's complaint that evildoers prosper while they suffer, and flips it by asking who actually says that — pointing out it's people who assume they're the 'good' ones. Using the illustration of a death-row inmate complaining someone worse isn't also condemned, he shows none of us are good by God's standard, and we make ourselves the judge instead of trusting God.
5
5Robbing God with tithes and offerings ultimately robs ourselves and our neighbors.
He walks through Malachi 3:8-10, showing that withholding first and best from God isn't really about God needing money but about what we trust for safety and happiness. He explains that failing to trust God with money keeps people anxious even when they're financially comfortable, and that our stinginess also robs the neighbors we're meant to reach.
6
6Doubting God's love always ends in despising God's ways and walking away from Him.
Pastor Bill shows how the chain of disputes in Malachi always circles back to the first one — if you doubt God's love, you'll eventually despise serving Him, even if you're doing the 'right' religious behaviors for the wrong reasons. He describes people who cycle in and out of faith, doing what he calls the 'religious hokey pokey,' as proof that behavior without trust in God's love eventually collapses.
7
7God's promised Messenger and Messiah is the proof and fulfillment of His faithful love.
He traces Malachi's promise of a coming messenger who prepares the way for the Lord forward four hundred years to John 1, showing John the Baptist as that messenger and Jesus as the Word made flesh, full of unfailing love and faithfulness. He connects the Lord of Heaven's Armies language in Malachi directly to the pre-incarnate Christ, and ties Jesus's death on the cross to the ultimate proof that God has always loved us.

It's our trust of God should be a byproduct of understanding how much he loves us

Application

Pastor Bill's charge is that trusting God fully only makes sense once you truly embrace that He has always loved you.

Examine your gut-level belief in God's love
Set aside the church answer and ask honestly whether your heart, not just your head, believes God has always loved you — Pastor Bill says everything else hinges on this.
Bring your first and best, not your leftovers
Men especially are called to lead as the priest of their home and to honor God with the first portion of time and money rather than what's left over after everything else is spent.
Turn, don't just cry, in repentance
If you feel convicted about something in your life, actually change direction instead of stopping at tears — Pastor Bill says crying is only conviction, not repentance.
Stop comparing yourself to others to judge God
Drop the habit of measuring fairness by who seems better or worse than you, and let God's standard, not your comparisons, define good and bad.
Trust God with your finances instead of withholding them
Stop treating money as your source of safety and happiness, and give first and best, trusting God to provide rather than robbing God, yourself, and your neighbor.
Accept Jesus's love if you never have
Pastor Bill invites anyone who hasn't put their faith in Jesus to pray and receive what He did on the cross before taking communion, then to live from His love rather than for it.

Take it into your week

Rewind AI contributed study material from the sermon transcript; church-authored wording and verified sermon quotes keep their own source. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

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Scripture in this message

From the transcript
“It says in first chapter one verse two, the first dispute, the first statement that God says is this, I have always loved you, says the Lord”
Read the whole chapter →
From the transcript
“In verse six, it says, the Lord of heaven's army says to the priest, a son honored his father and a servant respects his master”
From the transcript
“In chapter two verse 10, he says, are we not all children of the same father? Are we not all created by the same God? Then why do we betray each other violating the covenant of our ancestors”
From the transcript
“he ends in verse 17 with this next one. He goes, you have wearied the Lord with your words. How have we wearied him? You ask”
From the transcript
“Look what he says in verse six of chapter three. I am the Lord and I do not change. That is why you descendants of Jacob are not already destroyed”
From the transcript
“He's referring to what he said in verse chapter one verse two. How he has not changed is, I will always love you”
From the transcript
“He says in chapter three down into verse 13, you have said terrible things about me, says the Lord”
From the transcript
“When he says in verse one, look, I am sending my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. Then the Lord you are seeking will suddenly come to his temple”
From the transcript
“And then he goes on in chapter four to describe the end the the end of the book book of Revelation, and basically says, I'm gonna come in power”
From the transcript
“four hundred years later the book of John opens up like this? The Gospel of John. In the beginning, the word already existed. The word was with God, and the word was God”
From the transcript
“And I love verse 14. So the word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness”

Rewind AI contributed study material from the sermon transcript; church-authored wording and verified sermon quotes keep their own source. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

7-day devotional

A personal reading plan from this message — scripture, reflection, and prayer for each day.

Sign in to track your progress through this devotional.

Day 1

Every problem in the book of Malachi starts here — not with bad behavior, but with a bruised belief. God opens with three words that should settle everything: 'I have always loved you.' Israel's response is not outright rejection; it is a weary, skeptical question: 'Really? How have you loved us?' That question sounds almost reasonable. Life had been hard. The promises felt distant. And so doubt crept in where trust used to live. The sermon made the point that this is the hinge on which everything else turns. Before Israel brought defiled offerings, before marriages broke down, before cynicism took root — first came the quiet, unspoken suspicion that maybe God did not really care. It is a pattern that shows up in our own lives too. When we give God our leftovers — in time, in attention, in the energy we bring to our faith — it is rarely because we are openly rebellious. More often it is because somewhere underneath, we are not fully convinced He is for us. The honest starting place is not trying harder. It is asking yourself the same question the sermon put in front of everyone: do I actually believe, not just in my head but in my heart, that God has always loved me? That question deserves a real, unhurried answer — and this week is a good time to sit with it.

For reflection

When you hear God say 'I have always loved you,' what is the first feeling that rises in you — and what does that reveal about where you really are with Him?

Pray

Pray for honesty about where doubt in God's love has quietly taken root in your heart.

Day 2

Once doubt about God's love settles in, the way we worship changes — sometimes without us even noticing. In Malachi 1:6 God confronts the priests directly: a son honors his father, a servant respects his master — so where is the honor due to Me? The accusation is specific. The people were bringing blind, lame, and sick animals to the altar. Not because they had nothing better. Because they had decided the better things were for themselves. The sermon drew this out clearly: dishonoring God's name is the almost-inevitable next step when we are not really sure He loves us. If God feels distant or indifferent, of course we stop bringing our first and best. We protect what we value. We give away what we can afford to lose. But notice what God says in verse eight — try offering those same leftovers to your governor and see how that goes. There is a sharp, almost wry edge to it. God is not asking for something He does not deserve. He is pointing out the gap between what we say we believe about Him and what our actual offerings reveal. This is not primarily about money or a checklist. It is about the heart posture underneath the gift. When love is the reason — when we genuinely believe God is good and has been generous toward us — bringing our first and best stops feeling like a cost and starts feeling like a response.

For reflection

Where in your life are you currently giving God what is left over rather than what is first — and what does that pattern tell you about what you believe about Him?

Pray

Pray for a heart that wants to honor God not out of obligation but out of genuine belief in His goodness.

Day 3

The third dispute in Malachi moves the conversation from the altar into the home. 'Are we not all children of the same Father?' Malachi asks. 'Are we not all created by the same God? Then why do we betray each other?' The specific failure he names is men breaking faith with the wives of their youth — treating a covenant relationship as something to be renegotiated when it stops delivering personal satisfaction. The sermon made a strong connection here: the way we treat the covenant of marriage is inseparable from the way we understand God's covenant love for us. Marriage in Scripture is not just a social arrangement or even primarily a path to personal happiness — it points toward something beyond itself. When we reduce it to what it gives us, we have quietly imported the same consumer logic we bring to our worship: I will honor this as long as it benefits me. That is a heavy thing to sit with, and it is worth sitting with honestly rather than defensively. Whether you are married or not, most of us know what it feels like to treat a commitment as conditional — to show up fully only when the return feels worth it. The invitation here is to trace that tendency back to its root. A person who is fully convinced that God keeps His covenant with them, even when they have not kept theirs, is someone with a real foundation for keeping their own word to others.

For reflection

How has experiencing — or doubting — God's covenant faithfulness shaped the way you approach your commitments to the people closest to you?

Pray

Pray for a fresh sense of God's covenant faithfulness toward you, and for that to spill into your closest relationships.

Day 4

By chapter two, Israel has moved from doubt into something sharper — they are now accusing God. 'Everyone who does evil is good in the Lord's sight, and He is pleased with them. Where is the God of justice?' It sounds like a cry for righteousness. But the sermon named what is actually going on: the people have quietly appointed themselves as 'the good ones' and are indicting God for not rewarding them accordingly. This is where cynicism lives. It is not raw atheism — these people still believe in God. They just believe He is running a rigged system, and they are on the wrong end of it. The problem with that posture, as the sermon pointed out, is that it assumes a comparison God's actual standard of holiness does not support. None of us are the good ones. The playing field is far more level than our frustration allows us to admit. It is worth being gentle with yourself here, because this kind of thinking often grows in real soil — real pain, real unanswered prayers, real moments when the wicked genuinely did seem to prosper. Those feelings are human and they are not shameful. But the sermon's invitation was to bring that frustration honestly to God rather than letting it harden into a verdict against Him. Doubt asked as a question can be a form of prayer. Doubt declared as a conclusion tends to close the door.

For reflection

Is there an area where you have quietly concluded that God has not been fair to you — and have you ever brought that directly to Him rather than letting it simmer?

Pray

Pray for the courage to bring your frustrations about God's justice to Him honestly, rather than nursing them at a distance.

Day 5

God's word in Malachi 3:6 opens with a steadying declaration: 'I am the Lord, and I do not change.' That unchanging character is actually the reason Israel has not been completely destroyed — and it is the foundation for everything He says next. The conversation about tithes and offerings that follows is not primarily about Israel's budget. It is about trust. The sermon was direct on this: robbing God of tithes and offerings is ultimately robbing ourselves and others, because trusting God with our finances is described here as a pathway out of financial anxiety — not a guaranteed wealth formula, but a genuine invitation to test His faithfulness. 'Bring all the tithes into the storehouse... Put me to the test,' God says. That is an extraordinary thing for God to say. He is not demanding blind compliance; He is inviting relationship through trust. It is also worth noticing what the sermon did not say. This passage is not a guilt mechanism. The principle is about the direction of the heart — whether our grip on what we have reflects a belief that God is trustworthy or a belief that we are on our own. Whatever your financial situation looks like right now, the question underneath the text is the same one that has been running all week: do you trust that He is for you? Our finances are one of the places that question gets a very honest answer.

For reflection

What does the way you handle money and resources reveal to you about how much you actually trust God's provision and faithfulness?

Pray

Pray for genuine trust in God's faithfulness in the area of finances — not for a specific outcome, but for a heart that believes He is enough.

Day 6

The sixth dispute may be the most resigned of all. The people are not angry anymore — they are just tired. 'What's the use of serving God? What have we gained by obeying His commands?' They have been going through the motions, and the motions have not paid off. So they look at people who seem to live however they want and conclude: it is the arrogant who prosper. Why bother? The sermon named this cycle directly — the religious hokey-pokey of cycling in and out of faith — and traced it all the way back to the same root: never fully grasping how much God loves us. When our obedience is driven by what we expect to get in return, we are functionally in a transaction, not a relationship. Transactions feel hollow when the returns disappoint. Relationships can survive disappointment because the foundation is not the benefit — it is the person. This is a real temptation for anyone who has been walking with God for a while, especially through seasons where faithfulness did not seem to produce what they hoped. If you recognize something of yourself in this passage, you are in good company — this is ancient, human, and honest. The sermon's answer was not to try harder or recommit more sincerely. It was to go back to the question at the beginning: do you believe He has always loved you? That belief is the only thing that sustains faith when the returns feel invisible.

For reflection

Have you ever gone through a season of showing up for God mostly out of habit or duty rather than love — and what pulled you back, or what might?

Pray

Pray for renewed desire to know God for who He is, not just for what obedience might produce.

Day 7

All week we have been walking through Malachi's six disputes — doubt, dishonor, defilement, accusation, distrust, despair. And now we arrive at the answer God had been planning all along. 'In the beginning the Word already existed... and the Word became human and made His home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness.' The sermon landed here for a reason. Malachi ends without resolution — the people are still in their cynicism, still waiting. But John's Gospel opens by announcing that the waiting is over. The same God who said 'I have always loved you' in Malachi 1:2 put on skin and moved into the neighborhood. Jesus — the Word made flesh — came to do what none of us could do for ourselves: bear every ounce of human guilt so we would not have to carry it. That is the answer to every dispute in the book. Not a new rule, not a stricter standard, not a louder guilt trip. A person. The sermon's invitation was simply this: receive that love. Let it be what moves you to bring your first and best. Let it be what keeps your commitments. Let it be what dissolves the cynicism. And when you take communion — that concrete, regular reminder — let it say again what God has been saying since the first page: He has always loved you. Trust Him fully.

For reflection

Looking back over this week, where do you most want the reality of God's unfailing love — shown in Jesus — to change something in the way you actually live?

Pray

Pray for the truth of John 1:14 — the Word made flesh, full of unfailing love — to move from something you know to something that genuinely shapes how you live this week.

Rewind AI contributed study material from the sermon transcript; church-authored wording and verified sermon quotes keep their own source. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

Small-group discussion guide

For leading a group conversation about this message.

Open

The book of Malachi opens with God saying 'I have always loved you' — and Israel pushing back. Before we dig in, take a second to think about what it would mean to really believe that, not just as a fact, but as something you'd stake your life on.

Discussion questions

1
In Malachi 1:2, God opens with 'I have always loved you' — and Israel's immediate response is essentially, 'Really? How?' What does that exchange tell us about where Israel's heart was, and why do you think doubt about God's love might be such a foundational problem?
2
Malachi 1:6 describes Israel bringing blind, lame, and sick animals as offerings — their leftovers instead of their best. The message connects that directly to doubting God's love. What's the logic there? How does what we believe about God's love shape what we're willing to bring Him?
3
In Malachi 2:10, the covenant of marriage gets pulled into this same pattern of dishonoring God. The message describes marriage as a holy covenant that points to God — not just a source of personal happiness. What's the difference between those two ways of seeing marriage, and how might the first change the way we approach it?
4
Malachi 2:17 records Israel accusing God of injustice — essentially saying, 'The evildoers prosper and God does nothing.' The message points out that their real problem was assuming they themselves were 'the good ones.' How does comparing ourselves to others distort the way we see God's fairness?
5
By Malachi 3:13–15, the people have moved from doubting God's love all the way to openly calling His service worthless. The message describes this as a kind of religious cycling in and out — never fully landing. What does that drift suggest about what's really underneath disengagement from God, and how might communities help people find their footing again?
6
The message lands on John 1:14 — the Word made flesh, full of unfailing love and faithfulness — as Malachi's answer finally arriving. How does Jesus showing up in flesh and bearing human guilt on the cross speak directly to the root problem Malachi spent four chapters diagnosing?

Pray together

Receiving the love God declared before we ever doubted it — and asking Him to make it real not just in our minds but in the way we live

Rewind AI contributed study material from the sermon transcript; church-authored wording and verified sermon quotes keep their own source. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

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Topics

Doubt and Faith God's Love Marriage and Covenant Obedience From Love Worship and Offering

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