Love lays Foundations for Discipleship: God’s Holiness
Love lays Foundations for Discipleship: God’s Holiness
Sermon Synopsis
As we hone our focus at the beginning of the year, we have been asking God to clarify the “why” behind all of the “what” that we do. The “why” is simple. It’s love, love for the Father and love for His people. This love is foundational to our faith and we will be diving deeply into the key foundations that we hold most dear as the people of God.
With this in mind, we will be thinking through true discipleship for the whole family. How is God calling us to “best disciple every man, woman, and child?” The key here is that the “us” isn’t the pastoral eldership team at LegacyPoint. The “us” is all of us as a body of believers as we begin to look at how we as a body can be mobilized into men’s, women’s, youth, and children’s ministry. We are going to be surrendering ourselves to the rhythms that God is inviting us to as a people, to focus on Him and grow in our Intimacy with Him and with one another.
Join us as we start the year looking at how God’s deep LOVE lays FOUNDATIONS for DISCIPLESHIP.
Malachi 2:17–3:6
17 You have wearied the LORD with your words. But you say, “How have we wearied him?” By saying, “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and he delights in them.” Or by asking, “Where is the God of justice?”
3:1 “Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts. 2 But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap. 3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the LORD. 4 Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the LORD as in the days of old and as in former years.
5 “Then I will draw near to you for judgment. I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner, and do not fear me, says the LORD of hosts.
6 “For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.
Malachi 3:13–4:3
13 “Your words have been hard against me, says the LORD. But you say, ‘How have we spoken against you?’ 14 You have said, ‘It is vain to serve God. What is the profit of our keeping his charge or of walking as in mourning before the LORD of hosts? 15 And now we call the arrogant blessed. Evildoers not only prosper but they put God to the test and they escape.’”
16 Then those who feared the LORD spoke with one another. The LORD paid attention and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the LORD and esteemed his name. 17 “They shall be mine, says the LORD of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him. 18 Then once more you shall see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him.
4:1 “For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the LORD of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. 2 But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. 3 And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the LORD of hosts.