The last book in the Old Testament, just before the book of Matthew chapter 1.

This is our third message now on this book.

It'll take us through the end of the year to complete the book.

Let me do a little review since the first message was before missions week and then the second last week.

In chapter 1 versus 1 to 5, we focused on the electing love of God and its greatness.

And then in verse 6 last week of chapter one, we focused on the majesty of God's

fatherhood and its greatness.

And today I want us to focus on another dimension of these verses in 6 to 14 of chapter 1, namely the curse of careless worship.

To bring this into our attention, let's read verse 8 and verses 13 and 14. The Lord says in verse 8 and verses 13 and 14

the lord says in verse 8

when you offer blind animals in sacrifice is that no evil

and when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that no evil?

Then drop down to verse 13.

What a weariness this is, you say, and you sniff at me says the Lord of hosts. You bring what has been taken by violence or is lame or sick and this you bring as your offering.

Shall I accept that from your hand, says the Lord?

Cursed be the cheat, who has a male in his flock and vows it and sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished.

So I think with those few verses you can see what the problem is in this passage, the

priests and no doubt reflecting the spirit of the people as well, are offering stolen animals, mangy animals, broken-legged animals on God's altar. They are careless in their worship. God goes so far as to say

in verse 14 they are cursed. Cursed be the cheat. And that's where I get the

the of careless worship. Now what I want to do this morning in the few minutes we have

before we go to the table together is talk about the origin of careless worship, the essence of careless worship, and the opposite of

careless worship. First, the origin of careless worship.

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