Is your heart turned to the Lord?
Key Passage: Malachi 4:5-6
Date: June 7, 2024
Would you turn your Bibles to Malachi chapter number four? Malachi is the last book of the Old Testament.
Chapter number four is the last chapter of the Old Testament. We’re going to look at the last two verses of the Old Testament, just for a bit this morning, kind of getting us going into the subject I believe God would have us cover this morning. The title would be, “Is your heart turned to the Lord?” Malachi chapter number four.
Malachi chapter four and verse number five. Would you please stand, if you would, please, read God’s word together? Malachi chapter four and verse number five. If you’re there, would you say amen? Amen. Here we go. The Bible says, “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet.”
Let me just time out for a moment. This is an Old Testament prophecy that was fulfilled in the New Testament by John the Baptist. Elijah is the type of John the Baptist, and John the Baptist is the forerunner of Jesus Christ. In fact, Jesus explains a little bit to his apostles about this when he references back to it, and he said, “No, it’s already come. It was John the Baptist.” That’s what we’re talking about here specifically. We’re going to look at the truth here in just a moment. “Behold, I send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.” Watch this: “And he shall turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to their fathers.”
That is a vital formula God gives. It’s just vital. Maybe the greatest reason why America is in the shape it is in is because that formula has not been practiced many times in our country. It’s a sad deal. We’re just focusing on the hearts; there’s so much more here about Elijah and John the Baptist that we won’t have time to get into, and forgive me for that, but we look at this formula: the hearts of the fathers to the children and the heart of the children to their fathers. That’s amazing what happens here. He says, if this doesn’t happen, “Lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.”
The last word of the Old Testament is very sad: “Curse.” If you take the Old Testament, the old covenant, very strictly, the law brings a curse. Now, praise the Lord, we have the new covenant through Christ Jesus. I’m very thankful for that. But he’s simply saying, look, not just this, but so much more. We want to get to this formula here: if this formula does not happen—the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to the fathers—society will get so bad that God brings a curse. You study history, you’ll see how that bears true. This formula is so vital.
Let’s just talk about this formula that God gives. God used John the Baptist, and we won’t have time to get into all that, but we’re just focusing on the formula here: the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to the fathers. If this doesn’t happen, a curse comes.
Would you pray with them that God would just use this thing in our hearts practically in our lives? Father, we come needing, Lord, seems more than ever, Your wisdom for my words and Your guiding of my words and my heart. Lord, I pray that You would empower it. Lord, would You apply it to every individual how they need it in their lives? Father, it can be applied so many different ways, and I pray that You would do so. Lord, don’t let anyone leave just where it kind of went over their heads, in one ear and out the other. Lord, You take this great truth from Your word and apply it how and where it needs to be in every single person here this morning. Would You do so, Father? We’re asking for this in the name of Jesus. We pray. Amen. Thank you so much for standing. You may be seated.
God puts incredible importance on fathers. It’s very interesting. The FBI years ago studied some high school shooters—not just these, but some of these were in Paducah, Kentucky, Pearl, Mississippi, Littleton, Colorado. They studied where 17 kids had shot their classmates in school in various parts of the United States. This was their conclusion: They all had one thing in common. They had issues with their dads every single time.
Bill Glass has 36 years experiencing prison ministry. By the way, praise the Lord for our jail ministry getting going. Our men are going to get to go in on July the 7th. You pray God will bless that, that people be saved through that ministry you’re starting up. This man has been involved in jail ministry for 36 years, going in prisons and preaching and teaching in the jails and prisons. One day, just before Father’s Day, he was in North Carolina, in a juvenile prison.
He was eating lunch with three boys. He asked the first boy, “Is your dad coming to see you tomorrow on Father’s Day?” He said, “No, he’s not coming.” “Why not?” “My dad’s in prison.” He asked the second boy the same question. “No, why not? He’s in prison.” He asked the third boy the same question. He said, “Is your dad coming to visit you on Father’s Day?” He said, “No, he’s not. But he got out of prison nine months ago, and he’s doing good. I’m proud of my father. He’s really going to be a good dad to me, and he’s going to go straight.”
He said he was protesting so much that I could tell something was wrong. So I asked, “How many times has your father been here to see you since he got out nine months ago?” “He hasn’t come yet. But he lives way, way, way far away.” I could tell there was something there, and he said, “Well, where does he live?” “Durham.” Durham was only two hours away.
I can go on about just the importance in studying of fathers. There’s a men’s prison, and there was a worker there. One of the men had asked, “Hey, Mother’s Day is coming. Can you get me a Mother’s Day card?” They got Mother’s Day cards. A lot of other prisoners asked, “Hey, can you get us a Mother’s Day card?” In fact, they wrote to Hallmark and said, “These prisoners want to send Mother’s Day cards to their moms.” Hallmark sent a boatload of Mother’s Day cards. The men started sending cards back; there were so many men.
That same worker in the prison system said, “That was awesome. I was shocked.” They said, “I’ll do them a favor.” So they wrote to Hallmark and said, “Send some Father’s Day cards.” Hallmark did so. I’ve read in two different places about this instance, but one says that when they got the Father’s Day cards, not one prisoner sent a Father’s Day card back. The other story about the same situation said two did.
My friend, I’m just trying to emphasize the importance in God’s formula: the hearts of the fathers to the children, and then the hearts of the children to the Father. That’s where it starts from. That is so, so vital. If that does not happen, society can get so bad that God has to bring a curse. It’s such a very important formula.
Let me note there are two parts to the formula. Let’s divide it up a little bit. First of all, look back at that last part of that verse, verse number six. Let’s get the first part of the formula right there. He says, “And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children.” That’s the first part of the formula. That’s very, very important. Can I just say a note to the dads out there? You stood already, praise the Lord, you’re in church. But can I just say, it doesn’t say the heart of the fathers turns to themselves—how many toys they have, how good they’re doing, how they look, and how much money they have in their bank account. It says, “The hearts of the fathers, to their children.”
I’m all about, and God’s all about, and the Bible’s all about men and husbands loving their wives, as Christ loved the church. But can I add a little bit here for the children? It doesn’t say the hearts of the fathers to the wives. That’s not what it says here. It doesn’t even say the hearts of the dads to their children because the wife told him to do so. I’m curious if the heart truly was turned to the children if that’s the case there. But it simply states the heart of the dads, not caught up so much on the rat race of life, but the hearts of the dads turned to the children. That is vital. I have a little fear that men are getting so caught up in their toys and the latest and the greatest, the trucks, the fishing poles, the latest iPhone, the latest gadgets, and the latest house. I’m not saying those are wrong, but if my heart has turned toward all those things, I might not have a heart left to give to my children.
And the Bible says, “The hearts of the fathers to their children.” That’s where the formula begins. The hearts—by the way, we don’t hear this a lot in our day and time, but it’s so vital, so important. That’s one reason why we’re hurting so much in America, friend. But that’s not the only part of the formula; that’s just the first half of it. Let’s go back and get the second half of the formula here: Malachi 4:6, “And he shall turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the heart of the children to their fathers.”
It can be a dad that’s given his heart to the Lord, and his heart has turned to the children, but that child has a choice to make. Sometimes that child does not choose to turn his heart to his father, and the formula is not fulfilled at that moment. That’s the sad thing. You find it across America. In homes, the best I can tell, the children are not raised differently; they’re raised the same. The heart of the father and the mother is given to both children the same way. One child decides to give their heart back to the father; the other child decides not to do so. Dad has a responsibility, but son and daughter have a responsibility also. “Hearts of the fathers to the children, hearts of the children to the father.” Proverbs 19:26 says, “He that wastes his father and chases away his mother is a son that causes shame and brings reproach.”
It can be someone that says, “Hey, I’m just so bent on doing my own thing and going my own way. I’m not going to give my heart to my dad.” And the formula is not fulfilled. The formula is so vital, so very, very important.
Years ago, we had a young man—he’s a little older now, amen, the years kind of slipped by. He’s got a great dad, praise the Lord for it, and his dad is very known in the Christian circle. He preached something; something had happened. I can’t remember exactly what it was, but I just remember thinking, somebody needs to say something there publicly. It was a little like, well, his dad was a preacher, a good godly man, a good dad, and all that. So he didn’t have any choice in the matter, and he’s a preacher today. I tried to be nice; I don’t know if anybody knew what was going on, but I knew. I felt like the Lord said, “Hey, you need to say something.” I said something to the matter of fact. Praise the Lord, they had a good, godly dad, a great example, but praise the Lord for that preacher who made the right decision to follow those footsteps. Every child has a choice to make, amen. That
Original File: Pastor Paul Chisgar - Is your heart turned to the Lord - Sunday AM 06182023