“God Hears Our Conversations”

Malachi 3:16
Tuesday Bible Lunch
August 7, 2018

Introduction: One of the helpful things I do is read daily devotional books. Each year I decide which
devotional book I will use. Some years it will be the same devotional book. Some years it will be a
devotional book I used a previous year. Some years I will add a devotional book during the year. This
happened to me this year. Jimmy Herweck gave me a devotional book some months ago that I have
really been blessed using. Some days the devotional thought does not connect. Many days I am amazed
how a devotional thought is just what I need. This happened to me yesterday.

I read my devotional yesterday in Dr. Kendall’s daily devotional readings. The title of the devotional was
“The Eavesdropping God.” The idea of the devotional was that God eavesdrops on what we say based
on Malachi 3:16.

Text: Malachi 3:16

Malachi the man:

• We know nothing about Malachi the man.

• He does not give his father’s name as prophets usually did.

• Malachi was concerned about being faithful, not being famous.

Background of the book of Malachi:

• Malachi was a prophet to the Jewish people about 400 years before Christ.

• The nation was far from God, the people were backslidden, and the priest were worldly.

• Because the promised kingdom did not come immediately, the Jews questioned God’s love and
complained about the way He was treating His chosen people.

Malachi Outline:

1. God questions their love (1:1-5).

2. God condemns their sins (1:6-2:17).

• Despising His Name (1:6-14)

• Profaning His covenant (2:1-17)

 3. God seeks their repentance (3:1-4:6).

Text: 3:7, 14, 16

Question: What does it mean to fear the LORD?

Answer: It means to respect God’s ways as revealed in His word so that you choose His opinion over
anyone else.

Life Lessons from the text:

1. When those who fear God to each other, God hears.

• Day and night God hears what we say to those who fear Him.

• Understanding this will affect what you say.

Application: As you talk to people who “Fear Him” God hears your conversation and turns your
conversations into prayers. Hearing the prayers, God will answer appropriately.

2. Knowing this, we should choose to spend time with people who fear God.

• Have as many friends as you can who fear God.

• Having friends who fear God.

• Having friends who fear God will save you a lot of trouble.

3. When you share your deepest thoughts with a person who fears God, God’s heart is touched.

• God hears the conversations as prayers.

• God answers the prayers appropriately.

Conclusion: I had this very experience over the weekend. I can’t give the details, but I can give the “big
picture.” I received a text from someone who fears the Lord about somewhere they were going. I
responded saying that was a place I had always wanted to go. I ended my text saying “Enjoy” which I
thought was just good manners. It was not only good manners, but what I had said was the truth. It was
a place I had always wanted to go. As Paul Harvey used to say: “And now the rest of the story.”

The following day I received a text saying that for some reason they did not understand that they
wanted to take me to the place and would be sending me some dates to choose from. The whole thing
“blew my mind” until I read Kendall’s devotional yesterday. I had texted a person who “fears the LORD”
and God had turned my conversation into a prayer. God knew about my text and turned it into a prayer.
God answered the prayer beyond anything I would have thought.

Dr. Kendall is right. God does “Eavesdrop” when we talk to another person who fears Him. It is
somewhat like it used to be when we had “party lines.” Those of us 70 and up remember when we did
not have private phone lines. We shared lines with other people. Sometimes they would listen in to get
the gossip. God listens in not to get the gossip, but to hear the conversation. God turns the conversation
into a prayer and answers it for His glory and our good!