Malachi 5:1 And your eyes shall see, and ye shall say, The Lord will be magnified from the border of Israel.
	Last week, if you will recall, we dealt with the situation faced by Malachi in his dealings with the Children of Israel. We were concerned with the spiritual apathy which enveloped those people of God’s choosing. They had been delivered from their bondage in Babylon and returned to their homeland. They were now a generation removed from captivity, living in relative ease, freed from the cares and concerns and servitude of their fathers. In this disburdened life, they were found to be taking God for granted. Please reconsider the spiritual process that developed into that spiritual apathy and recount before the Lord just how invasive it can be, even in our hearts.
	First, there is the questioning of God’s love. We are not satisfied with what God does in our lives. We want more and more. It is the attitude of “What have you done for me lately” which infects our beings. With this attitude, comes the falseness of considering ourselves as deserving of more and more, rather than the realization that we deserved nothing but the wrath of God, and yet He so fully chose to Love us in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior. Rather than being fully satiated in that love, we seek for more glorification of ourselves, at the cost of our living relationship with Christ. 
	That is the beginning of this spiritual apathy which then leads to a dishonoring of God’s name. There soon develops a lack of respect for the holiness and the righteousness of God. Again, this message is born from the call of the men of this fellowship as we gathered recently in consideration of the fact that many of us have been guilty of not giving God the full honor that He deserves in our beings. Whether it is at home or at work, in our worship service, or simply in our private times of devotion, there is a concern about our lack of giving God all the honor and the glory that He is due.
	The people of Malachi’s day were, as well, guilty of bringing less than their best before the throne of God. They were bringing lame and diseased animals for sacrifice, thus indicating that they felt God was not worthy of the best, the purest, the unblemished and the most valuable that they had to offer. They were insulting God with but the minimum that they could do to nominally appease the laws of their heritage. They were not coming to glorify God, they were but putting on a pretense of meeting the requirements that they had to meet culturally.
	The third aspect that develops into this spiritual apathy is the fact that they no longer felt that God’s laws and commands were worthy to be obeyed. They complained and grumbled that God could not reasonably expect them to do what was written as the Law. They wanted to live their lives in comfort and with a minimum of disruption. What God desired was not their desires. They didn’t like the idea of meeting the just requirements of the Law because it was too demanding upon them. It became a matter of disregarding the things that didn’t appeal to them, while still maintaining an appearance of godliness.
	Taken together, these aspects of spiritual apathy indicate a relationship of disrespect, uncaring, and disregard for God and for all the spiritual realities that are fully part of the manhood that we are called into in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior. If we have a sense of any of these elements developing within us, we need to ask the Lord to prune, to weed out and to cleanse us of these elements which serve to but choke off the Life of Christ of Whom we are now called to be a vital part. 
	There are several spiritual principles which serve to develop the true attitude of our now being fully incorporated into Christ. These are not “how-to’s” but rather, spiritual truths which will set aside the spiritual apathy of uncaring toward God and the things of God. These are not something that will work as a placebo, but will, rather, function to focus our minds and our beings on Him instead of upon “me”. These truths can not be prescribed as a cure-all - do them and everything will become correctly lined up between you and God. Rather, they are simply manifestations of the life of Christ within us, and will effectively work to root out our apathy only as we are completely surrendered to Christ and His efficient Love to bring us into the relationship that He desires in our hearts. While these elements are not a method, they are vital to recognize and to practice simply because they are pleasing to God, and therefore to be part of our lives on this earth. I Thes. 4:1 Furthermore then we beseech you, brethern, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more.
	The first truth is the realization that we are to characterized by gratitude unto God for all that He has done in our lives. The focus is centered consciously upon God and God alone. De. 8:10 When thou hast eaten, and art full, then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God for the good land which he hath given thee. I truly wonder if we are consciously expressing thanks to God for all that He has done in our lives, both great and small. I know that we are expressive of thanks when He works to get us through severe situations, but what about the simpler things that happen every day. Do we thank God for the food we eat because we have to, or because we have always practiced a prayer before the meals, or because it is expected of us? Rather we should thank Him because we consciously know He made every provision for us. 
	So often, I wonder if we are thankful to specifically to God, or just thankful to the efforts that labored for the money that purchased it. Here again, the motives behind our words come into full view. We say the right words, but why? Do we give thanks because it’s just something that we do, a habit, a ritual, or are we sometimes guilty of calling attention to ourselves in some high and mighty manner even in a prayer of thanksgiving. There are those artificial prayers which proceed forth as a manner of calling attention to some great thing that we accomplished. We thank the Lord that He enabled us to do this or that for Him. We tell all those listening how much we had to suffer in order to accomplish this task or that effort, and then we tack God’s name to the end of our prayer in order to legitimize it. But this is not approaching God with a truly grateful heart. This is an issuance of taking God for granted once again. We so defile our relationship with Him that we even take credit for the things that He has done.
	True gratitude to God sets aside every attention to ourselves. Ps. 26:6 + 7 I will wash mine hands in innocency: so will I compass thine altar, O Lord: That I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell of all thy wonderous works. It is a manner of meekness which recognizes that everything that we are and have is only by the grace of God. There is no subtle aspect of thinking that we deserve anything. Rather, true thankfulness, whether for the great salvation which is ours in Christ, or for the manner in which God preserves us through various trials and circumstances that are so often encumbered upon us, or whether for the way in which the Holy Spirit daily manifests His guidance and comfort in the sweet stillness of His peace, or for simply the every provision of our life’s sustenance each moment of the day, true thankfulness places all the credit and the glory at the throne of God. 
	This is a truth which forgoes any aspect of taking God for granted. It is impossible to think in terms that we deserve any of the great love wherewith God has so abundantly loved us. We are brought each and every moment to the fact that but for the Love of God, we have nothing of any value in our lives.  Thankfulness molds our hearts into a song of continual praise to God, not for what we have, but for Who He is, for the manifestation of His very nature of Love. Ps. 107: 20-22 He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions. Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare his works with rejoicing. 
	It becomes a privilege to give thanks for all that God does in our lives. We begin to value the things of God and to place greater emphasis on that which would please Him Who now so fully is our very life. This is the reason that true gratitude to God so fully serves to end spiritual apathy in our beings. The two elements cannot co-exist within our beings. As one is given more latitude, the other is decreased, so let us seek to have our hearts brought before God in the full recognition of our only being Christians by the grace of God and with full gratitude for that reality.
	This, then leads to the next truth of our living relationship in Christ. Ps. 100:4 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful, and bless his name. We will find that our lives will soon manifest the reality of true worship, as our hearts are filled with thanksgiving to God. As we desire to more fully please our heavenly Father, so will our entire beings surge with a life that is worship unto God. You see, so often, we consider worship in terms only of coming together on Sunday mornings for an hour to sing and to read scriptures and to pray. We call it a worship service. And, the fact is that many of us attend because we are expected to attend, or because we feel that we should attend, or because we want something from God, so we come to show Him our good intentions. Or, maybe we are in trouble and feel that God will help us out if we go to church, or maybe we come simply because it is commanded that we come.
	True worship is centered not in our appearance together on Sunday morning, it is evidenced in our lives as we live fully unto God in everything that we say and do and are. Ps. 27:14 One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple. Our gathering together on Sunday is merely the expression of the Body of Believers that God is as worthy of the corporate praise and glory as He is of our individual praise and blessing. When we gather together, our hearts should be as one in an enjoyment and expectation of bringing our very best together before the throne of God. Unlike the Children of Israel, during Malachi’s time, we should be prepared to meet with God in the full recognition of Who He is. We are coming into the very presence of the Most High God, the One and Only True God of all creation. He is our Creator and our Savior. When we sing our praise songs, are they directed unto Him, with the full realization of the words that we are singing, or are they just the same old songs that we sing each week because we like the melody and the tune? Are the prayers that we utter, ones that are directed in humbleness and blessing unto God, or are they for the benefit of the assembly, in order to show just how spiritual we are? The attitudes that we bring with us, are they completely unto God, with the focus upon Him and bringing pleasure to His heart? Or, are we bringing our attitudes of disheartenment, disappointment, rejection, envy, criticism and any other earthiness with us into the presence of God? These are not rhetorical questions, these are questions that we need to ask ourselves each and every Sunday morning before we gather together. Yes, we must seek after God to work in us the desire to please Him in everything, but most especially in our worship. That requires preparation on Sunday morning, more establishment than even getting ready for work or for school. Do we give God as much effort on Sunday as we give our jobs and earthly responsibilities during the week? If we did, we would not be fighting a sense of spiritual apathy, a sense of having missed something when we leave our worship hour. We would find our utter being focused on God’s having met us in that worship which so pleases Him.
	Since we are dealing with our attitudes at worship, it would be of benefit to mention the Lord’s Supper, our communion in worship. How many of us go through the ritual, mentally knowing what communion represents, but never entering into the full locus of what is entailed in the communion service? We are identifying with Christ in all that He represents in our lives by our breaking of the bread and drinking of the cup. Luke 22:19 And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: do this in remembrance of me. We are calling to immediate remembrance the full impact that Christ has, not just in our beings, but in all of creation unto the glory of God. It is a retrospection as to the perfection of Jesus Christ to so fully take away all the filth that separated us from our Heavenly Father. In Christ, everything has been accomplished to bring us into the proper relationship with God as men and women in God’s design of creation. Communion is the evocation of the words spoken in John 1:29 Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. Without Christ, we would have no standing of worship before God. This is what we recognize, and we are to enter therein each time we partake of the communion service. It is not toward us, it is unto Christ that we focus as we jointly share the Lord’s Supper. As such, our attention needs to be centered on Him, and not on what He can do for us. Our hearts need to be taught to place their desires on Him in all His glory rather than on ourselves in all our circumstances. Even in this, there is a preparation that needs to be exercised to cause us to bless God in all fullness, rather than to take such a Love for granted and to defile even our thoughts of Him with our spiritual apathy.
	Our lives are to be a living worship, as mentioned earlier. We are to live forth the reality of Christ living His life in us. This ties into our present discussion in terms of the remembrance of the perfection of Christ as the appointed sacrifice to fulfill the just requirements of the Law. Christ came without spot of blemish and completely satisfied the heart of God with respect to the creation of humanity. Now, by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit, our lives are to manifest the very holiness of Christ. In everything we say and do and are, we are to show forth Jesus Christ. It is not a matter of our perfection now, but it is a desire for more and more of the perfection of Jesus Christ to spring forth from the inner depths of our beings. Our lives are to be living sacrifices, as stated in Rom. 12:1+2 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
	In our daily walk on this earth, do we read the scripture? If so, do we look at it as a duty or a privilege? It is a privilege, you know? God has made a very tangible provision for our every step on this earth through the His Word. He has even brought forth the Being of His Word to live within our hearts, to open to our minds and souls the truth of what the scripture contains and is. It is a communication, a direct communication from the Creator to each one of us. Yes, we go to Bible studies, as well we should, but the reality of those studies is that we are open to the guidance and the revelation of the very Author of the Bible to speak directly into our hearts through His Word. Have you ever noticed that each person in a Bible study, if they are after the truth, receives ministry from the Word in a different manner. The verse is the same, but the reality meets each and every need as person to person and Spirit to spirit. Some people respond to an entire passage and the truth of that passage, others find the comfort of the Holy Spirit in merely a phrase of that passage, and still others might dwell on a single word that speaks forth to the immediate need at hand. It is a privilege to meet God face-to-face in His Word, and yet how many of us look upon this truth in that manner? It will deaden spiritual apathy, if we are after spiritual reality in the Word of God. Jer. 15:16 Thy words were found, and I did eat them, and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O Lord God of hosts.
	How about in our individual prayer lives? What sense invades our being as we seek after the Lord in our private prayers, away from the audience of the fellowship, or of even our family? Do we even pray in private, or is it all a show? Do we realize that we are having a private audience with the King of kings and Lord of lords when we take the time to pray? Do we recognize the fact that we are also a privileged race to be able to call upon God and have His instant audience to spend time with us? Do we spend the time with Him? Or, do we use prayer only as an emergency channel when things are going against us? Or, do we practice prayer in terms of a ritual, before dinner, before bed, before ceremonies simply because it is expected and our usual pattern of behavior? 
	Christ gave us the example of our prayer life. He was never without the conscious presence of the Father. Such should characterize our lives, call it a prayer life if you will, but our lives should manifest the constant conscious presence of our Father. John 17: 20-23 Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. If we apprehend this truth, we will never take Him for granted because there will be evidenced a continual awe at the greatness of our God. We will not dread a time of prayer, but rather delight in the fact that we are welcomed and honored to have the attention of God with Whom to commune in prayer. 
	Even our intercessory prayer will become affected by this desire after God’s fulfilled purpose in man. Our hearts will be less and less focused on our part and more focused on His abundant presence brought forth among those that He puts on our hearts. So often we may mention certain requests, just to have something to say, or just to prove that even we are aware of problems that need to be addressed. But, are we so attuned to the Lord, that we are willing to put our lives before Him on the behalf of those in need? Are we willing to be the vessels through whom the Lord has the freedom to operate, or are we just putting in our two-cents worth to be heard?
	Yes, We have been considering many elements that are very sensitive issues in each of our lives. We have been stepping on many toes with questions that can only be answered individually within each one of our hearts. That can not be helped, if we are desirous after a greater relationship with God in Christ. The spiritual issue is too vital to be sugar-coated. The sensitivity of our toes dull in comparison to the hardness of our hearts. The Lord needs to be able to take us onto resurrection ground for any of the reality of His glory to be manifested livingly in our lives. And, as we have heard many times, that has to be with a prayer in our uttermost beings of by whatever road, and by whatever means that the Lord deems necessary in each one of our lives. It may not be the same circumstances in your live and in my life, but the consequences are the same and the results are the same. Either we are in Christ, livingly related to the full purpose of God in man, or we are in the nations of salvation, merely hanging on till the end, along for the ride. We miss so much when we miss the purpose of God, and my prayer is that we, you and me are challenged to seek after all that God has purposed for us in Christ, and to never simply settle for a form of Christianity that takes God and the things of God for granted, steeped in spiritual apathy, a mere shell of all that God has accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.  
	Eph. 1:17-19 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according the working of his mighty power,..