3 Beatitudes for a Church Member
1CHRON.29:1-5
A) Someone sent me a list some time ago entitled, "Satan’s Beatitudes!"
* They said if the devil were to write his beatitudes they would probably go something like this:
* Blessed are they who are too tired and busy to go to church on Sundays and Wednesdays, for they are my best workers.
* Blessed are they who are bored with the minister’s mannerism and mistakes, for they get nothing out of his sermon.
* Blessed is the church member who expects to be invited to his own church, for he is part of the problem instead of the solution.
* Blessed are they who gossip, for they cause strife and divisions that please me.
* Blessed are they who are easily offended, for they soon get angry and quit.
* Blessed are they who do not give their tithes and offerings to carry on God’s work, for they are my best workers.
* Blessed are they who profess to love God, but hates his brother, for he shall be with me forever.
* Blessed are the trouble-makers, for they shall be called the children of Satan.
* Blessed are the complainers, for I am all ears to them.
B) As I thought about that list, two things immediately
hit me!
* Number one, I can honestly say that I have pastored every one of those types of church members!
* Number two, what the church desperately needs is more members who simply love their church!
* But not only love their church, but love their church the way God loves the church!
C) You see, God loves the church sacrificially!
* There is a blessing that comes to every church member who really will love his church, and love it in the right way, and love it for the right reason!
* I want to share with you my 3 beatitudes for a church member who truly loves his church the way Jesus wants him to love it!
(1) BLESSED IS THE CHURCH MEMBER WHO GIVES HIS CHURCH HIS LOVING AFFECTION!
* The background of this story is fascinating!
* David had a desire to build a house for God!
* It was a legitimate desire, it was a noble desire, it was an honorable desire!
* But God, in His sovereign will and purpose, did not want David to build the house!
* He wanted David’s son, Solomon, to build the house!
A) Now, David was still the king of Israel!
* David could have got mad and pouted,
* He could have walked away from it and said, "I wont have anything to do with it."
* David could have said, "There’s nothing in this for me."
* You think about this!
* David was going to give to build a house of worship that would benefit someone else!
* David was going to give to build a house of worship that he would never attend!
* David was going to give to build a house of worship that he would not even live to see!
* Had David said, "What’s in it for me?" he wouldn’t have given one dime to see that house built!
B) But David’s heart was, "I want to invest in the work of God any way that I can!"
* "I am willing to build a house of worship even if I will never enter into it if it means God can be glorified, the Word can be preached, and other people can be saved."
* Notice what he said in v.1, "The Temple is not for man, but for the Lord God."
* I want to say to our church, that whatever buildings we build and wherever we build them, they are never to be monuments to any one individual!
* They are to be built for God, for His glory, for His kingdom, & for the preaching of His Word!
C) Now, I wish I had the time to go into detail of telling you exactly what David gave,
* Because in modern day terms, David gave over $20 billion!
* But it is not WHAT David gave that is so impressive, it is WHY David gave!
* Listen to v.3!
* David gave to God’s house because he loved God and he loved God’s house!
D) So, I want to ask you a question, in fact, I want to ask you a series of questions!
* Do you love God’s church?
* I’m not asking you do you love the choir!
* I’m asking you do you love God’s church?
* Now, don’t answer too quickly, because I want to say to you gently, lovingly, but firmly;
* You have no right to say that you love God’s church if you are not giving to it and supporting it financially with your tithes and offerings!
E) You Can Give Without Loving, But You Cannot Love Without Giving!
* Now, we all know that Jesus loves the church, but how do we know that He loves it?
* Did He just say so?
* Oh no!
* Eph.5:25 says, "Christ loved the church and gave himself ..."
F) Let me ask you another question: If you do support this church financially, why do you?
* I want you to understand that God not only sees what you give, He sees why you give it!
* And even if you give, and give generously, if you give for the wrong motive or the wrong reason, God writes zero over your account!
* Do you give to this church for any other reason than because you love Jesus & this church?
* If you give to this church just so you can get it off of your income tax ... wrong reason!
* If you give to this church only when you agree with everything that goes on ... wrong reason!
* If you give to this church only when things are going your way ... wrong reason!
* If you give for any other reason than your love for Jesus and this church ... wrong reason!
G) Now there are some people who say the moment things don’t go their way,
* Or they don’t agree with a decision, that they’re not going to give anymore!
* So let me just make something very plain to you!
* There is no excuse that God will accept from a church member not to support the church financially that he is a member of or that he regularly attends!
H) When you withhold from the church, you withhold from Jesus!
* When you quit giving to the church, you quit giving to Jesus!
* When you refuse to help the church, you refuse to help the Lord Jesus!
* Where do I get that idea?
* Remember when Paul met Jesus on the Damascus Road, and He asked Paul a very interesting question in Acts 9:4 "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?"
* Paul was persecuting the church, and yet Jesus said, "You are persecuting Me."
I) Do you understand what Jesus is saying? He is saying .......
* Anything you do to hurt the church, hurts Me!
* When you don’t support your church, you’re not supporting Me!
* When you don’t give to your church, you’re not giving to Me!
* When you don’t love your church like you ought to, then you don’t love Me like you ought to!
J) I heard about a four year old boy that told his mother one time:
* "Mommy, when I grow up, I’m going to buy you a fur coat, diamond ring, & a Mercedes ..."
* One day his mother scolded him for a mistake he had made, and he pointed his finger at her and said, "There goes the fur coat."
K) Well, that’s the way some people are in the church!
* The first time something goes wrong, the first time the pastor makes a decision they don’t agree with, the first time the church goes in a direction they don’t like, they say, "There goes the tithe."
* Well, I just go back to what David said ... David gave only one reason for his giving to the church!
* He said, "Because I have set my affection to the house of my God ... I have given to the ......."
* Listen, no matter what you do, whether it is giving tithes & offerings, singing in the choir, teaching, or just sitting on a pew on Sunday morning, Sunday night
or Wednesday night,
* Do it because you love Jesus!
(2) BLESSED IS THE BELIEVER WHO GIVES HIS CHURCH HIS LOYAL ALLEGIANCE!
* There is a statement I want you to hear from Neh.10:39 "We will not forsake the house of our ..."
A) The word forsake means: neglect, to let go, or to let loose."
* It is a word that describes how a man, after 25 years of faithful marriage, would leave his wife for a younger woman!
* It literally means to forsake or desert!
* Now just as it is inexcusable for a man to forsake his wife, it is inexcusable for a Christian to forsake his church!
* I want to give you several ways you can forsake or neglect your church!
B) There are some people who neglect their church by just not coming!
* They just don’t show up ... They have filled the church with their absence!
* Even though we miss them, they don’t really miss us!
* A little boy was absent from school one day, and the next day when he came back, the teacher said, "George, did you miss school yesterday?"
* He said, "No ma’am, not a bit!"
* There are a lot of church members who have forsaken the church and don’t even miss it!
C) But, it’s also possible to come to church every Sunday and still neglect the church!
* There are some who come to church and basically just take up space!
* The only thing they do contribute is their presence ... They don’t give, work, serve, witness, worship, some of them don’t even sing, they just come!
* Now, don’t misunderstand me,
* I want you to come, I thank God that you come, I’m glad that you come!
* I’m simply saying that it is possible to come and still neglect the church!
D) Another way we can neglect our church is by just simply not caring at all!
* I’m afraid that there are too many in the church today that just don’t care!
* They don’t care if anybody gets saved, baptized, if they ever build a building, raise money for the building fund, etc.
* It just simply makes no difference to them!
* Our church is just like every other church, it is full of willing people!
* Some willing to work and the rest willing to let them!
* Sometimes when things go undone in our church, it’s because nobody’s willing to do it!
E) I read a story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody!
* There was an important job to be done, and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it.
* Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it.
* Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody’s job.
* Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn’t do it.
* It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.
* Now, here’s my last question:
* Are you a part of the Everybody that is waiting on
Somebody to do what Anybody can do, but Nobody is doing it?
* OR,
* Are you a Somebody who is doing what Everybody thought Anybody could do, but Nobody would have done, if you weren’t doing it?
(3) BLESSED IS THE BELIEVER THAT GIVES HIS CHURCH HIS LASTING ATTENDANCE
- HEB.10:25!
* Your church deserves your consistent, constant, continuous attendance!
A) So many people only come to church three times in their life!
* When they’re hatched, matched and dispatched!
B) I never cease to be amazed at the excuses that people give for not coming to church!
* Sometimes I think about writing a book on them!
* "Pastor Quits Eating Out"
* Here are the reasons why: Every time I went, they asked me for money.
* The people with whom I had to sit with weren’t friendly and didn’t speak to me.
* The seats were too hard and not very comfortable.
* I went many times to the restaurant but the chef never came to visit me.
* The waiter brought a dish that I didn’t like.
* I found out that I was sitting with some hypocrites ... They didn’t come to eat, they just came to see what everybody was wearing.
* Some times I had to wait in line at the restaurant.
* When I was growing up, my mom and dad used to force me to eat.
* I recently read a book on cooking & now I feel that I know more than the chef knows anyhow.
CLOSE
A) I heard about a preacher who visited a farmer to invite him to church.
* The farmer said, "Well, I’m never coming to your church, Preacher."
* The preacher said, "Why not?" * The farmer said,
* "Because I know some of the members of your church & I live a lot better than they do."
B) Sometime later, the preacher bought a pig from the farmer.
* He said, "I want you to sell me the smallest, ugliest, sickliest pig that you’ve got."
* Well, the farmer, amazed, gave him exactly what he asked for.
* After he paid for it, he said to the farmer, "I’m going to take this sick, small, ugly pig to everybody in the community and tell them that I bought it from you."
* The farmer said, "Now Preacher, that’s not fair, I’ve got a lot of hogs that are nicer and bigger and fatter than that hog."
* The preacher said, "Buddy, if it’s fair for the church, it’s fair for the hogs!"
C) You should never let a hypocrite keep you away from the house of God!
* I’m like that old country fellow who said, "I’d rather chase a rabbit and not catch it, than to chase a skunk and catch it!"
* I’d rather go to church with a few hypocrites on earth than to spend eternity with them in hell!
* There is never an excuse that God will accept for a professing Christian not to go to church!
D) How about you today? Do you really and honestly love your church?
--
EPH 4:5
