Sermon Brief
Date Written: May 19, 2007
Date Preached: May 20, 2007
Where Preached: OZHBC (AM)
Sermon Details:
Sermon Series: A Spiritual Clean Sweep
Sermon Title: How “Tidy” is your Spiritual Bedroom?
Sermon Text: Hebrews 11:1-2; 23-29
Introduction:
This morning I want to start by asking you a simple question. “What is marriage?” Well the answer I am looking for is that marriage is actually a 2-sided coin, faith on one side and faithfulness on the other. But just what do these words faith and faithfulness mean?
Webster’s dictionary defines faith like this – faith is a belief in the value, truth or trustworthiness of someone or something.
The Bible defines faith like this – faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. (NASB)
Webster’s defines faithfulness like this – faithfulness is being true and trustworthy in the performance of a duty or the fulfillment of a promise or obligation
The Bible defines faithful all throughout its pages. It is faith in action… faith being put to the test!
I once read a quote that I believe describes faithfulness very clearly, it said:
"Nothing in life can take the place of faithfulness and dependability. It is one of the greatest virtues. Brilliance, genius, competence all are subservient to the quality of faithfulness."
Wallace Fridy
When we look at marriage we can see faithfulness expressed in many ways, such as:
A faithful husband stays loyal and true to his wife and is totally trustworthy in the performance of his duties as husband.
A faithful wife is loyal and true to her husband, she can be trusted to perform her duties as wife.
But we can see faithfulness expressed in other situations as well, can we not? Like a faithful employee being loyal to his employer and is trustworthy in fulfilling the tasks and obligations placed before him.
Or how about that faithful Christian who remains loyal and true to Christ and is trustworthy in his or her walk with Christ; they are eager to fulfill their obligations to Christ and all that Christ places in their lives.
Now when we think about faithfulness and fidelity in marriage, it is not a surprise that the bedroom represents the fidelity and faithfulness of each spouse.
Let me give you an example of what I mean… when you hear that some husband or some wife has been ‘unfaithful’ to his or her spouse, what conclusion do you usually jump to? Is it that they have been fooling around and committing adultery?
But even though that is our usual response, did you know that there is more than one way to be unfaithful to your spouse!
There is the obvious way… and that is to have an adulterous affair with someone. But there are some ways that the world does not see as unfaithfulness because they deem them to be too innocent to be unfaithfulness.
• Flirting with others: This can be harmless, and never meant to do any damage to the marriage, however every downfall in a marriage that ends in affair or severely inappropriate behavior begins with supposedly innocent flirting and playful banter. I have seen this happen in church as well as outside of church!
Flirting is NOT being faithful to your spouse! Don’t misunderstand me here… being friendly and flirting are 2 very different things, but the line can easily be crossed if you are not careful… faithfulness in marriage is being careful in what you do in life… that will affect that marriage!
• Having something so important that distracts your focus off your spouse. It doesn’t matter what “IT” is, it doesn’t matter how valuable YOU think IT is, it pales in comparison t the value of your spouse. It could be hunting, fishing, playing softball, golf or even surfing the internet, but for many of us here it is our job!
And that is because we try to rationalize that what we do at work is FOR our spouse and it ultimately is, but what we fail to understand is that the relationship with our spouse MUST come before work, play or any other relationship outside of our walk with Christ because that is our vow to our spouse!
• “Me Time” is something the world tells us that we have to have, and I believe in the right setting it is ok, however when ‘me time’ is forced upon your spouse, you are being unfaithful!
Don’t you remember when you made your vows and pledged to be there for them thru thick and thin… marriage is NOT about you, but you have pledged it to be about them. And when you force ‘me time’ on your spouse, you are being unfaithful to them!
And likewise, when we think about being unfaithful to God we tend to think about those obvious and terrible ethical and moral failures that can be seen by the outside world, but this morning I am here to share with you that unfaithfulness to God is more than just those obvious moral and ethical failures on your part.
Flirting with the world is being unfaithful to God, no matter how innocent you believe it to be, it can and DOES damage your relationship with God.
Having something so important it distracts you from your walk with Christ… no matter how good or important IT is, that is being unfaithful to God!
Demanding ‘me time’ from God is being unfaithful, when we come to Him for salvation, our lives have been crucified in Christ and we no longer live for ourselves but for Christ who lives within us… it is NOT about me anymore… it has to be about HIM!!
There are many sitting here today who have been unfaithful to God in their walk, but many would tell you, “No, I haven’t”, or they would begin to rationalize their behavior.
Some would be honest with you, but most would try their best to make themselves look better.
Did you know that…
1. NOT reading your Bible is being unfaithful to God!
2. NOT praying with a broken heart and submissive spirit is being unfaithful to God!
3. NOT giving your tithe as God commands and not giving sacrificially and with a cheerful heart is being unfaithful to God!
4. NOT teaching and mentoring the next generation of believers is being unfaithful to God!
5. NOT coming to church because you are tired or because it is inconvenient or somebody hurt your feelings or it is your only day off… is being unfaithful to God!
6. NOT submitting to authority that God has placed over you is being unfaithful to God!
7. Doing something in your Christian walk half-heartedly or just going thru the motions of your Christian walk is being unfaithful to God!
8. Having a prideful and haughty spirit is being unfaithful to God!
And the list could go on and on, but the point I am trying to make is that as believers we fail and are unfaithful to God on many fronts! It doesn’t have to be a moral failure that the world knows about, but it is usually something within our heart that is unfaithful to God!
So this morning when I ask the question, “How tidy is your spiritual bedroom?” I really want you to think about your faithfulness and fidelity to Christ Jesus as your Lord and Savior.
When we look to Scripture, we can see several commands that speak to the faithfulness required in marriage when it comes to the bedroom.
In Ex 20:14, the 7th commandment commands us, “…thou shall NOT commit adultery…” And in Hebrews 13:4 we read that marriage must be respected by all and that the marriage bed must NOT be defiled.
Christ is depicted as the groom and the church is the bride, and when we accept Christ as Savior we enter into a relationship that is founded on faith and can only work when we practice faithfulness to that relationship.
Christ has promised to be faithful to us and has proved this over and over again, we must remain faithful to Him, just as we are expected to remain faithful to the spouse we have entered into a relationship through marriage.
In that marriage ceremony, we make promises to each other, those promises are called vows. We vow to take care of each other, through sickness and health, through good times and bad, through richer or poorer, til death do us part!
We make these promises before God and many witnesses and we understand that these vows or promises that we have made are IMPORTANT and they mean something!
And for a marriage to succeed we must have faith in our spouse even before we know how things are going to work out or what they will do. But after we express faith in our spouse, we are to live out that faith in our lives revealing our faithfulness to our spouse!
And when we break even ONE of these vows, we are being unfaithful in our marriage, even if we NEVER commit the actual act of adultery.
And so this morning I want us to understand that being a Christian is like being in a marriage relationship. First it is Christ, the bride groom who calls us to Him, second He has vowed to be faithful to us and we must reveal our faith in Him. 3rd we must live our lives revealing our faith in Christ and our faithfulness to Hm.
So ask yourself the question this morning, “Have you ever cheated on God?” OR “Have you ever been unfaithful in your walk with Christ?”
This morning, I want us to take a look at a very human example from Scripture of someone who is considered FAITHFUL to God and in his walk with God!
Was this man perfect? Absolutely NOT, he actually made many mistakes and failed on many occasions, but Scripture reveals that he was faithful to God.
Would you stand for the reading of God’s Word out of Hebrews 11:1-2; 23-29. READ PASSAGE HERE You may be seated!
• Have you cheated on God?
• Are you faithful to Him in your walk in this world?
These are questions we should be asking ourselves each and every day! I see it all the time, so often, as believers, we fall into the trap that the world lays for us and we believe that to be a Christian means that we have to be perfect and can NEVER mess up… otherwise we are not really a Christian!
But when we look at Scripture we can see that it is filled with people who had difficulties and struggle in their lives.
It is filled with those who are called by God to do a specific task and EVEN THOUGH THEY WERE NOT PERFECT in the performance of that task we can see that ultimately they submitted to God in faith.
This morning I want us to look at the faithfulness of Moses… I want you to notice what I am saying… I am NOT saying the perfection of Moses, but the faithfulness of Moses.
I want us to focus in on v.23-29 where Moses’ faithfulness is listed by the writer of Hebrews under the guidance and leadership and inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
23 BY FAITH MOSES, AFTER HE WAS BORN, WAS HIDDEN BY HIS PARENTS FOR THREE MONTHS, BECAUSE THEY SAW THAT THE CHILD WAS BEAUTIFUL, AND THEY DIDN’T FEAR THE KING’S EDICT.
This is not always the case, but it surely does not hurt matters, but when one has faithful parents or at least one faithful parent, it seems that they can be pointed to God much easier. By looking at this particular verse we can surmise that…
Moses had faithful parents who prayed and believed God would deliver… Pharaoh had issued an edict that was meant to slow down the growth of the Hebrew nation which was beginning to rival the Egyptian people. He had instructed that every male baby be put to death, and thereby wiping out a generation.
But we find that Moses was not put to death but put in a basket and taken in by the providence of God by the daughter of the very Pharaoh that issued the death sentence… When you look at this one particular occurrence in Moses’ life, you come to appreciate the phrase, God works in mysterious ways!
But as Isaiah said in Is 45:2 God was going before Moses, even though Moses (as a baby) knew nothing about God. God was going before Moses to make straight the crooked paths and break down the iron gates… God was clearing the way for His man to lead His people.
So parents, this should be a lesson to you in your faithfulness to God… be faithful on behalf of your children’s sake. Serve God so that you leave a godly legacy for them to hold onto… lay the foundation of service and trust in God so that they can build upon that foundation. Be faithful and true to God and pass that onto your children.
And we can see that the faithfulness of Moses’ parents was NOT unrewarded because the next 3 verses reveal to us what happened when Moses was of age…
24 By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter
25 and chose to suffer with the people of God rather than to enjoy the short-lived pleasure of sin.
26 For he considered reproach for the sake of the Messiah to be greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, since his attention was on the reward.
By faith Moses rejected Egypt and what he had been instructed from an early age, and chose to become who he was meant to be, a Hebrew.
We see that by faith, Moses turned his back on riches and a pleasurable life… because he considered it to be a sin against God Himself, and he was focused on God and what God had for him.
Today you may be here and God is dealing with you about the life you are living! You may be sitting right there in that pew and God is revealing to you that the life you have always known… the life that you are now currently living is NOT what God wants for you!
God is calling you to turn your back on the pleasures of sin in this life and to focus on Him and the reward that only He can offer!
However, there is something that the writer of Hebrews does not share with us… He does not share with us what Moses went thru in Egypt.
We do know that Moses began to doubt and question his heritage and it became known to him that he was a Hebrew.
The writer tells us in v.27 that…
27 By faith he left Egypt behind, not being afraid of the king’s anger, for he persevered, as one who sees Him who is invisible.
Now the story in Exodus 2 tells us that when Moses found out who he was and what his people were going thru… he went out and saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew slave and he killed the Egyptian and tried to hide the body!
Pharaoh finds out about this and wants to kill Moses for his crime and Moses goes into exile in the hill country of Midian.
Now there are many people who would think… that God could NOT possibly love a man who had committed murder… even if we think that murder was justified!
And we know that there are many people sitting on death row today who have given up hope because they truly believe God has given up on them, but in reality just the opposite is true.
Moses went to the hills of Midian running from Pharaoh, and it was there after a time that God came to Moses and called him into service… to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt. God spoke to Moses from the burning bush and called him into service!
I want you to all understand that Moses was not a perfect man… but that is really the point, God understands that NO ONE is perfect and He chooses to use imperfect vessels for His work here on this earth. So when we surrender to God’s calling and submit our lives to Him we are to strive to be like Paul instructs Timothy to like in 1 Tim 6:11-12…
11 Now you, man of God, run from these things; but pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness. 12 Fight the good fight for the faith; take hold of eternal life, to which you were called and have made a good confession before many witnesses.
This was Paul’s encouragement to Timothy… notice that Paul was not commanding perfection of Timothy, but that he would strive to serve with all his heart and that seek and pursue the godly things in his life…
• such as righteousness (which only comes from God),
• godliness (living our lives reflecting the character of the God of the Bible),
• faith (allowing God to saturate us with the faith we need to do what he has called us to do),
• love (the love of God is the agape love of the Greeks… a love with NO strings attached… a love that loves because that is its nature),
• endurance (being patient and waiting on God and God’s timing),
• and gentleness (not weakness but power under control… Jesus called this meekness)
Like Timothy, when we submit to God in service, we too are called to fight the fight and take hold of our eternal destiny because God has called us and we have confessed that calling before many people as witnesses of our calling!
In our passage today we see that Moses was considered to be righteous based on his faith in God and his faithfulness in serving God…
We know the story of Moses confronting the Pharaoh and demanding the release of the people of Israel. Plague after plague was sent upon Egypt to break them, and finally the last plague was too much and Egypt was broken!
God instructed Moses on what the people had to do to be ready for this plague… to survive this plague! We find that Moses was obedient in his walk with God as well as faithful, we read in v.28 that…
28 By faith he instituted the Passover and the sprinkling of the blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them.
By faith, Moses spread the word and instruction that if they (whoever) would take the blood of a spotless lamb on their doorposts that the angel of death would ‘passover’ their household, and God was true to His word as He always is!
SIDENOTE: What a great picture of salvation that is… when we take the blood of the spotless Lamb of God onto the doorpost of our lives… the angel of death has NO power over us and we stand redeemed before God!
In faith, Moses, led the people, but it was THRU his faithfulness to God that the nation began to have faith that God would deliver them!
Now today you may be thinking, I am merely ONE believer in a world of many sinners and there is NOT a thing I could do to make a difference… but that is where you are wrong.
When you begin to seek the face of God and seek to submit your life to God, people take notice. Some will notice with a view that you are just trying to be holier than thou… but there will be some who’ll notice and realize that it is God at work in your life and they will begin to seek God because of your witness…
Moses was terrified to go to the people and say that God had sent him to deliver them. He tried to make all sorts of excuses, but God persisted and told Moses to rely on Him. Moses submitted to God’s call and the children of Israel were delivered from Egypt…
When we are called by God to ‘do’ something for His kingdom, there are many of us who have excuse after excuse, but God is going to be persistent!
Just like in the story of Jonah, God is not going to allow us to run the other way! When God calls we must answer, or live with the consequences.
Do you want a fulfilled Christian walk? Do you want your spiritual bedroom to be as clean as it can be? Then you have to begin to submit and surrender to the call of God on your life! You have to be willing to be faithful to God when He calls you…even if it looks hopeless or useless!
Back to our story… we know the story how Moses won the release of the people of Israel, but we also know that Pharaoh’s heart was hardened and he had 2nd thoughts!
He decided he was not going to let them go… so he began to chase them! Ultimately the nation of Israel was trapped with the Red Sea in front of them and the Egyptian army behind them… there was NO PLACE to run.
But again God calls on Moses to have faith and then to live out that faith through faithful living. Moses does, as God instructs him to stretch out his staff toward the Red Sea. Moses does this… and the waters of the Red Sea part and dry ground appears below. Because of Moses’ faith they are delivered once again! And we see this echoed in v.29 where…
29 By faith they crossed the Red Sea as though they were on dry land. When the Egyptians attempted to do this, they were drowned.
I can guarantee you that Moses was skeptical when he went into Egypt for God, but his faithfulness in serving was rewarded by God’s faithfulness in providing for the victory. Submit to God and allow Him to win the battles for you!
But even when the battles seem to be won, we must realize that the enemy is NOT going to give up and give in! 2 Peter tells us that our enemy is Satan and he is like a roaring lion… a roaring lion is roaring because he is hungry!
He is roaming to and fro seeking whom he can gobble up and destroy! So understand that even though we may win a victory here or there, Satan, our enemy does not give up and will continue to try to destroy us…
But like the Egyptians, Satan may think he has us trapped, but God is going to deliver us and ultimately destroy Satan…
Conclusion:
Several years ago HBO played a series of war stories in a mini-series called Band of Brothers. The finale was to air on Memorial Day of that year.
Close to the end the historical character Major Winters says something like “When we began this war these men obeyed me because they were commanded to. Now they obey me because they trust me.”
Those men learned that they could depend on the faithfulness of their commanding officer, and their actions showed it. This morning I want to ask you a very difficult question…
“Can God trust you to be faithful in your duties to Him?”
It is only when God knows He can depend on your faithfulness that He can and will use you. John Shearhart
Like I said a couple of weeks ago, God does not care how much money we collect in the plate or how quickly we pay our debts or how much money we have in the bank… God cares only if we are faithful in our service to Him… He cares about what we are doing with all the resources he has blessed us with... He cares about how faithful we are with what He provides…
Well preacher what if what we do fails! That means that we have wasted God’s money and resources… and we should have kept better watch over them!
Well if that is your belief in God, you are sadly mistaken. Again it is NOT the amount of money we have, but what we are doing in faith for the Kingdom. It is not about success or failure but about obedience and submission on our part.
I once read an anonymous quote that said, “It is not success that God rewards but faithfulness in doing His will.”
Oswald Chambers once said, "Whether our work is a success or a failure has nothing to do with us. Our call is not to successful service, but to faithfulness."
"Far too often, as believers, we tend to think that giving our all to the Lord is like taking a $1,000 bill and laying it on the table and saying, ’Here’s my life, Lord. I’m giving it all.’
However, the reality of truly serving Christ is that Christ desires to send us to the bank and have us cash in that $l,000 bill for quarters.
And then we are to go through life putting out 25 cents here and 50 cents there. We are to be Christ in all we do, by listening to the neighbor kid’s troubles instead of saying, ’Get lost.’
By going to a committee meeting instead of doing what we want to do.
By being there to give a cup of water to a shaky old man in a nursing home instead of hanging out with our friends.
By being willing to take a Sunday School class and teach them the word of God faithfully and plant godly seeds in young minds, rather than sit and be a sponge each Sunday morning…
By being willing to give up one Sunday every 2 months to direct and lead a children’s worship service, so that parents of those children can sit in church and actually hear ALL the sermon!
By being willing to do whatever is needed, regardless of the inconvenience and difficulty…. THAT IS BEING FAITHFUL… THAT IS FAITHFULNESS TO GOD!
You see, being faithful and serving God on a daily basis is not usually anything glorious... at least as the world sees it. But it is one thing at a time, in all those little acts of love, 25 cents at a time.
To be honest with you, I believe it would be MUCH easier to go out in a flash of glory; but that is NOT the calling for most believers, as we are called to live life faithful each day and reveal Christ in all we do and say."
http://www.sermonillustrations.com/a-z/f/faithfulness.htm (modified)
Today God is calling for your faithfulness and fidelity to Him in all you do and all you say! What is your answer going to be? I call on all here to submit and surrender to Christ in service to Him! Come today as Bro Jerry comes to lead us in our hymn of invitation…
As he comes I want to share that Christ loves you… he loves all of you… even if you do not know Him as Savior today… He still loves you, but unless you accept Him as Savior, that love extends only to this world!
For if you die without knowing Jesus as Savior and stand before Him on that great judgment day, and say… you loved me, you are good, you cannot send me to hell, I did a bunch of good things in my life…
The Bible quotes what He is going to say to you… He is going to say, “Depart from me you worker of iniquity, I never knew you!” And the Bible says that when this happens you will be cast into the lake of fire and will suffer an eternity separated from God and in ultimate anguish and suffering!
So this morning I want you to know that hell is real, and God will allow you to go to hell if you reject Him as Lord. How can He let you into heaven, where He reigns as Lord and Master, when you have rejected Him as Lord of your life?
If you want to be in heaven and live eternally in the presence of God and escape the wrath that is to come to those who do not know Him or those who have rejected Him… I ask you to come today and give your heart to Him… come and be washed by the Holy Spirit and have your sins cleansed through repentance and the washing of your heart by the blood of Christ!
Come today as Bro jerry leads us in our hymn of invitation… come as we begin to sing!
