You know, in the past u few months, this this year has been a year of travel for me. I've been on um I've lost count several flights. Just in the last month, I think I was be I was on six different flights and I have come to almost hate flying anymore. But uh most of us, you know, come we've traveled on on an airplane. Uh, and every single time you get on the airplane, you you get to hear the first thing is the safety video and a demonstration. It doesn't matter how many times you've flown. They specifically tell you even if you have a frequent flyer, please watch this safety video so you can be ready if something happens. That's one of the most boring exercises, isn't it? Um, I don't know how many of you actually do watch it or tune off or you're listening to something on your phones, but it did really save lives when it counted. You know, when there was a flight that hit a bird and landed on the Hudson, people actually had to follow this and evacuate the plane quickly and lives were saved. It's not just in aeroplanes. We have these safety illustrations that get us ready. We have fire drills in your workplaces, right? And I think even at our church, we're told where is our meeting point so that we exactly know what to do in the case of a disaster or an emergency. You know, why is it that we are always asked this question, are you ready? Um, in terms of safety, it's not because there is danger, but because it's a reminder, you know, it's a call to being ready. Now imagine if the siren went off and no one stopped. No one remembered which way to exit the building and no one was ready. That's what Malachi was witnessing. You know the last of the prophets, the very last book of the Old Testament, the siren of prophetic warning was sounding. A divine call to return, to revere, to be refined. But the people just kept walking. Worship became routine, holiness became optional, and justice was abandoned. And God was wary of their words and their prayers. So the question this very last book poses is urgent. The question this book of Malachi asks you and I is, are you ready? Are you ready to be refined? Are you ready to return? And are you ready to be remembered when he comes? Those are our three points that we are going to look at as we work our way through this text. You know, a little bit background of this book. You know the name Malachi um means in Hebrew my messenger. Like with all prophets, God ties either their name or their lifestyle to be integrated with the central thrust of what he wants to communicate through them to us. And the book of Malachi historically was written after the book of Hagi. If you remember last week, Hagai's call was for people to rebuild the temple so that they can experience his presence. Now, in 5 years, the temple was rebuilt. And you fast forward a few years. The Israelites were still under the Persian rule and Persia went to war with Egypt and Israel and Jerusalem was caught in the crot fires crossfires of war. Its city walls were destroyed. They were very vulnerable to attack. And then God raised Nehemiah to go and rebuild the walls of Jerusalem and restore the temple back again. He sends Ezra um to go and to bring people together. He opens the book of the law. He reads about God's word to them. And after the wa the temple is constructed, the walls have been put in place by Neahhemiah, then comes Malachi and he utters this prophecy. He looks at these people who they are and what has happened to them. And the people who are now after all this who returned from exile, commentators say the numbers are taken from the book of Ezra. They were just 50,000 people. Do you remember how many people left Egypt when nation was started close to six million people and all that was left after hundreds of years of the remnant was just 50,000 people. And even among this remnant, there was only a remnant among the remnants that seem to have been faithful that God continues to use. So at the very start, just to give you an overview, the last words of a person or the last book of a prophetic age is significant. So Malachi gives 10 principles for all of you who are um very academic and who love to take notes. This is the only time I'll encourage you to write down and then don't write after that. Okay. 10 things Malachi talks about in his book in these short three four chapters. It's actually three chapters in Hebrew English. They added another chapter. And the 10 things that Malachi talks about is he talks about three things about their past. He talks about four things about their present. And he talks about three things about their future. That's how this book ends. It's sort of like a book end to everything that has happened all these hundreds of years since God created the world. First and foremost, if you read the very first chapter of the book of Malachi in chapter 1:es 2-5, it starts with this verse 2, he says, "I have loved you, says the Lord." It begins with the enduring love of God. It reminds them how God has loved them from time immemorial till now. He talks of how God his sovereign election of the nation of Israel. Secondly, and thirdly, he talks of his divine covenant that runs through the generations from verses 2 to verse 5. So he wants people to remember what has happened when they look back. He wants to remind them of God's love. He wants to remind them of God's election. He wants to remind them of God's unfailing covenant. And then the focus light shifts to their present. And when the light is shining at their present life, okay, after all these years of experiencing God's love and his covenant blessings and his special choice, where are you right now? And it talks about four things that was observed. And and here the prophet rebukes the sins of the people and priests with respect to public worship. You read that in from 1 chapter 1 verse 6 to 2 chapter verse 9. Their worship got corrupted. They ended up having mixed marriages and divorces. They had their marriage life their social fabric was disrupted. They began to have theoretic uh heretical ideas about God. You know verse uh the later part of second chapter talks about how they ended up having heretical views of who God is despite what he has done. And lastly he talks about in this chapter their negligence of their compulsory contributions to temple worship. This is where they are. Their lives are in total disharmony. And then he doesn't stop with the present. The light shines to the future. And that's where it's beautiful how this book ends. In this chapter, he talks about and proclaims the advent of the day of the Lord, the phrase that is used. And in the final chapter verses, he reminds them once again about the law of Moses and the coming of prophet Elijah and the second and final advent. It's a beautiful way to end the entire Old Testament. Gives a very comprehensive summary of God's who God is and what he has done in history. And that's it. You can stop taking notes now and listen. So the first question that God addresses is as he looks at these people in this chapter that Malachi tells them, "Are you ready to be refined?" You know, the mood of the remnant who came back is right down, dull and pessimistic. You know, initially it was all great. You know, they had returned from exile a while ago. God helped them rebuild the temple. Then he gives them grace in the eyes of Cyprus and Darius, the emperors. And he sends them Nehemiah who comes and stays for 12 years rebuilding the city. Now they have a brand new city, a brand new temple. Life's going great. And they thought, "Yes, the next thing that's going to happen is the Messiah is going to come free us from the Persian Empire and his everlasting rule will come and we can live lives happily after that." They regarded their return as nothing but short of a miracle. And they, this is when they penned this famous psalm that we use every time when we buy a house or open up a house. Psalm 127. Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. These were historic events uh proclaiming their gratitude to God who rebuilt their homes, rebuilt the temple, rebuilt the city. And we saw in Hagi, God even gave them their own governor, Zerubbabel, who was chosen to be God's signate ring through him eventually whom Christ was going to come. Fantastic things. The temple was renewed. Sacrifices were going on and people could rejoice and Nehemiah and Ezra reopened the book of the law. They reconfirmed their covenant. But after that, a lot of disappointing things began to happen. The Messiah didn't come. The messianic age hasn't arrived. The people are still under the rule of the Persian Empire. The promised land did not become a paradise. In fact, the crops were failing due to locusts and doubt. In in this chapter verse 11 you read about that the religious activities were becoming burdensome and without any spiritual effect and their priests their very own priests and the people alike were violating the covenants of their fathers. It appeared after 50 years of rebuilding of temple and restoring the city, God is nowhere to be seen and he does not seem to have things under control by just looking at how everything is happening around them. Bad people were doing bad things and they still seem to be okay. Though it happened several thousand years ago, this very graphically depicts how life is even today, especially here in Silicon Valley, isn't it? Where most people don't believe in God, but they seem to be doing great anyways, at least from a materialistic point of view. They're making big bucks, living in great homes, creating new technology. And maybe when you keep living in an environment like that of godlessness and consumerism and materialism and apathy, maybe it catches on to us and it enables us to stop worrying about our own spirituality. Maybe it even makes us question maybe there is no God. Maybe it does not matter how I live. Why should I bother? So they lost hope and their personal and corporate lives went down a spiral and the effect it had was devastating. The first place it had its effect was on worship. Worship was now not how God intended it to be. They went and presented defective animals to God. You read in turn your Bibles Malachi 1 verse 7 onwards says by offering polluted food upon my altar but you say how have we polluted you by saying that the Lord's table may be despised when you offer blind animals in sacrifice is that not evil and when you offer those that are lame or sick. Is that not evil? Present that to your governor. Will he accept you or show you favor? Says the Lord of hosts. What this can be transcribed to modernday current paraphrase could be that work became more important than worship. They were giving their best to everything else and their defective worst least to God. And that's how the world runs, isn't it? And especially here, work can be so demanding. People do not practice the Lord's day. Of course, those who don't know God don't care about that. And so, they'll assign work on Sundays. And you go and you work and sometimes work all through the night. And you show your sleepy, tired, weary selves to worship on Sunday morning. You think God should be okay with that. He should understand my life, isn't it? Or sports, especially children's sports, especially here, you know, games are scheduled on Sundays because guess what? The religion of suburb suburban America is sports. That's the religion. That's where people get to have their fill of social connections. and the soccer field or baseball field is the altar and they sacrifice the children to that and they watch them perform and they that's where they revel and glory in. So my if my child has a game on Sunday that matters more than church. If I have work on Sunday that matters more than being in God's presence. That's the modern equivalent. What else can it be? Isn't it? That's what happens when you live in a godless place. These things can come into us unnoticed and make us desensitize us to not giving God our very best. So the first thing that went flew out of the window was worship. Second was marriage. Go to chapter 2 of Malachi verse 14 onwards. But you say, "Why does he not?" Because the Lord was witness between you and the wife of your youth to whom you have been faithless. Though she is your companion and your wife by covenant, did he not make them one with a portion of the spirit in their union? And what was the one God seeking? Godly offspring. So guard your souls in your spirit, and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth. For the man who does not love his wife, but divorces her, says the Lord, the God of Israel, covers his garment with violence, says the Lord of hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit and do not be faithless. You see once worship takes a bad seat then our own spiritual lives begin to crumble and the place it shows up is in marriage relationships. People were not honoring the marital wows. They were giving in to all sorts of temptations. And and that happens when worship is out the window. You're not spending your time with God. And the challenge is real men. You need to ask yourself how is your thought life? You know, we live in a very visually, sexually charged world, especially with so much online access to images that can very easily draw and drift you away from being faithful to our wives. You don't have to divorce your wives to be unfaithful to them. But if you get hooked on to all these visual challenges and by the way these challenges are enticing for someone who is 17 years old and someone who is 70 years old. They do not change. The temptation is everywhere. And if you let that breach into your mind, your marriage has already taken a toll. And perhaps women it applies the same too. You know women are not wired visually like men but relationally you know women don't tend to look lustfully mostly at women at at physical appearances but they tend to desire men of influence or power and tend to compare your spouse with someone else you think is is better is is is stronger or more powerful. It's the same. And if you have given into that, you have a breach in your marriage. It's happened already. It's it's it's a mental divorce. And it's not just the marriage. They started having mixed marriages. God had told them very clearly about how to choose life partners. Someone who understands God's covenant and his love. You know the dating scene is so messed up today isn't it? Despite the plethora of online apps every an app keep coming every month or year I thought I was update on online apps you know someone in our church made this app coffee meets bagel very famous and I thought that's it then I found there are new ones you know there's one called hinge now and I I just came to know about that and every other week there is an app and 75% of people nowadays try to find their life partner through these apps. But in the context in the bargain what was happening perhaps since there were just 50,000 people who were covenant people maybe the young people thought hey I'm not finding someone whom I like within this covenant community. So let me just go and marry the handsomel looking guy who has a great job and and who I think is going to make my life amazing. and we're compromising and and ending up in making wrong life choices. You know, it's important even when when you are younger, even for children, you know, you need to treat the person of the opposite sex respectfully and how you look at them. And and and and this whole dating idea is so alien to God's word. You don't just date someone to just to get to know and and drop them off. The Bible is very serious about marriage. If you are intending to pursue a relationship, it ought to be for marriage. It's good to get to know people and be friends. But that decision, common wisdom says is better as you grow older and you mature. you know, uh, Tim Keller in his meaning of marriage, he did a statistics because we've heard that 50% of marriages end in divorce, uh, both inside the church and outside. And he dug down a little deeper into the numbers and found out, well, that's not actually true. The 50% of marriages that are ending up in divorce are those who tend to get married or commit to a relationship between the ages 17 to 23. They're too young. You're too immature. If you really don't know what's the important thing to look for and they come in and with an expectation of how this person is going to make their life. Those are the marriages which have a very high divorce rate. So what why is all of this happening is because at the root of it there is something that's off. when you're so young and your hormones and your emotions get the better of you, you're not able to make wise decisions. So in this context is when Malachi opens this chapter, God is saying, "Hey, are you ready? I'm coming." As this whole nation, this nation, this covenant people were dwindled down to be such a small group were destroyed. Their spiritual lives were gone. their marriage is almost in a disaster and and they're asking all kinds of questions. He says from chapter verse one onwards, "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." But who can endure the day of his coming? And who can stand when he appears? For he's like a refiner's fire and like fuller soap. 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 and righteousness to the Lord. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old as in former years. God is telling them, "Well, I'm not going to leave you like this. I'm going to come. I'm going to first send a messenger. We all know who that messenger ends up. Right after this, when you read the Gospels, we'll come to it. John the Baptist. And what John the Baptist did was in this intertestamental period, this lifestyle that they had continued and created two groups of people. They were called the Pharisees and the Sadducees. You know, one who were legalists and the other who were antinomians. One who believed well the way to fix oursel now is to put more and more and more laws and the other believed well there is nothing there is no life after death there is no resurrection you can just live your life the way you want and go for it that's how it ended up they didn't pay attention to this and so God sends John the Baptist and whom does he talk to first he calls the Pharisees and Sadducees you brood of vipers you let these people obey so God is giving them a prophetic vision of what's going to come. Says, "I'm not going to let you like this. I'm going to send someone who will first prepare you, who will shake you up, and who will show you what you need to see." And then he says, "Suddenly, the Lord whom you will seek will come into his temple in an in a sudden manner. Christ was going to come." And what would Christ do when he comes? He says when he comes he is going to purify his people. He says he's like a refiner's fire and like fuller soap. The image is of a metallurgist who is refining silver or of a washer man who is using soap to wash dirt off dirty clothes. You know when a refiner uses fire to refine a metal, I don't know if we have any metallergists here, whether it's gold or silver, it is not meant to destroy the gold or silver. That would be pointless. The gold and silver are so worthy. The refiner's fire has only one task which is to take away those impurities, the things that prevents the gold and silver from being what it is and and bringing down its value. That's why you know with gold you have this measure of carats right it's 24 carats is pure gold I think women know a lot about that you even know where to get 24 carats 22 karat 17 carats uh I heard recommendations if you want 24 carats buy in this shop uh Dubai is the best for 24 karat and all of those right you guys know exactly what that is but then when they add impurities it changes the quality of the precious metal So when a refiner's fire is used, it removes the draws, removes the impurities and makes the metal pure for what it was meant to be. When the washer man uses soap, it removes the dirt that has covered and prevents the garment from retaining its original brilliance. And it's meant to bring its original brilliance back. So he says that's what is going to happen. Jesus is going to come and he's going to refine you. He's going to purify you. He's going to come and die and conquer the sin that makes you do all these things. And he's going to overcome that. He's going to be resurrected. And guess what? Then he's going to send his Holy Spirit who descends like pillars of fire literally on the people in Acts chapter 2. And this Holy Spirit will abide in you and me and will do this process of sanctification day in and day out so that you and I can now present ourselves as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God. That will be our pure act of worship. My dear friends, may I ask you this morning, are you ready for that? To be ready for that, you need to know what area of your life needs the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit. Is it in your marriage? Is it in your thought life? Is it in your faith? Is it in your relationships? Whatever it may be, you don't have to fix yourself. That's the whole reason Christ come. you can anticipate and be ready for Jesus and his Holy Spirit to sanctify you to change those areas of your lives that are not aligned to how is designed it to be. Are you loving your husband or your wife like how God has asked you to or is your marriage compromised? Are you raising godly children and your parenting is reflecting the way God wants you to or is that being compromised? Is your work something that comes after worship or has your work become your worship or is that an area that needs to be sanctified? God is calling you to come to him so he can do that sanctifying work in your life. You know, every once in a while um there's a cleanup challenge that happens in our home. You know, every day at the end the the temperature in our house is a little high. I'm not talking about the air temperature, but the other temperature because there's a cleanup drive happening. And I tend to stay away from that. But every once in a while, I'll decide, hey, I'll give a heads up and tell my kids, you have 10 minutes to clean up your room. I'm going to come and if it's not clean, there will be consequences. And I can hear some hustle and bustle and loud noises and thuds and whatnot. And then I walk in and the room is spec and span. And then I'll inspect and I'll find that there is a place called below the bed which is where things get shoved. So when you look it looks great but when you look under the bed they're all there. They need to clean up. can be these Lego toys, you know, the pencils, the markers, the erasers, things that you think are actually important. That's not how God wants us to be. When he says ready, don't put things under the rug thinking he can't see. Bring him to him so he can sanctify him and make you beautiful because that that room should have been clean all the time. God wants us to maintain a clean house, a clean heart, a clean mind. Daily sanctification will prevent us from crashing big time in our spiritual lives. When you hear of that thing of some spiritual leader falling or someone in your family falling or leaving their family or committing something you never expected, it didn't happen overnight. It's because of a neglect of spiritual cleanup of their house. But if you resist, he says and continue to do evil like what God saw was happening in the wider society around them. Verse five, he says, "Then I will draw near to you for judgment. Then you're not going to experience my first coming. You will experience my second coming. 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 father and the widow and the fatherless against those who thrust aside the sjourer and do not fear me says the lord of hosts for the rest of the world that fails to take heed and come to him he says you will only have judgment are you ready for that so come to him today so he can sanctify you and make you beautiful like his son through his spirit then you don't have to fear here is second judgment. That's the first point I want to talk. Secondly, are you ready to return? In Malachi 3:6, he talks to them again. He says, "For I, the Lord, do not change. Therefore, you, oh children of Jacob, are not consumed. From the days of your fathers, you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them." He's now giving them a summary. You're just being like how all your forefathers have been. You're doing the same thing again and again and again. He says, "Return to me and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts." You know, the verse that he tells them is, "Return to me." You know, return means you're going in a direction, stop and make a U-turn and go back in the right direction. That's the word graphic description of what repentance is. So he says you can repent and come back. If you return to me I will return to you. God is desiring that in our life a daily act of returning a repentance. And and they ask how do I how do I know I am returning? Or if you are asking well I'm I'm my life is good. What's wrong with it? It says, "But you say, how shall we return?" He gives them a test. He gives them a great metric to test your spirituality. And the metric is very simple. Verse 8, he says, "Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me." But you say, "How have we robbed you in your tithes and contributions? You are cursed with a curse, for you're robbing me, the whole nation of you." Wow. You know what had happened was before the temple was rebuilt they had these grants from Darius. The Persian Empire was funding the maintenance and care of the temple and the personnel. But once the temple was rebuilt and Ahm rebuilt the wall, they were now expected to go back to do what they were meant to do that God gave as commands to the Levites to worship him with their tithes and offerings. And they were not doing it. So what God is saying is well do you want to test yourself and your hearts to know if you really desire that relationship if I am number one in your life. To test if I am number one in your life to use the colloquial common face phrase he says put your money where your mouth is. Your wallet is a test of your heart. Your bank balance and account profile is a test of your true spirituality. Why? Because where and how we spend our money reveals where our heart really is. How we give away our money also reveals what our attitude to money is and who we actually trust. And the question to ask ourselves today is are we possessing money or is money possessing us? This is one place data can't lie. All you engineers know that right? Data don't lie. So he's giving you data. Check yourself. This data won't lie. Especially now once again in the age of smartphones and um all everything is smart. Uh even shopping experience is smart where you just scroll through something, you like something, you just press something. Let me do a pop quiz. How many Amazon packages come to your house every day? And how many of them you actually really want? How many of them do you buy with the consent of your spouse or without the consent of your spouse? All of those things, right? We can order things. And how how do you feel when you actually press that button to order something? And how do you feel when it comes to give tithes and offerings? What what do you feel? Does your heart cringe? Do you does it make you feel uncomfortable? God, it says God loves a cheerful giver. You keep hearing that. But what is your attitude to giving? Are you rationalizing? Okay, I've done the math. I'm doing it legally. I'm right. You're just trying to be right out of fear. Or is there some discomfort? Then God says, hey, there right there is your test. That tells you where your heart really is. I don't know how many of you actually tithe in our church. I we don't we don't follow that. And just to let you know, FYI, tithing is not 10% of your income after taxes. It's 10% of your gross. Now, how many of you tithe like that? Not saying this to make you feel guilty or to make you give. This is a text that's used to convince people to give. No, this is not about that. This, God says, is a test of your spirituality. If you're not even able to tithe the right way with the right heart, then your heart is not in the right place. In fact, they came up with reasons not to give. The reasons were verse 14 onwards, it says, "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 offers? And now we call the arrogant blessed evildoers not only prosper but they put God to the test and they escape. They are their reasons for not wanting to give. And you may have yours. But he says you have a spiritual problem. A repentant heart, a heart that values God first will be able to give joyfully. Most of us know Amy Carmichael that she left this her life of comfort and went to India to minister to the most destitute women and children. And this is what Amy Carmichael says. She says, "You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving." Let me repeat, you can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving. If you say you really love God more than you love your money, you should be able to let go and give freely. And God says, "Test me in this." It's a very rare invitation for God to tell people to trust and see his provision. He says, "Bring the full tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in my house." And in verse 10, and thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you, and pour down for you a blessing until there is no need, I will rebuke the devorer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil, and your wine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the Lord of Hosts. Then all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight, says the Lord of hosts. Test me in this. It's a rare invitation. You know, I gave this challenge before and I want to give it now. Especially for our young professionals who have started out jobs and you're making your money. I'm going to challenge you to try and give 100% once. That will actually show you this is just an exaggerated giving test. How do you feel when you feel like I'm going to give 100% and see and test God to see is he going to take care of me? Try it. That's a challenge I want to give you because that will expose really your fears and your loves and it will enable you to have a realistic assessment of yourself. When you think of that, note down what are the first thoughts that come to your mind because that is going to reveal to you where your heart is. That's a great test, isn't it? I've shared before, you know, Pat Gellzinger, who was a former CEO of Intel, would boldly share that he gives 50% of his income away every month. And you may think, well, he's a millionaire. He has stocks. He can give that easily. But I can tell you, I don't think he started that practice when he became a millionaire. He was a Pennsylvania farm boy who worked in a farm and came here to Silicon Valley as an intern. And this godliness was instilled in him at a very young age. He started giving 50% and we all know how God had blessed that man and used him. He was the most loved CEO before the recent turn of events in the corporate world. And I got to know him. I've personally seen his servant heart and attitude. A very wonderful, humble man of God. His daughter served as a missionary for a year in China. So God is telling you if you want to test your spirituality, try giving and see where your heart is. And when you tithe or you give, you're not tithing or giving to spectrum church or staff or buildings or missionaries. You're giving to God cheerfully. If you're able to do that cheerfully, then you know your heart is in the right place. Generosity is the fundamental hallmark of a healthy godly Christian life. If you're not able to give generously or cheerfully, ask God to reveal what's in your heart and seek his help to turn your life around to him. And it's high time for you to return back to experience freedom. And this is where your disciplehip groups can come and help. You need someone to disciple you and help walk you through those challenges to set you free. And lastly, are you ready to be rewarded? You know, verses 16 to 17, it says, "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. They shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession. Wow. As I said earlier, you know, there was a remnant, even among the remnant who believed and feared the Lord, you know, from 6 million to 50,000. And this small number kept the faith, the light shining till Christ would come. And what were some things that characterized this group, this tiny small group of people says they feared the Lord. Number one, they spoke to one. They spoke with one another. And lastly, they served God. And that's my encouragement for you this morning, my dear friends. Find your people. You know, who you are surrounding yourself with will reflect on whether you are on a growing path spiritually or a declining path. Find your people and journey with them. And the reward he says is they shall be mine. You know that's the glorious reward. What more can we ask? From the beginning God's covenant was I shall be their God and they shall be my people. This remnant gets to be that says they shall be mine. They are the covenant people. God kept them and he will keep you too. Find your people. Keep serving him. There will be a reward when he returns. And the reward is nothing short of his very presence. Nothing in this world can thrill you more than that. You know, I've been reading the book of Song of Solomon recently for my devotions. And and of course, it is this dialogue between uh the bride and the groom and the lover and her um and this girl. But it's also an allegory of our relationship with God where this lover looks at him and he says in the very first chapter, your love is better than wine. You know there is nothing that will satisfy you more than the very love of Christ and the very love of God. He says and that is your reward. So as we close, let me remind us this way of application. Take a spiritual stock of your life. Daily sanctification, not emergency cleanups, is what we need. Now, just as the children's 10-minute room cleanup before a surprise inspection isn't ideal, don't wait for a spiritual crisis to start cleaning up your spiritual house. Develop a daily rhythm of confession and prayer and surrender. Now those in disciplehip groups, you will learn about the gospel walls. Invite the Holy Spirit to refine you now and not later. And as a challenge, identify one sinful pattern or habit where you need the refining fire or the cleaning soap of Christ and surrender it today. Secondly, let repentance reach your wallet. You know, Malachi ties returning to God with returning our resources to him. Your bank statement reveals your true theology more clearly than your Spotify playlist. Audit your generosity. Are you giving God your leftovers or your first fruits? Consider starting or restarting or deepening your practice of giving to God and others. And lastly, find your faithful few. The remnant who feared the Lord spoke with one another. Even in cultural decline, God remembers those who rever him and serve him together. You join or form a circle of brothers or sisters who keep you accountable spiritually. Speak about the Lord and your challenges and your prayers and pray with each other. Write it down and he will restore you. want to talk about a small illustration before I close. It's called the refining chair. There's an old story about a group of women doing a Bible study on Malachi 3:3. It says, "He will sit as a refiner and purifier of fire. Curious about what that meant, one woman actually visited a silver smmith. She asked the silver smmith, "Do you really sit while the silver is being refined?" Yes, he said. I must sit right in front of the fire, watching the silver the entire time. If it's left a moment too long in the flames, it'll be destroyed. Then how do you know when it is fully refined? She asked. The silver smith smiled and replied, "Oh, that's easy. I know it's ready when I can see my own image in it. Beloved, God is not distant while we are in the fire. He's seated. He's watching us closely. He's refining us. He's waiting to see his image in you and me. So I ask again, are you ready to be refined and not destroyed? To return and not resist.