Questions:

1. Fill in the blanks below from Malachi 2:10-12: Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why then are we ________ to one another, profaning the _________ of our fathers? 11 Judah has been faithless, and ____________ has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has _________ the sanctuary of the Lord, which he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god. 12 May the Lord cut off from the tents of _______ any descendant of the man who does this, who brings an offering to the Lord of hosts!
2. What does Deuteronomy 11:26–28 set before the people?
3. A choice between blessing and curse
4. A command to build a temple
5. A plan for sacrifices
6. A call to exile
7. TRUE or FALSE:  The message teaches that our salvation depends on our own faithfulness.
8. God warned Israel in Deuteronomy 7 not to __________ with those who worshipped foreign gods.
9. Which Old Testament figure fell into sin due to foreign marriages?
10. David
11. Moses
12. Solomon
13. Joshua
14. TRUE or FALSE:  The people in Malachi’s time wept at the altar because God was blessing them greatly.
15. According to the sermon, how are believers justified before God?
16. Through good works
17. Through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ
18. Through marriage
19. Through temple worship   
20. The warning in Malachi extends beyond marriage to any area where we reach for something to fill what only __________ can satisfy.

Discussion:

1. Last week's message addressed "Worthless Worship" (bringing lame sacrifices); this week focuses on "Faithless Worship" (worship in word, denial in deed). Pastor Winans said: "We can lift our hands in praise on Sunday and yet live like God doesn’t exist on Monday."
2. In what ways do you see this threat in churches today?
3. What are some signs in our own lives that our worship might be faithless or hypocritical?
4. The message argues that our faithfulness (or lack thereof) is most evident when life isn't what it’s supposed to be. Why do times of struggle and unmet expectations reveal the true state of our hearts more than times of ease?
5. What does it mean that “hell isn’t only a destination; it’s a direction”?
6. What warning does Solomon’s story give us?
7. Read James 1:14-15 and discuss how sin can be slow but strong force to draw us away from a Christ centered life.
8. Read Hebrews 12:1-2 and discuss in your groups how this passage arms us to battle the temptation to sin.
9. Read Proverbs 4:23-27
10. How can we guard our hearts in a faithless culture?
11. What habits or disciplines will prevent our hearts from falling off the path and being unfaithful to God and our spouses or loved ones?
12. For those married: where is your union strongest, and where does it most need guarding?
13. For those not married: what habits or boundaries will help you keep future covenant vows sacred?
14. Discuss the following in your groups?
15. How does our culture encourage the very “faithless” choices Malachi condemns?
16. What cultural practices or media should we consider limiting because they erode faithfulness?

Sermon Outline

I remember reading a series of books as a child called Choose Your Own Adventure. Each one began with a scenario, and at the end of every chapter, you had to decide what to do next— “If you choose this, turn to page 42; if you choose that, turn to page 87.” Every decision shaped how the story unfolded. In many ways, life mirrors those books. Each day, in every season, we face choices that determine the direction of our story, how we respond, how we move forward, how we grow through what challenges us. And like those adventures, the story often begins with something that’s not quite right—a problem that calls for courage and faith to move through. That’s what we see in our current sermon series from the Minor Prophet Malachi, titled Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be.

In Malachi’s day, God’s people were weary. They had returned from exile in Babylon and Persia full of hope—expecting renewal, restoration, and blessing—but what they found felt disappointingly flat. Their struggles and unmet expectations mirror our own seasons of discouragement, when what we hoped for doesn’t unfold the way we imagined. It’s in those moments, when life seems dark or unfulfilled, that the choices we make carry lasting weight.

Jesus Himself faced such moments. At the very start of His ministry, right after His baptism, the Spirit led Him into the wilderness for forty days. There, the tempter confronted Him with a series of “choose your own adventure” moments—inviting Him to turn stones into bread, to leap from the temple, or to seize the kingdoms of the world in exchange for worship. Each temptation offered a shortcut, an alternate page to turn to. But Jesus, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, rejected every one. At every crossroads, He chose the path of faithfulness. And as Luke 4 tells us, when the enemy finally departed, he did so only for a season.

Luke 4:13 – ¹³And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time.

In your life and in my life, when we face the desert mirage, when we face the trials and struggles of life, those especially are the times when we can experience the slithering of the snake, who can slither and coil and whisper into our ears that we might be tempted to turn the page of our life not towards a page that's faithful, because we all have opportunities to turn the pages of our lives to a page that would be faithless.

What we'll see this morning is that it was the experience of many in Malachi's day. As we look at this text, the word that occurs over and over again in this text is faithless. The people of God and the prophet bringing the Word of God brings an indictment, and that indictment is faithlessness. May we all hear this morning the call to turn the pages of our lives to faithfulness.

Last week, in the second half of Malachi chapter 1, our message was titled Worthless Worship. We saw that God’s people were holding back from Him what was rightfully His. Instead of offering their best, they brought blind and lame sacrifices, keeping the finest for themselves. We said that true worship means giving God all that we are—heart, mind, and strength—for all that He is.

As we turn to chapter 2, our message is Faithless Worship. Once again, we meet a people who appear to be worshippers. They come before God, they bring their sacrifices, they sing their songs—but God does not receive their worship. His charge against them is simple and piercing: they are faithless. And that same danger exists for us today. We can lift our hands in praise on Sunday and yet live like God doesn’t exist on Monday. We can worship in word but deny Him in deed. When we knowingly walk in ways that contradict His revealed will, and then expect Him to accept our worship, God says, “I do not.” Our lives reveal our faithfulness—or our lack of it.

This struggle becomes most evident when life is not what it’s supposed to be—when our hopes fall flat, when we find ourselves in a wilderness. Like Jesus in His forty days of testing, we too face moments when the light of the wilderness deceives us, like a mirage in the desert. In those moments, the serpent slithers near and whispers, “It’s not supposed to be this way. But I have a better path—take this, and it will all work out.” It’s the same old lie from the Garden of Eden, and yet we often reach for it, turning the page in our own “choose your own adventure” toward faithless choices.

Malachi focuses that warning on the most foundational of human relationships—marriage. There is no bond in life more sacred, outside of our relationship with God, than the covenant between husband and wife. So it should not surprise us that the enemy attacks it. The family is the cornerstone of any society, and if the enemy can corrupt or fracture it, he undermines everything built upon it. But while this passage addresses marriage directly, its principle extends further. Any time we reach for something—whether pleasure, power, or possession—in hopes of filling what only God can satisfy, we wander into faithlessness.

In verse 11, Malachi exposes the heart of the issue: as life disappoints and hope fades, God’s people begin listening to the whispers of temptation—and turning to alliances and affections outside His will.

Malachi 2:11 – ¹¹Judah has been faithless, and abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the Lord, which he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god.

These were women devoted to pagan gods, and yet the men—those who belonged to the covenant people of God—were joining themselves to them in marriage. In New Testament terms, they were becoming unequally yoked, binding their lives to those who worshipped foreign deities. This was not a minor issue; it was a direct violation of God’s command. In fact, back in Deuteronomy chapter 7, as Israel prepared to enter the Promised Land, God spoke through Moses and warned them explicitly.

Deuteronomy 7:34 – ³You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, ⁴for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods.

When we bind ourselves in covenant marriage to someone who does not share our faith or our devotion to the Lord, Scripture shows a repeated pattern: our faithfulness becomes compromised, and our allegiance to Jesus is placed in danger. Throughout the Bible, we see that divided devotion leads to divided hearts.

In Malachi’s day, this very issue was unfolding. His prophecy takes place during the same era as Ezra and Nehemiah, and both of those books record the same concern—God’s people marrying those devoted to foreign gods. Nehemiah, in particular, reminds the people that this isn’t a new problem. He points them back to one of Israel’s greatest kings—Solomon, renowned for his wisdom and favor with God. And yet, even Solomon, the wisest man of his age, fell when he joined himself to those who worshipped other gods. As Nehemiah tells the people of Malachi’s day, “Did not Solomon king of Israel sin on account of such women?”

Nehemiah 13:26-27 – ²⁶Did not Solomon king of Israel sin on account of such women? Among the many nations there was no king like him, and he was beloved by his God...Nevertheless, foreign women made even him to sin. ²7Shall we then listen to you and do all this great evil and act treacherously against our God by marrying foreign women?”

Nehemiah is essentially saying, Do you think you’re wiser than Solomon? Solomon—the wisest man of his generation, beloved of God, the writer of Proverbs—turned the “choose your own adventure” of his life to a faithless page when he yoked himself to foreign wives who led him into sin. If it could happen to Solomon, it could happen to any of us.

That’s a sobering reminder. Too often, we think, This won’t happen to me. I can handle it. I’m in control. But sin is never something to play with. Psalm 19:13 warns, “Keep back your servant from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me.” Presumptuous sins are those we commit, knowing full well we shouldn’t—the places we go, the things we do, the boundaries we cross, believing somehow, we’ll be the exception. But sin always seeks dominion. That’s exactly what God told Cain: “Sin is crouching at the door; its desire is for you.”

When we entertain sin—when we listen to the serpent’s whisper to “just reach for that thing,” to “go a little further,” to “chase that mirage on the horizon”—we invite a destructive power to rule over us. And that’s what was happening in Malachi’s day. These men weren’t merely marrying foreign women; they were breaking covenant with the wives of their youth.

Now, this isn’t about bloodline purity—Scripture makes that clear. Boaz, a righteous man, married Ruth, who was a Moabite, not an Israelite. The issue wasn’t ethnicity; it was spiritual allegiance. Ruth turned from her idols to worship the living God. The warning here is about uniting your life—the most intimate covenant relationship you can enter—with someone who doesn’t share the same faith, the same foundation. When that happens, God says, you’ve breached covenant—and devastation follows.

Malachi 2:14 – ¹⁴Lord 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.

They were saying, “This marriage isn’t working out for me—I’ll just walk away. There’s something new, something more exciting over here.” The people of Malachi’s day were abandoning their covenant vows, divorcing their spouses, and chasing after forbidden relationships. Yet, astonishingly, they still came to worship. They lifted their hands, sang their songs, and expected God to be pleased. But Malachi confronts them sharply—in verse 13 he declares...

Malachi 2:13 – ¹³You cover the Lord’s altar with tears, with weeping and groaning because he no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand.

The people were confused. “Why doesn’t God accept our worship? We’re here on Sunday morning! What’s the problem, God? Why aren’t You blessing us? Why aren’t You pleased with what we’re doing?” And God answers, “Because you have been faithless. You have broken covenant. You have turned My ways into a mockery of your own desires.”

We live in a culture much like theirs—one that believes we can do whatever we want, whenever we want, with whomever we want, and that somehow God will still be fine with it. But He’s not. As the secular psychologist Jordan Peterson insightfully observes...

Why can't I do whatever I want, whenever I want to do it, with whoever I want to do it with? The answer is because everything goes to hell if you do that, including you. You say, “Well, I don't believe in hell.” Keep acting the way you are, and you will. – Jordon Peterson

The way of the Lord is the way of blessing. But when we step off the path of righteousness, we step into the path of curse. That’s exactly what these men were doing—choosing the way of faithlessness and then coming to worship as if nothing were wrong. They lifted their hands and cried out, “Why won’t You accept us, God?” And God replies...

Malachi 2:15 – ¹⁵Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union? And what was the one God seeking? Godly offspring.

God says, “I was present in the covenant you made with the wife of your youth. In that marriage, I placed a portion of My Spirit and made you one.” But you have brought violence to that oneness. Within the family—this sacred institution God Himself established—He intends that children be raised to know Him, to love Him, and to walk in His ways. When we break covenant and betray our families, we trample on God’s design and diminish the goodness He intended for marriage and for generations to come.

That’s why Christian discipleship must shape the whole person—our minds, our wills, and our imaginations. We train our minds to what is true: that marriage is a divine union in which God joins two into one by His Spirit. We train our wills to pursue what is good: that God’s desire is for godly families—generation after generation—raised to follow and fear Him. And we train our imaginations to behold what is beautiful: that the family, as God created it, reflects His own beauty and harmony.

When we act faithlessly, we don’t just break rules—we trample beauty underfoot. The way of God is not only true and good; it is beautiful. But when we turn from it, we exchange life for curse. That’s the warning Scripture gives us.

Deuteronomy 11:26-28 – ²⁶See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: ²⁷the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God...²⁸and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments and to go after other gods.

If you turn the pages of your life’s “choose your own adventure” toward faithfulness—toward the ways of God—you are choosing life. But if you turn to the pages of faithlessness, you are choosing the path of curse.

You see, hell isn’t only a destination; it’s a direction. It’s a journey. When we knowingly reject God’s ways and walk in darkness, we begin that journey long before it ends. Every step away from God leads further into ruin.

But the opposite is also true. To walk in faithfulness is to walk in eternal life that begins now. Jesus said, “This is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true God.” You can taste that life today. The Holy Spirit is with you now. The love of God surrounds you now. The peace of God that transcends understanding is yours now. And as you continue in that path, the light grows brighter, the truth sinks deeper, until that life is made complete in eternity with Him.

So the question before us is simple yet searching: Which page will you turn to—faithful or faithless? Malachi 2 reminds us that if we would choose the faithful way, we must guard our hearts and our spirits diligently.

Malachi 2:15-16 – ¹⁵So guard yourselves in your spirit and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth. ¹⁶“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.”

As I was reading these words this week— “Guard yourselves”—my mind went straight to Proverbs chapter 4, where it says, “Guard your heart with all vigilance” But have you ever paused to consider what that really means? What does it look like to guard your heart? The passage goes on to explain.

Proverbs 4:23,25-27 – ²³Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life. ²⁵Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you. ²⁶Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure. ²⁷Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil.

When we guard our hearts, we are surrendering our lives to God and allowing the Holy Spirit to guide each page we turn in our story. And as we do, the call of Proverbs is this: “Ponder the path of your feet.” Too often, we rush ahead without thinking—chasing after the next shiny thing, the next promise of fulfillment—without asking where that path will lead. But God says, “Do not turn to the right or to the left; keep your feet from evil.” Stay rooted in His Word. Remain in prayer. Depend fully on the Spirit of God, and He will direct your path.

Maybe for some, this message touches a tender place. Perhaps you’ve walked through divorce. Perhaps you’ve married someone who doesn’t share your faith. Maybe you’re alone right now or burdened by guilt from choices in your past. Malachi’s call is not meant to crush you under shame—it is an invitation to repent and be reconciled to God.

Yes, Malachi calls the people of God to be faithful. But the question is—are we saved by that faithfulness? The answer is no. If our salvation depended on our own faithfulness, it would be lost before it began. As David confessed, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” We are born turned away from God, unable to save ourselves.

Galatians (NET) 2:16 – ¹⁶We know that no one is justified by the works of the law but by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by the faithfulness of Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.

Your call is to faithfulness—but that faithfulness does not save you. It does not justify you. None of us can stand before God and say, “I did enough good things.” Before a holy God, we stand condemned, because all have sinned and fallen short of His glory. No one is justified by the works of the law.

We are justified by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. He was—and is—always faithful. Every temptation you have faced, He faced too. Every “page” you are offered in your story, He was offered as well—and He always turned to the page of faithfulness. That is why we believe in Him: so that we might be made right before God through His faithfulness, not our own. If salvation depended on our works, it would be over before it began. Salvation is by grace, through the faithfulness of Christ alone.

And yet, when we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and enter into covenant with Him, we are made new. We become new creations—born again into a life of faithfulness. Not to earn salvation, but because we have been saved. This is what Paul calls “the obedience of faith.”

So if you’ve found yourself turning to pages the Word of God calls faithless—hear the call of your King. He is inviting you to turn back. To repent. To cling to Him anew and afresh. Remember: it is His faithfulness that saves you, not yours. But now that you are His, the Spirit empowers you to turn the page—to walk in what pleases Him.

As Malachi declares: “Guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be faithless.”

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