Let's Clean Out That Garage Series

Sermon Brief

Date Written: June 15, 2007

Date Preached: June 17, 2007

Where Preached: OZHBC (AM)

Sermon Details:

Sermon Series: A Spiritual Clean Sweep

Sermon Title: Let’s Clean out that garage!

Sermon Text: Psalm 4:1-8

Introduction:

Can anyone here guess the fastest growing business in the USA today? It is the mini-storage business, or controlled atmosphere storage units. This is a testament to our nation and its affluence and also to its poverty!

Let me explain what I mean, as a nation, we have so much that many of us buy things we don’t need and then we have to go out and rent a space to store the things we really don’t need but want to hold on to them because we feel we have invested too much into them to let them go…

Let me give you some statistics:

The self-storage industry in the United States brings in $15 billion a year. Now let’s compare that to the movie industry in the United States, an industry that brings in $9 billion per year.

At 2,330 square feet, the average American house today is 55% larger than it was in 1970. But yet the self-storage/mini-storage business is still the fastest growing business in America…

One in 11 Americans rents a mini-storage unit today as compared to 1995 when it was 1 in 17. If we look at this statistic that one person in 11 rents a mini-storage unit that would mean that there are about 25 million active mini-storage units in use by the people of our nation today.

Ladies, you are known by the world as the shopaholics, but I am here to tell you that even though you may GO to the marketplace many more times than your spouse… on average, you do NOT outspend him!

Men have the tendency to spend money on BIG ticket items, such as boats, cars and high ticket entertainment where women tend to purchase the smaller things such as shoes and clothing.

The problem with this is that we have become a nation obsessed with the material things of this life. More than family, more than church and more than God Himself… our nation is searching out MORE and MORE things to add to their own collections…

However, when we view this from a spiritual perspective we need to understand how this prevailing attitude can and does have an impact on how we serve God…and dads you are the spiritual leader of the home and it is your responsibility to BE responsible in your leadership!

This morning I want to share Scripture that teaches us how we are to live… that teaches us how to be a spiritual leader in the home… that reveals to us how to be a good dad… turn with my to the book of Psalms chapter 4…

1) To be the dad God’s wants you to be a God-seeker [v.1 - read]

In this verse we find the psalmist revealing first and foremost where he knows he can go for help when the world seems to be too much for him…

In this verse the psalmist is probably having a crisis of faith or action and he cries out to God for God’s help. But notice something here, he is not crying out to a god [with a small ‘g’] that he may have doubts about or a god that may fail him! But we see that he cries out to the God who has been faithful and has delivered him in the past…

When we read this verse and this chapter we can see that David reveals a strong confidence in his prayer in that he trusts God and he knows God is going to answer his prayer and God is going to take care of him.

As Christian men there are going to be many times when we are stressed and strained to what we think is the breaking point! For some of us here this morning, this is the only time we find ourselves crying out to God.

When we find ourselves in this position, most of the time, we know that it is because of something we have done and we are crying out to God because we need God’s help to deliver us.

But there also going to be times when we are going find ourselves calling out to God for His deliverance because the attack or difficulty that we are experiencing is coming from the Enemy and from the evil in this world!

But the point I want to make this morning is that as Christian men and Christian dads… it is our duty to be like the psalmist and trust in God! It is under our leadership that our families are guided and we need to know and understand that God is the only source of true righteousness and true joy, and that it is only thru God that we can receive true and pure mercy that will save us!