Sermon Cloud

April 27, 2008

Garfield Community Church

God's Burglar Alarm is Sounding

Psalm 24:1-5

Have you ever been robbed? You can be robbed of different things. You can be robbed of love, appreciation, and respect. You can be robbed of your material possessions. You can be robbed of your time with your family and friends. You know being robbed of something makes you feel horrible. You feel like you've been socked right in the gut.

A number of years ago Kelly and I had a computer consulting and service company. We were a small company and didn't have a lot of money or resources. We had an alarm in our store front. I remember one night I got a call from the alarm company. Our burglar alarm was going off. The sensor by the back door had been tripped and the deputies were on the way. I was twice as far from the shop as the deputies were, but I got there at the same time they did. Nothing looked odd in front or around back. After I opened the door, the deputies went in and checked the whole shop. Nothing was out of place. Nothing was missing. We found the culprit. A spider had crawled across the face of the motion sensor in the back hall facing the back door. I have to tell you my gut ached the whole way while I drove to the shop and while the deputies checked everything out. However, it didn't ache anywhere near as much as when I found out one of my employees was stealing parts and cash from us. That was even worse. You know you just feel sick when you are being robbed. It really makes you feel sick when it's somebody you love. Have you ever seen the face of a mom or a dad who have been robbed by one of their kids so they could buy drugs. It's terrible. There's a loss that is almost unfathomable.

Did you know that God is being robbed every moment of every day. It's impossible to comprehend the pain and hurt He is experiencing.

Turn to Psalm 24:1-5.

 1 The earth is the LORD’s, and all its fullness,
         The world and those who dwell therein.
 2 For He has founded it upon the seas,
         And established it upon the waters.
         
 3 Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD?
         Or who may stand in His holy place?
 4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
         Who has not lifted up his soul to an idol,
         Nor sworn deceitfully.
 5 He shall receive blessing from the LORD,
         And righteousness from the God of his salvation.

God is being robbed of the opportunity to bless us.

God wants to bless us. He wants to bestow rich blessings upon us. The earth is the Lord's. Everything was created by God. He wants to share it with us! He wants to bless us. He doesn't want to see us toiling day in and day out trying to eke out a meager living and just making it day to day in some horrible existence where we continue to wait for something bad to happen. He wants us to live in victory.

Do you remember the cartoon “The Flintstones”? There was a character on it later on in the series whose name was Schleprock. He was a real “woe is me” kind if guy. He walked around in defeat. If something bad was going to happen, it was going to happen to him and he was sure of it.

How do we live in victory and allow the Lord to bless us? Well, King David tells us right here in this psalm. We need to have and do a few things. We must have clean hands and a pure heart. In other words, we must be blameless. We must not have the dirt of unrepentance on our hands. Our motives must be righteous. The reason we do what we do must be to praise the Lord. Our actions and the reasons behind them must be pleasing to God. If you are volunteering at the food bank for recognition, that's not a pure heart. It's self seeking. If you're remaining unrepentant over sin in your life, that's being dirty. That's not having clean hands. Your sin is more important than God. Verse 4 goes on to say you can't have lifted up your soul to an idol or sworn deceitfully. There are many idols all around us: television, sports, activities, ministries, shopping, and the list goes on and on. When these come before God, we are lifting our souls up to an idol. When we swear deceitfully we're lying. We are saying what needs to be said to get the outcome we desire. Notice I said, “what we desire”. It's selfishness.

However the person that does have clean hands, a pure heart, and has not lifted his soul up to an idol, and not sworn deceitfully verse 5 says that he shall receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. Did you catch that? We don't have to be perfect. We need to blameless. We need to confess our sins to God, and look to Him. We need to do what we do for His glory. With this we are blessed.

If you aren't receiving God's blessing, are you living with integrity and ethics? Or, are you living in hypocrisy? Are you living selfishly? God will not bless those living in hypocrisy or selfishly.

    8 “ Will a man rob God?
      Yet you have robbed Me!
      But you say,

      ‘ In what way have we robbed You?’
      In tithes and offerings.
       9 You are cursed with a curse,
      For you have robbed Me,
      Even this whole nation.
       10 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse,
      That there may be food in My house,
      And try Me now in this,”
      Says the LORD of hosts,

      “ If I will not open for you the windows of heaven
      And pour out for you such blessing
      That there will not be room enough to receive it.

God is being robbed of His tithes.

I'm not a preacher to always talk about money. I think over the time I have been here as your pastor you have seen that. However, there is a terrible statistic in our evangelical world right now. I just got a report the other day that said only 23% of evangelical Christians tithe to their local church. Folks, it takes resources to spread the gospel. It takes resources to keep the church moving forward. It takes money to purchase supplies to bring the Good News Club to the elementary school. It takes money for discipleship material for new believers. It takes money to purchase bibles for people who don't have one. It takes money to send missionaries abroad to carry the good news around the world. God is being robbed every day by believers who can't seem to control their own spending habits. He's being robbed day in and day out by folks who want a bigger television or a faster internet connection, or a prettier car, or a new whatever because someone else just got a new whatever and they just have to have one too. It's really heartbreaking to me.

Now there are folks who will say, “Pastor, that passage of scripture is in the Old Testament and is for Israel. We've been freed from the law.” Well, you are right, we as New Testament believers have been freed from our sins and the law. However, Jesus boiled down the law to it's motives. That we have not been freed of.

Turn to Mark 12.

41 Now Jesus sat opposite the treasury and saw how the people put money into the treasury. And many who were rich put in much. 42 Then one poor widow came and threw in two mites, which make a quadrans. 43 So He called His disciples to Himself and said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all those who have given to the treasury; 44 for they all put in out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all that she had, her whole livelihood.”

It's about sacrificial giving folks. It's easy to look at your bottom line and give God a piece of what's left over at the end of the month. It's not so easy to write a check at the beginning of the month and give to God sacrificially and trust Him to meet your needs. However, that's the principle that Jesus is teaching here. Look back at the passage in Malachi. God says to test Him on this. Give and He will bless you abundantly. Now, I'm not preaching a prosperity message. I'm note telling you to give so you will get. I'm saying that by not giving back to God a portion of what He is blessing you with is robbing God and is selfishness.

This is also not just about money. There are other resources that God has blessed us with that we need to tithe from as well. You have time. We are always looking for volunteers to help with something. We are seeing a revival starting to happen. People are getting saved. Do you think that Pastor Kelly and I can disciple all of the new believers that are coming? No. We need experienced faithful believers to disciple new believers. What other talents has the Lord blessed you with? When was the last time you gave some of that talent for His service?

This leads me into the next thing that God is being robbed of.

God is being robbed of ourselves.

He's being robbed of ourselves in two ways. The first I just touched on. Believers are spending less and less time with God and more and more time with idols and other things in our lives. Am I saying you can't sit down and watch your favorite program on television? Absolutely not. However, when you find yourself spending hour after hour each day in front of the idiot box then you're robbing God of fellowship time with you. When you are spending time with your inner circle of friends and you find yourself gabbing more about the people and gossip around town than about the latest thing God has done in your life, you're being selfish and you are robbing God of yourself.

The second way God is being robbed of ourselves is by not accepting the sacrificial gift of salvation that Jesus Christ paid on the cross. By not giving ourselves over to God and living a life in Christ He loses out on fellowship with His creation. Revelation 3:20 says, “Behold I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with me.” Jesus is the way. Jesus is the bridge that spans the chasm that man's sin has brought between us and God, between Creator and creation. Again, this is selfish and robbing God. Satan rebelled and robbed God and he was cast down with a third of the angels because of selfishness.

Let us look to God and live holy and blameless lives. Let us give to God what is His, a portion of the blessings He has given us. And, let us stop keeping ourselves from Him.