Today is our 2nd Sunday in our new summer worship emphasis both in worship and in our small group SS classes called, “A place in HIStory!” What we are learning together this summer is how each of us directly and intentionally fit into God’s entire story as recorded in the Bible! Each of us will learn how we are not here by accident, how we have a place and purpose in this world, and the kind of people we are to be for the Lord in this world and in this church.
Today with that in mind I want to talk to you about being Godless in God’s House. Now I realize that sounds like an oxymoron, but let me tell you what I mean. What I want you to understand is that you can be in church…involved in God’s house every week and be Godless. In fact, Godlessness is easier than you may think. It does not require that you murder someone, steal, lie, curse, or even stay out of church. The truth is that you can come to church 80% of the time, give an offering, hold a position, sing in the choir, be on stage, serve on a committee, engage in a ministry, sing worship songs, and maintain a wonderful “Christian” reputation among every and at the same time you can be living a life completely devoid of the influence of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let me make it easier…To live a Godless life, all you have to do is leave God out of the picture. Just don’t bring the Lord into your day to day living, thinking, decision making, or life and….POOF…you have Godlessness in God’s House!
The truth is that it is easy to lead the Godless lifestyle in church. You do not have to do anything overtly evil. Even while being Godless you can raise a good family, build a successful career, be considered an exemplary employee or student, be recognized for doing good deeds, and fill your life with church activities. In fact, you can have an very outgoing personality, be skilled and knowledgeable in certain areas, appear to be trustworthy or a good leader, and you can be GODLESS and still be in a committee at the church, hold a position of leadership, and even lead a group in the church.
The only drawback is, of course, you are doing it all without God…His power…His strength…His vision…or His purpose. You are doing it all empty on the inside of your spiritual life and Godless. If you do not believe me, listen first of all to Jesus in Matthew 7:19-22: 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them. 21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
Look also at our scripture this morning as we look at the life of Cain. Here we see an example of a man who knew the Lord in his head, but not in his heart. He served God out of duty and not out of devotion. He was Godless in God’s world.
When we read this story today and look at Cain, I do not want you to compare yourself to him and say, “Well I have never murdered my brother.” If you do that then you miss the point. I want you to see the mind set and the attitude of Cain that led to that event. For you the event is probably not going to be murder, but something else. Let’s look at some characteristics of those who are Godless in God’s House and ask, “Am I guilty?”
I. THE GODLESS NURTURE A FALSE FRONT
On the surface Cain appeared to be religious, God-fearing, and a servant of God. Anyone who would have seen him going to worship that day carrying his offering would’ve thought him to be a man of faith…a pillar church member…a leader in the community. But what we know is that once the offering is offered to God, Cain is revealed as being a man who is Godless. It was all a charade. It was a false front. It was nothing more than pretend. He was posing as a worshipper and follower of the Lord, when in his heart he was not.
Look at the offerings…giving this to God was an act of worship. It is not a issue of amount, but an issue of attitude toward God. On the surface there seems to be no real difference in the actual offerings. Both gave from what they produced. However, when God looked at their worship…looked past the exterior…looked past the false front everyone else would have seen and looked at Cain’s heart, there was a vast difference. He was a spiritual poser….a faker…He was Godless in God’s house!
This happens in church all the time. There are those even here who are putting up a great false front today. You’ve done an exceptional job of fooling all of us here. You have convinced us you love the Lord, want to serve others, and are saved. All we can see is the outside. BUT…today God is not looking at our outward or external appearances. God is looking at our hearts. The LORD once told Samuel these words in 1 Sam. 16:7: The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”
There is a principle we need to learn here this morning: Religious activity for the Lord is not necessarily a sign of an authentic Relationship with the Lord. I could talk about that further, but I believe you know exactly what I am talking about today.
II. THE GODLESS NULLIFY THE APPLICATION OF FAITH (4-5)
What we learn about Cain’s worship before the Lord is that his worship was not offered to God out of devotion for God, but simply out of duty to God. The writer of Hebrews gives us some insight into this in Hebrews 11:4 when he said, “By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead.”
Obviously we learn that Abel offered his worship to God in faith and Cain did not. In our passage it says that Cain became downcast. This means he pouted because he thought God owed him something. He went through the whole religious routine. He checked off this duties and performed his religious activities, and now God was supposed to answer to Cain. God was supposed to bless his life and fill his life with good things.
Cain acted as if the things of God were optional for him. God’s Word…God’s purposes…those things of God just didn’t apply to him. He was above all of that kind of stuff. He didn’t need real faith, he only needed to appear faithful.
Lots of folks come to God’s house and appear to be faithful, when there are really faithless. How do we know? Let them be tested with hardship, problems, sorrow, suffering, or grief. Let them be tested with inconvenience at their church. Let someone challenge their authority. Just force them to make changes THEY do not agree with and all of a sudden their faithlessness or Godlessness is revealed in how they act and react to God and fellow church members.
III. THE GODLESS NEVER ADMIT FAULT (5)
Again…notice Cain’s reaction toward God. He became angry with God and his brother!
Think about it for a moment…The Lord…the Creator of all things has just rejected your worship and exposed you as a fake…How do you react? Do you not cry out to God and ask, “Please Lord, show me what is wrong with me? Show me my failures? Expose the truth of my life to me so that I might change and I might worship you?”
This is not what Cain did! Cain pouted and was angry. Cain victimized himself. Rather than being honest about his life, Cain did what the Godless always do, he blamed God and he blamed his brother. He did not take responsibility for his own life, his own actions, or his self-centered attitude of worship toward God.
Whenever God exposes our sin we have a choice to make: We can choose to crowd out the Lord in our self-centeredness or we can cry out to the Lord in sorrow! That is it…we can choose to seek revenge or we can repent…we can victimize self or we can have victory over sin…we can choose accuse God to His face or we accept His forgiveness. The choice is totally ours to make.
Ok…let me show you what a good God we serve…a God filled with patience and love…goodness and compassion…Let me show you have God is a God of second chances, mercy, and grace to us this morning. Let me show you have we have “A Place in HIStory.”
Look again at verses 6-7
Do you see what God did there? God gave Cain a 2nd chance. God instructed Cain and gave him an opportunity to change his heart. The issue was never the amount of the offering, but the attitude of his heart in worshipping God.
Let’s be practical right now….
What matters most to God this morning is your heart toward Him. Do you have a heart that this authentic in its relationship with the Lord or is all of this just one big lie you are telling to us, to your family, and to yourself? That is the issue!
Do you not realize that what God wants from you this morning is not your money, your ministry, or your skills, gifts, and abilities? What God wants from you this morning is one thing: HE WANTS YOU! He wants you to freely come to Him with a heart of love, sacrifice, and humility. If he really has you then he will automatically have all those others things and if God does not already get all those other things from you then He probably doesn’t have you.
Still there are some of you here today at FBC and you are giving your time, your talents, you abilities, you resources, and other things and the sad reality is that these things are totally unacceptable to God if your heart is not right with Him. Remember again what Jesus said in Matt 7:22-23? 22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
To show you that you have “A Place in HIStory” I have some good news for you this morning. If today you have realize your life is characterized by Godlessness. Today if you find that you are being exposed by God as nothing more than a spiritual faker…a poser…your spiritual life is a one person play starring you, but is absent of God…then I want you to know that the opportunity is at hand for you to make the right kind of offering today to God by faith, but coming and giving yourself completely to Him, letting Him forgive your sins, and take control of your life.
How can you do this?
* You must first admit to God that you have sin in your life that you cannot fix and only God can forgive.
* You must admit your belief that Jesus died on the cross for that sin and rose from the grave on the 3rd day.
* You must ask God to forgive your sin and allow Him to come into your life and take control.
It is hard to dress up every Sunday and pretend isn’t it? You know it is. So today the only real question is this: Will Jesus become the Lord of your life or will you allow your pride to stand in the way, be your excuse, and will you keep on pretending?
