Why Am I The Underdog

God often allows the ungodly to amass great wealth--to their destruction. But if you are one with whom God is dealing and if you put the pursuit of riches (or anything else) before service to Christ, God may take away those riches (and other things) until you turn to Him. Some years ago Donald Grey Barnhouse was counseling a young woman on the sidewalk in front of Tenth Presbyterian Church following an evening service. She said she was a Christian and that she wanted to follow Christ. But she wanted to be famous too. She wanted to pursue a stage career in New York. "After I have made it in the theater, I'll follow Christ completely," she said. Barnhouse took a key out of his pocket and scratched a mark on a postal box standing on the corner. "That is what God will let you do," he said. "God will let you scratch the surface of success. He will let you get close enough to the top to know what it is, but He will never let you have it, because He will never let one of His children have anything rather than Himself."

Years later he met the girl again, and she confessed that this had indeed been her life story. She had dabbled in the stage. Once her picture had been in a national magazine. But she had never quite made it. She told Barnhouse, "I can't tell you how many times in my discouragement I have closed my eyes and seen you scratching on that postal box with your key. God let me scratch the edges, but He gave me nothing in place of Himself."

Beloved this morning who is God in competition with in your life, for your time and your heart? As we have heard our illustration this morning this gives you and I a great truth that God is in complete competition with others when it comes to His creation. Here we have the God that created us, formed us, gave us life and yet we can be guilty to place things that have no profit for our souls before Him. Beloved God will not share you with anyone or anything. He wants you all to Himself. Who is our Savior competing with this for your life this morning?

“I gave you my heart in writing”

Beloved this morning if we could be honest with God we have beyond a shadow of a doubt have violated the very first commandment of which was given us. Yet in this God is in pursuit man. What commandment is that Pastor? The commandment of not placing anything before our God. As we look at our generation I see that they have become independent of God and have become Gods in their own minds, in their own hearts and in their own beliefs. Now how could that have happened beloved? I want this question to sit with you this morning and ask yourself, how could this have happened? See God gave us His heart in writing when He gave us these commandments. Well, beloved the answer is simple, because the generation before did not place God first He was made last to those who He saw who was first in His sight.

Exodus 20:1-3

1 And God spoke all these words, saying: 2“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 3“You shall have no other gods before Me.

As we look at our scripture this morning what we have is a commandment written by the hand of God for His people not only of that time but also of today. Beloved we serve a jealous God who is rightly to be so as we have been formed and created by His word, in His image to give Him glory and Him alone.

It is a law of His own speaking. God has many ways of speaking to the children of men once, yea twice--by his Spirit, by conscience, by providences, by his voice, all which we ought carefully to attend to; but he never spoke, at any time, upon any occasion, as he spoke the Ten Commandments, which therefore we ought to hear with the more earnest heed. They were not only spoken audibly, but with a great deal of dreadful pomp. This law God had given to man before (it was written in his heart by nature); but sin had so defaced that writing that it was necessary, in this manner, to revive the knowledge of it.

Never had God spoke to men in such a way that He made His voice heard by many concerning His command. As we see here God wrote on tablets what was in His heart for His people.