Is Our Best like the Limping Sheep???

God doesn’t ask for perfection, but He does ask for honor, and Malachi makes that impossible to ignore. We gather around the table for a raw, practical Bible study in Malachi 1 where the Lord confronts His people for bringing blind, sick, and lame sacrifices, then we hold that mirror up to our own discipleship.

We talk about what it means to be a royal priesthood today and why “offering” is bigger than money. Yes, giving matters, but so does worship, attention, preparation, and the way we show up for God when nobody is applauding. We unpack the idea of firstfruits, the Passover lamb without spot or blemish, and how Jesus is God’s best gift to us. That leads to an honest question: are we giving God our best, or are we handing Him whatever energy we have left?

We also get into real church-life moments, like coming in late, treating the invitation casually, and disrupting altar time when someone may be under conviction. At the same time, we push back against judgment and remind each other that someone’s best may not look flashy. From the widow’s mites to quiet prayer, God sees what people can’t.

If this stirred something in you, take a listen, share it with a friend, and subscribe so you don’t miss the next one. After you listen, leave a review and tell us: where do you most need to move from leftovers to firstfruits?

Ways to Give at https://m3mi.org...Thank you for your seed!  :)

Transcript

Welcome And Table Introductions

SPEAKER_01 0:19

Thank you so much for coming in with me to the next. Hey, welcome to Simple to Simple Ship Unfiltered. I'm your host, Sister Diana. Thank you so much for joining us today. We're not live, but we're what's it called? Mimorex or something?

SPEAKER_03 0:51

We're recording this session.

SPEAKER_01 0:53

We're recording this session. For later broadcast. Man, it's so good to be around the table with you. And we've got our people in the back too that are that are with us, but uh, we're excited to just come to you and just bring some word that the Lord has given us today. Y'all excited?

SPEAKER_02 1:12

Amen.

SPEAKER_01 1:12

All right. So we were we were doing our Bible study this morning, uh, Sister Audie and I, and we were in the book of Malachi. And before we dig into there, let me just introduce everybody at the table. Brother John Ernie Perez. If you only listened to podcasts before, you've heard his voice on many, many, many, many episodes. And this is him in the flesh, Sister Audia Davis. You've heard her voice a lot, and Sister Ann.

SPEAKER_00 1:41

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 1:42

And then back in the back room, we've got Sister Tammy, Sister Sandy, and Sister Patty. And Sister Joyce. Did I do Joyce? Welcome, Joyce. Thank you. So we've got everybody that's in the room. We're just going to do a little extra Bible study today.

SPEAKER_03 1:59

The difference is I'm in the flesh today.

SPEAKER_01 2:01

You're in the flesh. All right. So here

Reading Malachi And The Priests

SPEAKER_01 2:10

we go. Let's just do a little Bible study. We the main thing is that we want you to be in the Word. And it's the simple discipleship that matters because it's good to be saved. It's good to say, you know, Jesus is my savior, but now we're we're we're developing into the image of Christ. And in that we need the word.

SPEAKER_02 2:28

Amen.

SPEAKER_01 2:29

Amen. All right. So if we look in the book of Malachi, the first chapter.

SPEAKER_03 2:36

Shall we read a little bit in chapter one?

SPEAKER_01 2:38

Is that we're going to do? We are going to read. Why don't you go ahead and start there, Brother Ernie? If you can you can you see that good?

SPEAKER_03 2:45

Yeah, I've got I've got the uh uh old King James here. I can get a new King James. I can Yeah, let's just do one through eight there just to kind of give a burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi. I have loved you, saith the Lord. Yet you say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother, saith the Lord? Yet I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness? Whereas Edom saith, We are impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places, thus saith the Lord of hosts. They shall build, but I will throw down, and they shall call them the border of wickedness, and the people against whom the Lord hath indignation forever. And your eyes shall see, and ye shall say, The Lord will be magnified from the border of Israel. A son honoreth his father, and a servant his master. If then I be a father, where is mine honor? And if I be a master, where is my fear, saith the Lord of hosts unto you? O priest that despise my name, and ye say, Wherein have we despised thy name? Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar.

SPEAKER_01 4:16

Oh well.

SPEAKER_03 4:17

And ye say, Wherein have we polluted thee? And in that ye say, The table of the Lord is contemptible. And ye if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? And if ye offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? Offer it now unto thy governor. Will he be pleased with thee or accept thy person? Saith the Lord of hosts.

SPEAKER_01 4:46

Oh my goodness. You know, so I read I read mainly the amplified. And so when I was reading this morning, we were when we read along, we're doing the Bible recap with Tar Lee Cobble. If you have not done that study, I recommend you go on to the Bible version and get that. And she reads it in the S E S V. And then I read along with it with my amplified. But one thing that stuck out to me here is when it in verse 8 here, when it says, when you priests, which in scripture in the New Testament, who are the priests?

SPEAKER_03 5:24

The saints of the living God.

SPEAKER_01 5:26

Saints of the living God.

SPEAKER_03 5:27

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 5:27

So when we when we see the word priest here, we know that this is pertaining to us. How are we bringing our offering to the Lord?

SPEAKER_03 5:37

Amen.

SPEAKER_01 5:38

Right? We no longer have the need for a physical priest, like a set-aside priest, to go before the Lord for us because of what Jesus did at his resurrection at the vow, the at the at the crucifixion when the the veil was torn. I mean, so we have access now to God directly. Amen. And so we have no need of having to go through a priest. And so we're named as the priest in the New Testament.

SPEAKER_03 6:07

Right. We are the chosen

Polluted Offerings And Real Worship

SPEAKER_03 6:10

generation that was prophesied in in Exodus 19. And Peter says it for us.

SPEAKER_01 6:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:15

We are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood and a holy nation.

SPEAKER_01 6:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:20

We're set apart to show forth the praises of him who has called us out of darkness into his marvelous light.

SPEAKER_01 6:29

Yeah, yeah. So when we see that in scripture, and then we come and we can put it here, and it says, But when you priests, us, offer the blind animals for sacrifice, is that not evil? And when you offer the lame and the sick, is that not evil? Present such a thing, a blind, a blind or a lame or a sick animal, now your governor in payment of your taxes, and see what do that to your governor, see what happens. But will you do that unto the Lord? So here's the thing when we bring our sacrifice, right? That's not everybody thinks when you say Malachi, they're thinking about just, oh, you're gonna do a money message. And that's not what Malachi is talking about right here.

SPEAKER_03 7:14

There's so much more to the book.

SPEAKER_01 7:16

There is so much more to it. But here, what is our offering that we bring unto the Lord? What about our worship?

SPEAKER_03 7:24

Amen. Amen. That's uh what we bring to the Lord is so important. Uh if you remember when God said, These are the things we're gonna use to build the tabernacle in the wilderness, Moses, he said we're gonna need gold. Yeah, we're gonna need silver, we're gonna need bronze or brass, we're gonna need scarlet, blue, purple, all those things are expensive, besides badger skins, which is not cost you a lot of money, but you got to go out and get it. So, and God says everyone that brings his offering to the tabernacle must bring it willingly. I'm telling you. The power of a gift is in the heart of the giver. Okay? I want to say that again. I want you to think about that. The power of the gift is in the heart of the giver. You know, my my wife and I have told our children many times, you don't have to get us anything on Mother's Day. You have to get us anything on Father's Day. Are you kidding? The way you guys do for us is really not necessary. Besides that, we're having a hard place to put these things now.

SPEAKER_01 8:46

Well, that's not my personal confession. That's good for you. My kids can bring me whatever they want.

SPEAKER_03 8:54

Okay, okay. But here's what I'm saying. When they ask, and they ask me personally, Dad, what do you want for Father's Day? I say, I'd like to see you. Yeah, I'd like to hear your voice. Yes, sir. I'd like to spend a minute with you. Now I'm a little more guilty about saying that because they have their own families. So if I tell them that now their fathers too, and and their fathers and and a mother, and so it it's a little more difficult to say that, but for me, the item is not near as important as the heart that brings it. But when you look at Mosaic law, what God is teaching through Moses is I want your best, whatever that is. Whatever it is. If the best is all I can do when I worship is clap my hands and I give that to God, God says, I receive that. I love that. But if I can clap my hands, but I said on them and say, I'm not gonna do, I'm not gonna look silly while everybody's clapping their hands. What do I want to raise my hands for? You know, I I I had a a guy

The Heart Behind Your Best

SPEAKER_03 10:10

making fun of the way that we worship. This was years ago, and he said, Yeah, you people, you talk in tongues, you run around, you shout, you did, you don't have to do all that to worship. God don't need all that. I say, Yeah, but he ain't scared of it. He ain't scared. You know, I mean, uh if you go to a ball game, and if you go to a ball game and you go to the right kind of ball game, like a Texas Rangers baseball game, yeah, yeah, and and the run scores for your team, everybody claps. Some people jump, jump, hey, hey, hey. But my life is not changed by that.

SPEAKER_01 10:48

Yeah. No.

SPEAKER_03 10:50

So the benefits of salvation start moving in my life. And you and so what? I say I'm not gonna clap for I'm not gonna clap for you, Jesus.

SPEAKER_00 11:02

Oh, no, no, no. Come on. That's being a lukewarm Christian to me. You know, you're not you're not on our fire for God. You're saying, you know my heart. I don't need to jump up and down and do all these things.

SPEAKER_03 11:18

That's only good if my heart is jumping up and down.

SPEAKER_02 11:21

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 11:22

If I'm feeling like, you know, I don't want to be foolish in my worship. I a friend of ours told us, he said, I'm gonna receive the Holy Ghost, but I'm not gonna be like you people. You, you, you people crazy. You act like you lose your. I'm intelligent, I'm not doing that. I said, God doesn't care about that. As long as you believe God, yeah, your worship is individual. He said, I just want you to know now I'm not going crazy.

SPEAKER_02 11:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 11:49

He said, okay. So we happened to be sitting behind him the night that he decided to go to the altar. And he was he he was not a tall man, he was short and lived that rounded out life. And he put one foot in the aisle and he took off running like a Tasmanian devil. And he came to a screeching halt like a cartoon character. And he threw his arms up and screamed, Here I am, God, come and get me. I never heard a prayer like that before or after. But you know, the next thing he did was start speaking in tongues.

SPEAKER_02 12:28

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:29

And then he was running around the building, jumping up and down, turning around, just like the Tasmanian devil in the cartoon, you know. And look, another guy, just I don't know, six or eight months before, maybe longer, he went down. A friend of mine, he went down and received the Holy Ghost. He went down the altar, he knelt down, he was praying there for a while, lifted up his head. He was speaking in other tongues, and he was just deep in the but he was not that guy that runs around, that wasn't him. But he wasn't withholding anything.

SPEAKER_02 13:08

Right, right.

SPEAKER_03 13:09

He was pouring out himself. Yeah, this is all God is asking. Pour out your genuine self. When you talk about bringing the lame offering, tell me about the Passover lamb.

SPEAKER_01 13:22

Well, the Passover lamb was without spot or blemish, and it definitely wasn't lame. It definitely wasn't lame. It had to be perfect.

SPEAKER_03 13:31

No spot, no blemish. Because of what the lamb represented. It represented the sinless, substitutionary sacrifice that would be Jesus. So bring me the perfect lamb. And from the beginning, it you know, the tithe is the first fruits, the best part

Showing Up Prepared And On Time

SPEAKER_03 13:55

of your crop.

SPEAKER_01 13:56

Yeah, that's my point, is is I think we overlook that part about the first fruit, because if we just come in on say Sunday morning, that's usually, you know, when everybody will come to church. If we're gonna get them, they'll come on Sunday morning. They're not gonna probably come back on Sunday night, and you might not get all of them back on Wednesday night. But say it's Mother's Day, you're gonna get a lot of them, right?

SPEAKER_02 14:19

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 14:19

But here's my here's my thing for those people who are who do go to church every Sunday, okay? It's not the Lord's fault that you stayed up too late on Saturday night, right? And then you and then you come up in into the Lord's house tired, you're worn out, late, and you're well. No, no, seriously. That's my point. And my point is if we need to be serious with the Lord, because listen what the Lord said, I'm not taking your offering like that. Amen. I'm not taking that from the priest. The priest is no longer gonna offer these lame, blind.

SPEAKER_03 15:01

You're supposed to be bringing the best.

SPEAKER_01 15:03

You bring your very best to him. And then I think that we lose that. I know that we've gotten more lax, not you and mama, because y'all always look good when y'all go in the house of the Lord. But I know we've become more lax as we've been in like cowboy churches or country churches like we're in right now. And we don't have to like wear the hats and the suits and all that. Nobody does. Well, it doesn't make your worship. It doesn't, but here's my point is if the Lord is requiring that of you, and he's saying this in the word, we need to be responsible for bringing the Lord our very best to him. When we bring our offering of praise, when we bring our offering of of just our time and our talents, we should give the Lord our very best that we have to give.

SPEAKER_03 15:51

This this is something that's sooner or later people are late. But how often were you late to work? You done let it happen.

SPEAKER_01 16:00

You done be fired.

SPEAKER_03 16:02

But you say, well, I'll I'll be late to the house of God. Okay, at work you're earning a living. Who gave you the ability to earn that living? Yeah, the Lord.

SPEAKER_02 16:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:12

Who opened the door so you could have that job? The Lord. And you think to yourself, I'm not gonna be late. But when it comes to church, you know, you done be ridden up. We we listen, we we had a couple break out singing on Sunday morning. Somebody came in late. Oh, when the saints come dragon in. Oh, when the saints come drag in. It's a small enough church where people love each other enough that nobody got offended. Yeah, but at the same time, yeah, we're reminding ourselves. Yes, not just them, we're reminding

Why The Altar Moment Matters

SPEAKER_03 16:55

ourselves. Yeah, let's give God the respect. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:58

And our Sunday at church, there was a woman sitting in front of us, and she got up to leave right before the invitation, and the pastor called her out. I don't know. He did it jokingly, but he said, I must have scared her enough that she's running out the door.

SPEAKER_01 17:19

But here's the thing, isn't the whole service? Yeah, here's where I here's where it gets me to. I say the same thing to Audia, is is your the whole service. You came in, you offered praise, you offered worship, you gave your offering, you know, your for the week, you and then you've gotten this tremendous word, and then you come to the altar call, and all of a sudden people get up and start leaving, or they open the back door and let the kids start coming in and all this. And here's my point that's the most important part of the whole service. And you know, here is the less reverent of all of it.

SPEAKER_03 18:00

Here's the crazy thing there is no altar call per se in the New Testament, but we have example in the Old Testament. You a weep between the porch and the altar.

SPEAKER_01 18:11

Yes, between the porch and the altar.

SPEAKER_03 18:13

We have that example, you humble yourself before God. David went and sat before the ark and humbled himself, you know. And and Solomon went before the temple and and he stood there on this huge platform and turned around in front of all Israel and fell on his knees to God.

SPEAKER_01 18:31

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 18:32

So there is a good the altar caller is a good idea. And what it does is it gives people a chance to reflect on self and then to encourage one another. Because when you're in the pew, you it's rude to be talking over the preacher.

SPEAKER_02 18:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:51

But when you're praying together in the altar, yeah, brother, could you pray with me? Sister, could you pray with me? I'm I'm feeling this. You start sharing your burdens, people start sharing their burdens with you. You start seeking the Lord. You know, oh man, I need the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Hey, let's pray, you know. Let's do it. But yes, altar service is we've made it. It has to go beyond tradition. We've made it tradition. It has to go past being a tradition to being the place of encounter.

SPEAKER_01 19:28

Yeah, an encounter. That's my point. That's why it's so important. If a person has been convicted throughout the whole service, the last thing that we need to do is disrupt that time that they may come and say, you know, you know, whatever.

SPEAKER_03 19:44

Because you know, it's just the the So then this kind of teaching is really not for the visitors who are coming to church. They're not for our guests. Our guests that have come to find out do I want to be a part of this church? Do I want to know more about these people in their faith? No, no, this is not for them. This is for when the regular attendees, the regular members who are this is teaching for them. Don't take the Lord for granted.

SPEAKER_01 20:14

Yes. Yeah, that's the point.

SPEAKER_03 20:16

Don't do that.

SPEAKER_01 20:17

That's the point, is that we're giving him our leftovers because I'm tired, because I don't feel good, my shoes hurt my feet. My shoes hurt my feet so bad on Sunday because we had to do a promo, so I had like my boots on, and I can't wear them. I don't know why I got them shoes. I need some Dr. Shows or something, but they were gonna be on on the camera. So I was like, okay, look cute for you know five minutes and then we're gonna change our shoes. So anyway, but my thing was even, and you know this, even when I was on a walker for seven years, yes, I would stand up on my walker to praise the Lord there because it was necessary for me, because I could.

SPEAKER_03 20:58

That's a great that's a great point.

Don’t Judge Someone Else’s Best

SPEAKER_03 21:00

I I heard a wise man talking to us about worship at church. He said, You're the pastor. And obviously, we're talking about a holy roller church.

SPEAKER_01 21:10

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:10

Everybody's worshiping God, and you see there's a few people out there just sitting. And so you get up and you just give it to them. And the guy who's not clapping, what you don't understand, is he has rheumatoid arthritis in both hands.

SPEAKER_01 21:26

Yeah, but I'm the guy that's not dancing, I know rheumatoid arthritis, it irritates the crap out of me.

SPEAKER_03 21:33

The point that I'm making is what someone's best is not always easy to see looking at them judging.

SPEAKER_01 21:41

Yeah. I tell you what, if I know them though.

SPEAKER_03 21:44

There there's times mama and I simply do not stand in church.

SPEAKER_01 21:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:48

When we were younger, you you couldn't get us in our seats.

SPEAKER_00 21:53

Yeah, maybe.

SPEAKER_03 21:54

But but as we have aged, that's age is different. Some something has happened and and You know, I I tell mama sometimes when we're having our devotion, I'll tell her, you know, I'm just my heart is dancing all over the room.

SPEAKER_01 22:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 22:07

It it really is. So what we want to do, this kind of teaching is necessary. It's great. It's better talking about it like this, really. But it's it's not something to be done when you have people in the church who are trying to discover whether or not I want to be a Christian. Yeah. It has to be done among those who have already made the decision.

SPEAKER_01 22:32

That's it. That's the part of the simple discipleship that we're teaching.

SPEAKER_03 22:36

That is that is that part of discipleship where we learn to put Jesus first and to give him our best. My father-in-law and I, one day we're working on a little church and was getting some stuff. We went out and get this wheelbarrow and gonna fill it full of tools and things. And the tire was flat. Couldn't use it. And it was kind of dinged up and banged up. And Dad got a little upset. He said, I'll never do that again. Do what, Dad? He said, I'll never give anything used to the church. I gave this wheelbarrow. And it was used. And look at it. Next time I'll give a brand new one. His idea was I gave something to the church that isn't even useful. And he was convicted over it.

SPEAKER_01 23:36

That's a good conviction.

SPEAKER_03 23:37

And and you know, I walked away from there thinking, I I tell my wife often, I aspire to have the kind of integrity that man had.

SPEAKER_02 23:54

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 23:55

And and I think what you're talking about here, and what what God is saying through the prophet Malachi is you're bringing me your leftovers.

unknown 24:05

Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 24:07

Scraggly old sheep limping up in here, you know. This and I'm limping too.

SPEAKER_03 24:13

So I mean, what what happened to no, but the point is, it's a gift for God. My wife would tell you for years I don't like giving gifts. I'd rather give you a check.

SPEAKER_01 24:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 24:26

I'd rather give you cash. I take so so that I know that you're gonna go get something that you value, that you want. And I I I'd given a few gifts growing up that didn't go over well. And from then on, I just had a tough time with that.

SPEAKER_01 24:40

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 24:41

And and I give my wife flowers every payday. One day she got mad at me. She said, You're causing problems on my job. You send me flowers, people fussing and fighting because I get flowers. And then she said, Why don't you give me those fake flowers? Because these flowers, we spend the money on them, and I have them three days, six days, ten days, whatever, they're gone. Yeah. But those fake flowers, they know they look fake to you, and but but they're pretty and they last. So what you bring to God needs to be your best, whatever that is. That's why you need to be careful about how you judge other people's gifts. That might be their very best.

SPEAKER_01 25:32

Jesus said that.

SPEAKER_03 25:33

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 25:33

When he was watching them.

SPEAKER_03 25:35

Said the widow put in two mites.

SPEAKER_01 25:37

Two mites.

SPEAKER_03 25:38

And she gave more than anybody else because she she she didn't she gave more than her best. She gave all her living.

SPEAKER_01 25:45

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 25:46

So this person may not put as much money in the offering as that other person. And this person's Sunday best might not look like my suit. So you got to be careful what you say to people. Because Jesus is looking at them like, you brought me your best. I love that. And you're making fun of what Jesus approves of.

unknown 26:07

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 26:08

You start picking on the bride,

Firstfruits And Self Examination

SPEAKER_03 26:10

the groom is not going to like it.

SPEAKER_01 26:11

Right. But the challenge is with this, as we're wrapping this up today, is as a person who's following Jesus, who is becoming a disciple of Jesus, who carries the role of a priest in his eyes, right? The challenge is to say, within each one of us, not us judging anybody else in the room.

SPEAKER_03 26:37

That's real key. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 26:38

Yeah, but us judging ourselves to say, is what I'm offering to the Lord, whether it's my time, whether it's my talent, whether it's my money, or whether it is my praise, is it my best? Is it my first, which is my best? Is that what I'm truly offering unto the Lord? Or am I giving him my scraps and my leftover?

SPEAKER_03 27:06

You know, God didn't give us an impure sacrifice.

SPEAKER_01 27:15

That's right. He gave it.

SPEAKER_03 27:17

God didn't give us the second best. The scripture says God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself. So it's not like God sat up on the throne and and looked at somebody and said, You be the son, you go suffer. God was in Christ.

SPEAKER_01 27:35

In Christ, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 27:36

Imparting himself on our behalf.

unknown 27:41

Wow. Wow.

SPEAKER_03 27:42

So what what what should we give him? Can we ever pay him the debt we owe?

unknown 27:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 27:50

Only by coming from the core of our existence with genuine love and gratitude. That's the only hope we have.

SPEAKER_01 27:59

Right.

Closing Blessing And How To Respond

SPEAKER_01 28:00

Praise God. Praise God. What a great, what a great uh podcast today. And we thank you so much for joining us. We're gonna end with our slogan as we always do, to go show some love, show some love show some compassion, give mercy, and go be Jesus today. Hey STU family. If you have enjoyed this podcast today, would you please like, follow, and share our podcast link? And we would love to hear your feedback and your podcast topic suggestions. To do that, simply go to our website at www.m3mi.org, scroll to the more tab, and select contact us. Also, if this to you has been a blessing to you, you can also give it to our website and select so we'll see. There are several ways that you can give whether it's in this interest in the children. Thank you for someone that's for some. Thank you for sending this thing with the people.