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1 Samuel 15:22
And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings
and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is
better than sacrifice.
A growing, soul winning church that’s making
a difference, and reaching many for Christ doesn’t just happen…there is a
price to pay! And most churches are not willing to pay the price, and they
flounder in the sea of mediocrity! [song: ‘I lobster and never flounder’]
Ill.—church
sent annual report to their headquarters for previous year: # of souls
saved-0/baptized-0/transfer of letter-0/by statement-0…then at the bottom it
said, please pray that we will remain faithful. (faithful to what?!)
Fact is, to have an aggressive, soul-winning
church w/ God’s power on it, there is a price to pay!…(it’s not
complicated, but basic, and easy to understand, but hardly followed!)
Any church that makes the decision to become
an empowered soul-saving station can, if they just decide to pay the
price! But do we have enough? Yes, we have within ourselves all it takes…a
virtual ATM machine ready to kick out what’s needed…
Here’s the main price to pay:
The price of obedience
Many times in Scripture God says, meet me at
a certain place, and I will bless you:
Elijah(brook Cherith, fed him during famine by ravens)
I believe he could have gone anywhere
else, even a place not in famine, and yet would have starved to death!
Naaman(leper, dip in Jordan) Why in muddy Jordan?
But it wasn’t a hard thing God was
asking of him, he obeyed, and was made whole!
The price of obedience is as simple as being
in the place of obedience…
It’s not hard what God requires of us…just
simple obedience to Him! Wouldn’t it be a wonderful thing if the Lord would
always find members of GBC “there”…where God has told them to be!? Where is
there? In the place of obedience--In God’s will!
God doesn’t pour out His power on churches full of disobedient Christians.
There is a price to be paid, and it is the price of obedience…from the
pulpit to the pew, we’d all do well to realize our disobedience can affect
the whole body, and keep His power out of here!
Three basic areas to
start: (if we really want the
power of God! If we really want to cash in on what God can do…we’ll
remember this later because of the acrostic “ATM”)
1.
Obedience in Attendance
(Heb. 10:25)
No church will ever be great where the membership is erratic in their
attendance.
Show me a church whose people come
sporadically, only when they feel like it, if there’s nothing better to do,
if it’s convenient…and I’ll show you a church that’s just playing games /
not doing much for Christ! Why?
Because unfaithfulness in attendance says
something about you…it reveals a lack of commitment, and a lack of love.
But let’s not deal w/ this from the
standpoint of a lack of commitment (people don’t commit these days…unless
they really want to! We can do what we want!!)
Think about the lack of love, instead…
Ill.—preacher
visited in home / noticed they had little housedog / noticed they lavished
love on the dog to an extreme / “I can’t get over how much you all love that
dog! You’d make great parents…maybe you should have a child to show all
that love to!” / woman started weeping and ran out / pastor knew he had said
something wrong, apologized to husband / “there’s no way you could know, but
we had a son, and God saw fit to take him to heaven at a very young age…but
that dog was our son’s dog…it may seem silly, but the reason we love on that
dog in such a way, is that’s our way of showing love for our son…preacher,
we love that dog so much simply because our son loved it so much!”
If for no other reason, you ought to love the
church because God’s Son loves the church! Don’t ever say, “I love Jesus,
but I don’t like to go to church so often”…that’s a contradiction in
terms…you cannot separate Jesus from the church any more than you can
separate the head from the body, or a building from its foundation!
It’s not “Jesus-or-the church”, it’s
“Jesus-and-the church!”
So, aside from the lack of commitment, unfaithful attendance reveals a lack
of love!
With all our faults, and we have many / failures / flaws…God’s Son
still loves the church and gave Himself for it…
Eph. 5:25-- Christ also loved the church, and gave
himselfforit;
…therefore
we should love the church and show it by being faithful in attendance!
So when you
faithfully attend church, you’re saying:
·“Jesus,
I love you!”—“I care about the things YOU care about!”
Something else you’re saying, is…
·“Pastor,
I love you!”
You’re saying: It matters to me that you
study long and hard / pray over your messages / dig for Bible truth / plan
out a worship service / seek to minister from start to finish / use
illustrations and strive to put the jelly on the bottom shelf / try to tell
one new joke per year! It matters to me!
Joke—prisoners
who number their jokes: guy went to prison/1st day/heard someone
holler out from cell “43”/whole cell block laughed!/75/again!/56!/what’s
this?/we’ve all been in for years, tellin’ same jokes over and over…so we’ve
numbered each joke, someone hollers one out, we all think of that joke, we
all laugh!/ “care if I try?”/go ahead/hollered out “12!”/nobody laughed (3
x’s) nobody laughed/looked at cellmate and asked, why is nobody laughing?/I
guess some guys just can’t tell a joke!
Seriously, when you’re faithful in
attendance, you not only say, Jesus I love you, but Pastor, I love you! I
appreciate what you do and it matters to me what you do!
Ill.—a
confession: I hurt my wife deeply one time…she had told me before going to
work one day about the feast she was gonna have prepared when I got back
that night / I got into my day and got busy, and forgot, had a big early
dinner w/ a friend, went home, and when I opened the door and took one sniff
of air, I knew I was dead!
There was nothing I could say other
than sorry, and the only way I could’ve been more rude was to not show up at
all…
(not talking about being sick, vacation,
working, etc., I’m talking about just taking any ole’ opportunity that comes
along, or simple excuses Satan provides if you’ll miss! This shows a lack
of commitment…we should be able to say, I have a previous commitment, but we
don’t commit in case we get a better opportunity!)
Also, I’m not talking about those who travel,
and we have several…it’s your right and privilege you’ve earned, and you’re
faithfully in church elsewhere / you let me know before you go because you
believe in praying for safe travel, and in doing so, you say the same,
“Pastor, I love you!”
When you’re faithful in attendance, you not only say, Jesus I love you, and
Pastor, I love you…but also:
·Members,
I love you, too! Why? Because we’re
a body, that’s intended to function TOGETHER!
What if your hands had taken the day off
today? You ladies couldn’t have put your makeup on!
--every morning I roll over and thank God for
a woman…named Mary Kay!
Good thing your legs are doing their job today…the whole body is intended to
function as a unit!
Let’s take a survey: how many of you are
more encouraged by a good crowd than when the crowd is down? It’s more
exciting, it’s how God intended, singing is better, people get into it, say
amen!…people are saved! We’re more open to the Spirit and we have a more
spiritual service…every single one matters, and each one who walks in the
door is like a spiritual drop of Visine that helps “get the dead out!”
Hey, determine in your heart that “I’m not
gonna be the reason we’re down” / I care about my brothers and sisters in
Christ / I’m not gonna come only when convenient / when I feel like it / I’m
gonna be faithful and make the extra effort to make it work!
There’s a price to be paid if we want
God to take us seriously…we’d better take Him seriously! And take
His church seriously! Get into s.s., and PM services!
So, we need to be obedient in the basic area
of attendance…that’s the “A” (of ATM)…next…
The “T”:
2.Obedience
in the Tithe
This point is not about building a bank acct. We’re in no danger of that,
and I don’t work on commission! It’s about obedience and blessings!
The word “tithe” literally means tenth…ten percent…it’s God’s perfect plan.
The wisdom of God planned for us a method of giving which is completely fair
and equal to all who will obey, no matter what you make!
It’s a
definite portion, and to be brought to
a designated place(Mal.
3:10, the storehouse)
10 Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be
meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I
will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that
there shall not be room enough to receive it. 11 And I will
rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of
your ground
God says in Malachi, try me…try this…see if
I won’t open the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing bigger than
you’re even capable of receiving!…see if I am able to take the other 90%,
and make it go much farther than 100% ever possibly could.
Then He goes a step farther in v. 11, look
at it:
“rebuke the devourer”
My God makes shoes last longer / the roof stronger!
There’s 2 plans:
90% and God as
your partner
100%
and you’re on your own…how’s your
plan workin’?
“If God really blesses me, I’ll tithe”
(cart before horse)
“We can’t afford to add that to our bills”
(you can’t afford not to!) (Won’t work in budget unless it’s the first
item!)
“If we get out of debt, or sell our house,
then we’ll tithe.”
(God’s waiting to see obedience out of
you and then He’s free to bless you in financial ways!)
Hey, I’m not trying to put you into a
straight-jacket, I’m trying to set you free!
“But we’ve got a lot of debt”
You can talk about financial freedom
all you want, but as a believer, you’ll never be free until you obey this…no
Christian can skip over this step. When you tithe, there’s always a
blessing, and when you don’t, there’s always a curse!
v. 8-9 curse
8 Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein
have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. 9 Ye are cursed
with a curse: for ye have robbed me
Definite portion / Designated Place…
for a
Divine Purpose
v. 10--
that there may be meat in mine house
God’s tried to give this church meat…have we bitten off more than we can
chew? Everyone’s benefiting from a meaty program we’ve got going on
now…even those who “eat free!”
Ill.—kids eat free at many restaurants, and when it comes to the church…it’s
also the immature who seek something for nothing.
Some make another mistake, which is thinking they have an alternate method
of blessing the church. They say, I can’t afford to give money, but I’ll
give myself…I’ll serve in the nursery or kids ministries or the kitchen.
But what did our text say today? To obey is better than sacrifice! God
wants our obedience more than our service. Jesus said “where your treasure
is, there’s your heart”. Jesus says, money talks. That’ll prove you love
me and want to obey me.
This stuff about “you can leave your wallet at home” is misleading…you can’t
do that and be obedient!
We’ve covered the A and the T of our ATM…time
fails to go into much detail about the “M”:
3.Obedience
in Ministry
That’s using our gifts in the church, for
we’re not saved to sit but to serve! We must willingly help in needed areas
for the Lord’s sake!
(young church, kids’ ministries need
help!)
The bottom line:
God loves the church / God loves you / and we’re at a crossroads as a
church…there’s a price to pay…are we willing to pay it!
Invitation:
Who would say, “God has put His finger on an
area in which I need to be obedient, maybe one we’ve talked about today, or
another one, and I’m pledging right now to do what’s right!”?
Who needs to be saved? We’ve talked about
the price to pay…but ultimately, Jesus paid the price for you to be saved!
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