 Throughout my life I've increasingly found that reading scripture in public isn't just about feeding our own spirits and minds but about rehearsing the mighty acts of God for God's glory. So let's think together about Malachi chapter 1 verse 11 and first we're going to need some tea. For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name is great among the nations and in every place incense is offered to my name your offering for my name is great among the nations says the Lord of Hosts. This is an extraordinary statement through the prophet Malachi to the people who are in rebellion and they have come back from Babylon or some of them have at any rate they have rebuilt the temple they have restarted the sacrificial system is not this they might say what the prophets the earlier prophets had promised that this would happen but it seems that all is not yet well it seems that they don't believe that God himself has come back as he'd promised they're still waiting and as a result they are bored and they are careless they're not too bothered they're going through the motions this is the problem that Malachi addresses especially among the priests in the temple in Jerusalem they're bringing to the altar of the Lord animals that are not fit it's very clear in Leviticus and so on what sort of animals would be fit and pure as offerings and they're not following the regulations they're not getting it right and Malachi says lift up your eyes and see think who this God is you're supposed to be serving and in particular in this verse the remarkable promise that actually already the nations of the world are in some sense or other beginning to worship him of course the people of Israel knew that the nations in general were idolatrous they were following other gods and they were behaving like idolaters always do sooner or later but Malachi says nevertheless God knows that right there out among the nations are many people who are reaching out after God who are feeling for him and even the prophet says offering incense to his name this is such a puzzle that some interpreters have said we can only understand this as a prediction of what will happen through Jesus and the Holy Spirit much later after all Malachi in chapter 3 has that promise of the Lord coming to his temple the messenger of the covenant and that promise is quoted in the New Testament as being about John the Baptist preparing the way for Jesus to come as the embodiment of Israel's God himself but I see here a link to those strange passages like we find for instance in Acts chapter 17 when Paul says on the Areopagus in Athens that God has made from one stock all nations of humans to dwell on the earth so that they might feel after him and find him this is the kind of generous view of the nations that we see peeping out here and there in the Old Testament and then of course reaffirmed with passages like the conversion of Cornelius again in the book of Acts when actually God knows that out there even among all the idolatry and wickedness there are many people who are feeling after him who are beginning to discern and discover that there is a great God to whom they owe allegiance I've heard missionaries say when they come back from far-flung countries and certainly this is in the literature particularly from the 19th century that when they went and preached about the one God of heaven and earth the God who is then made known in Jesus and by the Spirit some people in different locations would say we don't want anything to do with this other people would say well this is totally new we'll have to think about it and some would say we always thought there must be something like this there must be some truth of this sort and you have now brought it into sharp focus that's the sort of thing that I think is going on here in Malachi contrasting with the people who are supposed to be close to God the people who in the priesthood are supposed to know how to serve him and worship him no says Malachi you lot are getting it wrong and actually there are people who are putting you to shame people who haven't got an atom of your training and background and history but who nevertheless are worshiping are feeling after the God of heaven as in verse 14 I am a great king says the Lord of hosts my name is reverenced among the nations the nations here there is a God who is Lord of heaven and earth and he's the one we really ought to be worshiping so then within the sweep of Malachi as a whole we see those prophecies going forward to the time of the New Testament and for those who are then caught up with the whole Gentile mission in the New Testament which is most of us Christians here today we look back and say this was what God always intended and let us be careful as well lest we lapse into carelessness and casual service and not really bothering about how we worship or how we pray or how we study scripture let alone how we live in the world it's very easy for God's people to go slack on their obligations and to be therefore in need of the reminder that God is in fact honoured and glorified by many out there many who are first will be last and the last first said Jesus and therefore we should on ourselves be on our guard lest we fall into the same mistake that the priests were making then therefore we lift up our heads and say God's name is honoured people know in their bones that there is a great God of heaven and earth He is the God who calls us to His service so may God give us courage and confidence and vision to know that He is the great God and to serve Him as He deserves Amen