Tim McAllister [00:00:00]:
So the last time I was here, the you're blessed. Because if you remember the last time I was here, I was I managed to craft in, one of my favorite literary heroes, Charlie Brown. And I'm gonna do it again tonight. Okay? I actually I like Charlie Brown so much that I've got a a day by day calendar of Charlie Brown. Oh, John Brown. And pastor Jeff and I were earlier looking at some of them, and they really are funny. But but there was one particular one here. So how to put this? First of all, how many of you, especially the guys, how many of you are glad that Valentine's Day is in our rearview mirror? Okay.

Tim McAllister [00:00:49]:
I am. Personally, I am. But the Charlie Brown calendar says that February is the month of love. It's the whole month. It's not just a day. So we're gonna work off a Charlie Brown here. Okay? With that said, how many of you thinking back, and probably the women would remember this better than the men, how many of you have a vivid memory of of a Valentine's Day? Just one. Okay? Derwin does.

Tim McAllister [00:01:28]:
Of course, Derwin would. At all. Many? Really? Okay. So, I mean, I'm I'm told that it is, one of the most popular days of the year to propose. Okay? That's what I'm told, anyway. I actually do have, one memory of Valentine's Day. So and it it was back when I was in grade school. So I I remember the very first girl that caught my eye.

Tim McAllister [00:02:01]:
And up until then, it's just boys, boys, boys, boys, boys. And her name was Bonnie. So I went to my older sister. My older sister, being so wise and and knowledgeable, all of 13 years old, I asked her. I told her, hey. I think that I like this girl, Bonnie. And my infinitely wise sister then told me as a nine year old boy, well, you know what you need to do then. You need to let her know that you like her.

Tim McAllister [00:02:33]:
I'm nine. I have no idea how to do that. So but I decided, hey. You know, I am going to take my sister's advice because she obviously has all this experience, so I'm going to let her know that I like her. My solution to that was I threw rocks at her. Kenneth, I was nine. Come on. Give me a break.

Tim McAllister [00:03:01]:
But in my defense, I didn't throw rocks at any other girls. I just threw them at her. Now she also threw rocks back at me. And and some of you justifiably are probably thinking, well, she's probably defending herself. Except back in the day, back when I was nine, this was a long time ago, in elementary school and some of you might remember. I don't know if they still do this. But in elementary school, you know, you had those little brown paper bags that you would have for lunch. And so everyone had to decorate one of those, had to decorate it in class, and you would tack that onto the little rail that was underneath the blackboard that went around the class.

Tim McAllister [00:03:46]:
That tells you how long ago this was. We had blackboards back then. And then on Valentine's Day, everyone in your class, you had to it didn't matter if you liked the person or not. That wasn't an option. You had to put a Valentine in each and every bag. I mean, even if you, you know, despise them. But I and I was smart. I'm nine.

Tim McAllister [00:04:11]:
I'm smart. I take two Valentine's and I put them in Bonnie's bag. And I also had one of those little boxes, I think we're gonna show a picture, of of those little hard heart shaped candies that would have messages on them. I had one of those little you know, those things that taste like medicine. That's what they taste like. Come on. So I took one of those little boxes and I put it in her bag. Bonnie gave me two Valentine's too.

Tim McAllister [00:04:44]:
And I went, ah, my first romance, nine. The story goes, I go home that night and I've got all these Valentine cards. And I put them in my, I'm sharing a bedroom with my younger brother. He's a year younger than me. I put him in the closet, and my younger brother is upset. He's a baby of the family. So he's used to everything going his way. And he counted the cards and he figured out I had more cards than he did.

Tim McAllister [00:05:16]:
He's eight. He hasn't figured out that, oh, Tim's got more people in his class. My younger brother then, because he's jealous, lights all of them on fire inside the bedroom closet. Kids don't do that. So I I didn't get to keep the cards. They were all burnt. But the good news of that was, my brother, by the time my parents were done with him, I am absolutely convinced that his backside was on fire. So that was the good news.

Tim McAllister [00:05:53]:
I I still tell him, I probably am about that still today. I bring this up because last week, for Valentine's week, I went to the store, like so many of us. And I'm walking through the store. What am I gonna do? What am I gonna do? And I was walking through the aisle with all the Valentine's Day junk, and things things, gifts, not junk. And and I saw a bag of those horrible candies, that were you know, they they still make them. And they were selling them and everything. And and it was the memory of seeing those candies that prompted my memory of that Valentine's Day. There they are.

Tim McAllister [00:06:39]:
Yeah. Makes you hungry, doesn't it? But it also prompted me to start thinking. What would it be if if god were to put a message on one of those? What would that message be? Alright? Some of these things are really stupid, and some of them are silly. But I I really can't see any of them being God's message to us. Okay? I mean, you have, like, cutie pie there, love bug, puppy love, text me. Some get a little bit closer. You know, they have, like, soulmate or forever or I and then the heart heart you thing. But still, I just can't see any of those being God's message to us.

Tim McAllister [00:07:34]:
I think if God were to make these candies and put a message on them, it would be the exact same one that they put on them when these things were invented back in nineteen o two. And that message was, be mine. That would be God's message to us. Be mine. God's message for you today is be mine. That will be his message for you tomorrow. That will be his message for you the next day after the next week, the next year. For the rest of your life, God's message to you is going to and will always be be mine.

Tim McAllister [00:08:15]:
Alright? So your notes that those of you who are here, those of you who are aligned, your notes look exactly like the notes here tonight. They're blank. So I'm gonna ask you to to write down a couple things. But first, I'm gonna ask you to write down, the line of scripture that we're going to get into tonight. We're gonna get into Malachi three verses 16 through 17. I'm a firm believer that if I read something, I'm gonna forget it. If I hear something, I'm going to forget it. If I write something, there's a good chance I'm gonna remember it.

Tim McAllister [00:08:48]:
So, we're gonna do some writing here tonight. So Malachi three verses 16 through 17. So write that on your note thing, and we'll eventually show that screen. Screen. If we're showing it now, we're gonna take it down, and then we'll show it again in a minute. Because before we get into that scripture, we need to set the scene for you. Okay? I assume all of you understand, what's going on in Malachi, but just in case if someone's watching online and they don't, I'm gonna clarify it for you. So the book of Malachi, if you go through it, the book of Malachi is the very last book in the Old Testament.

Tim McAllister [00:09:26]:
Okay? It was written around April. It's reading the the Bible, my favorite way is to read it chronologically, and it's always the very last one in the in the book of the Old Testament. After Malachi, there would be over four hundred years of silence. The next prophet that would follow Malachi was John the John the Baptist. Okay? So that's what's going on. Malachi, at this time at at this point in time, the Israelites, were in trouble. They were always in trouble, seems like. But Malachi was God's prophet to Jerusalem.

Tim McAllister [00:10:09]:
And his words, what he wrote and what he talked about was to remind the Jews that they were God's chosen nation and of their willful disobedience beginning with the priest and then including every single person, that they had shown contempt for God's name, offered false worship, led others into sin, broken god's laws, called evil good, kept god's tithes and offering to themselves, and had become arrogant. Couple thousand years later, some things never changed. Does it? The book of Malachi, it is not a oh, I feel good about this book. But it is a book that paints a stunning picture of Israel's unfaithfulness that clearly shows that the people are worthy of punishment. But woven all throughout that message is a message of hope, the possibility of forgiveness of God's continued desire for those that he loves to be his. So if you would, everyone stand up. We're gonna read that line of scripture here. We'll get it up there so as we don't have it in your notes.

Tim McAllister [00:11:31]:
And we'll begin. Then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord listened and heard them. So a book of remembrance was written before him for those who fear the Lord and and who meditate on his name, they shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, on that day that I make them my jewels, and I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him. So before you sit down, turn to your neighbor, left or right, doesn't matter to me, and tell them God wants you to be his. Alright. There's one other verse that I want you to write down. We're not gonna show it, but it would be beneficial for you if you wrote down and read the very next verse after that. It closes up that chapter, Malachi three verse 18.

Tim McAllister [00:12:34]:
It will show you the, a promise and consequences type of thing. So, just keep that on. So what you got happening here is God is speaking to people who were outcasts. They're outcasts at this point. They had chosen to disobey. They had chose not to walk in a relationship with god, and they had gotten in all sorts of trouble. Okay? Really serious trouble. Sound familiar? And, yeah, God still sends them a message through the prophet Malachi.

Tim McAllister [00:13:14]:
God says, be mine. Now that's not a command. Be mine is a request. Be mine requires free will. Love requires free will. God gives you an invitation today and every day to be mine. God loves you, and he wants you to decide to be his. In scripture, so just write down little bits of this.

Tim McAllister [00:13:48]:
So I'm not gonna give you the lines. I'm just gonna tell you the little bits about what God calls you, and you can look them up in the Bible. In scripture, God calls you the apple of his eye. Scripture declares that his love is as high and great as the heavens. Jesus says, the numbers of your hair on your head are numbered, and he rejoices over you with singing. Over and over and over again in scripture, God's invited us, be mine. But what happens? What happens when love given is not received? This is one of the, you know, if you read books, this is one of the greatest, some of us do. One of the greatest recurring concepts, in history.

Tim McAllister [00:14:49]:
It's in the themes of basically all story. Well, not all, but a lot of them. It is called unrequited love. Alright? Unrequented love is in a nutshell. It is love that is not reciprocated even if reciprocation is desired. Unrequented love is any love that is not returned in the same degree as it is given. Think about some of these authors and some of the stuff that they wrote. Shakespeare, Hemingway, Dickens.

Tim McAllister [00:15:27]:
Many of their stories, many of the stories they treat anywhere, many of them feature unrequited love. You can I don't know if you can pick up a book, but you can hardly pick up a book, that a book, go watch a movie, see a television show, read a magazine that somehow doesn't have unrequited love as part of it? Phantom of the Opera, Gone with the Wind, Don Quixote, even a classic like The Little Mermaid has unrequited love. And there is even unrequented love in Peanuts. See, I told you I'd get Peanuts into this. And that would be between Lucy and Schroeder. Lucy and her would be love Schroeder who cannot pull himself away from that tiny little piano. Now all of us, we should be very familiar with the theme of love, given but not received, because we see it all throughout the bible. And, really, we see it all throughout our lives.

Tim McAllister [00:16:41]:
God, out of love, creates Adam and Eve. God gives them everything that they could ever need and ask them, be mine, by asking them to do one simple thing. Don't eat from the tree of knowledge. God continues to speak to man and gives them a way to have a relationship with him. But men become so evil that eventually, God has to send the flood. That's reset. God then delivers disobedient slaves from Egypt and blesses them with wealth, health, freedom, and commands to live a blessed life in their own land. And how do they repay? They complain about God and they complain about their leaders that he's placed in their lives.

Tim McAllister [00:17:45]:
The entire breadth of the Bible, this story continues. We see it in the books of Joshua. We see it see it in Judges. We see it in Samuel and on and on and on, all the way to the death and crucifixion of Jesus Christ. And it continues in our lives. The Bible is our story. The story of God giving love and us choosing to not return it like we should. The Bible is one long story of unrequented love.

Tim McAllister [00:18:28]:
And yet God still returns to us time and time again and invites us, be mine. Now some of you, if I was in the sermon right now, would go, that is the fastest he's ever gotten up there and talked. And you would be thankful for the brevity of it. And some of you could, you'd be walking away thinking, hey. You know, that was kind of fun. I learned a little bit about Charlie Brown. I learned about Be Mine. Just one problem, and it's my problem.

Tim McAllister [00:19:05]:
My problem is that I have a very particular dislike for messages that do not deliver a truth to those who are listening. Sometimes, the truth that is delivered is a hard truth. So here's the truth. The truth is you can be a Christian your entire life and not understand, be mine. And the reason you don't understand it is because the most that you have to offer is what's called needed love. But true love, otherwise known as gift love, is something that you do not ever offer. What do I mean by that? So write that down. Gift love, needed love.

Tim McAllister [00:20:06]:
Okay? So I don't just get all my my wisdom from Charlie Brown, and covenant and Hobbes. I'm a fan of C. S. Lewis. C. S. Lewis wrote, that there are two types of one, of love. Sorry.

Tim McAllister [00:20:22]:
Two types of love. One, C. S. Lewis referred to as needed love and the other he referred to as gift love. Needed love is the most common type of love in the world. It is a mortal and human concept of love. I love you because. I love you because you provide for me.

Tim McAllister [00:20:46]:
I love you because you support me. I love you because you meet my needs. I love you because you love me. Lewis wrote that when we say I love you, what we really mean is I need you, I want you, you add value to my life until you don't. Now in contrast to that, Lewis describes that gift love is to enrich and to enhance the person whom it loves. It does not require anything at all in return, nor does it hold any requirements to give the love. To quote Lewis, gift love moves out to bless and to increase rather than to acquire or to diminish. Gift love is more like a bountiful artesian well that continues to overflow than a vacuum or a black hole.

Tim McAllister [00:21:55]:
This is what god's love is all about. God's love is gift love. It's unneeded love. And this, of course, if you wanted to define unconditional love, c s Lewis just did it for you. So what does gift love look like? Gift love, gift love is a food pantry. Give without expecting anything in return. Do it with no requirements and no expectations. Gift love would be our missions.

Tim McAllister [00:22:31]:
When we go to The Philippines, when we go to Indonesia, when we go to China, when we go to Japan, when we go to Myanmar, We expect nothing in return. We gift expecting nothing back. Those would be physical examples of it. And if I had to explain it to you, I would botch it, something horribly. But I did read an article sometime back, that reveals this way better than any way that I could possibly do it. And the article was in a magazine, and it was about this missionary who was in The Middle East, and he was recounting his very first days there. He had recently arrived in The Middle East, and he had been invited to meet with some very influential men in the community. We all know when I'm saying Middle East, then I'm talking about Muslims.

Tim McAllister [00:23:27]:
So he was instructed by people who set up the meeting, you gotta be really careful. We cannot guarantee your safety if they get angry. They could declare you a blasphemer and have you killed. Missionary thought about it. And he said, yep. I'm still gonna go on this meeting. This is why I'm here. I'm going on this meeting.

Tim McAllister [00:23:49]:
So in this meeting, the men ask him about God. And the missionary says to them, I believe the best way to know God is to know Jesus, because Jesus is God come to earth. Well, that did it. Every man in that meeting stood up. They started pointing. They started raising their voices. They were yelling. The new missionary, he didn't understand the words that they were saying, but he didn't have to understand the words that they were saying.

Tim McAllister [00:24:26]:
He knew they were angry and they were livid with him, and that his days as a missionary seemed to be really numbered. That was until one man quieted them all down and told them, let the man explain. All the men quieted down. And the man looked at the missionary and he said, why do you think such a big and powerful God would become a man? Why would you think that? The missionary said, imagine you love a woman. You tell her how much she means to you and you ask her to be your wife. And after you have conveyed how much you feel for her, she says no. Now you could decide to go find someone else to fall in love with, but you have decided that you really do love this woman. So instead of walking away, you decide to continue pursuing her.

Tim McAllister [00:25:42]:
The missionary asked the man who had quieted them all down, but how do you pursue love? Would you use your strength and power to abuse the woman you love in order to force her to love you and to say yes to your marriage proposal? At this, the Muslim man shook his head, no, that's not how you would do that. So the missionary continued. Of course not. You would serve her. You would give her gifts. You would meet her needs. You would show her your love again and again and again to try and win her affection. Because of your love, you would be willing to become lesser, smaller, a servant for her.

Tim McAllister [00:26:35]:
You would even be willing to suffer pain for her. And if it required it, you would be willing to die for her in your pursuit of her love. A heart. Yes, sweetie? She's cute. Yeah? The man, the Muslim man I'm sidetracked. The Muslim man nodded his head in agreement with the missionary. So the missionary then continued. God loves us, but we have told God no.

Tim McAllister [00:27:11]:
But God really loves us. So he's pursued us with love. He does not use his strength and power to abuse us until we decide to say yes. Instead, God shows us how much he loves us in hope that we will say yes. God became a servant to pursue us in love. God experienced pain to show us the depth of his love. God became a man so that he would could pursue us with love. At this, that man started to raise his voice, got all pointing at him and standing and talking really loud to the missionary.

Tim McAllister [00:28:02]:
And again, the missionary doesn't really know what's going on, but he's like, that cannot possibly be good. But the translator the translator who's translating all this tells him, relax. He believes you. He says, I believe this man. Be mine. God invites you to be mine. Now I told you earlier that there's truth and there's sometimes a hard truth. The truth is God has told us that he loves us.

Tim McAllister [00:28:43]:
The hard truth is most of us don't care. And for those of us who do, we are much more like those that Malachi talked to than those that shouldn't. We frequently do not return his love with our thoughts, our desires, our actions, or our choices, or even our words. But because God really loves us, he continues to pursue us. This is what the gospel is. Even if you have been telling God no, he continues to pursue you with his love. No matter what your sin is, God invites you to be his. As my peanuts calendar here points out, February is the month of love.

Tim McAllister [00:29:49]:
So before this month is over, each and every one of you take some time to evaluate the depth of your commitment, the sincerity of your worship, and the direction of your life. Reciprocate his love, and then allow God to restore your relationship with him through his love and forgiveness and accept his invitation to be mine. And I promise each and every one of you, he does not throw rocks. If you are here today, if you're watching online and you have never taken God's invitation to be mine, or if you have taken it, but you've kinda sidetracked yourself or you want to reaffirm that, this month, let us reaffirm that. If you've never done it and you are here, we have a gift bag back there in the back for you. But if you want that relationship with God, if you want to be his and not yours, this is the way we do it. If everyone here would join me in prayer, this is how we do it. Heavenly father, with a humble heart, I surrender myself completely to you, asking that you make me fully yours, guide my steps, shade my thoughts, and align my desires with your will.

Tim McAllister [00:31:28]:
May I be a vessel of your love, reflecting your light in all that I do. In your loving hands, I trust my life and pray to be entirely yours in every way. And all God's people say, amen, amen. Hey guys, thanks for having me tonight.