The Family Who Stole From God Series

In the 10 Commandments God declared:

“….I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.” Exodus 20:5b-6

I explained: If you continue living like this, you are showing hatred to God and what you’re doing will bring disaster – not just on you – but on your kids!!!

PAUSE

CLOSE: The story of Achan is a cautionary tale to God’s people.

Israel let sin in the camp… and the suffered death and defeat because of it.

I’m NOT preaching this sermon this morning because this congregation needs to hear it. This church does not have this problem because you have an Eldership who refuses to look the other way when sin is in the camp. If someone is caught in a sin the Eldership confronts them gently, explaining the consequences of sin and the need for repentance. We even offer counseling and other assistance to help a sister or brother in Christ deal with their sin.

But this church would never look the other way.

This is TOO important for us to believe we can ignore sin and still be blessed by God

But I’m preaching this sermon because one day this Eldership might not be here.

One day, you might even have to move to another community and be part of another church that has a problem like this.

ILLUS: This issue is an important one to me, because this is what happened to my home church. The problem had apparently occurred when I was still a young boy, but this is the story as my mother related it to me:

It was a great church. Large sanctuary. 600 members. Everybody who was anybody was part of that church. They had doctors and lawyers and politicians in the pews. And they hired the best preachers money could buy. And they were good Godly preachers.

Then one day, one of those preachers discovered that the leading Elder in the church had a couple of girlfriends on the side. He confronted the Elder, and fired him. But a few years later that preacher moved on… and the church put that (apparently still unrepentant) Elder back into his position. Part of the reason they did this was because that Elder was a very wealthy man. If financial problems arose he was the go-to man to find the solution.

But God is not mocked.

One day that large powerful church found itself in financial difficulties. Even with several hundred wealthy members they were in the red and they couldn’t figure out why.

Then they discovered that the deacon in charge of the financial books… was keeping two sets of books.

So, the Elder who’d been fired and reinstated went out to that Deacon’s home… and he burned the books!!! He wasn’t going to allow even a hint of scandal to haunt HIS church.

Well, it wasn’t long after that that church split. And the new congregation refused to have Elders for the NEXT 20 YEARS.

After my mom told me that story, I swore that would never happen on my watch. Now that probably contributed to the fact that I’ve been fired from two churches in my career. But that doesn’t matter. I will never allow hidden sin to be overlooked as long as I live.