Let's get into our lesson and continuation from last week, talking about, have you ever felt used? Somebody borrow money from you and not pay you back or somebody you do this for me, I'll do that for you. And they never get around to doing that for you. And you just feel used. The question is, have you ever made God feel used? I talked to some people this last week about the glory of God and some other things, and the Lord started helping me to understand why some people just don't get it. And I've talked to Him and talked to Him for years, and some people just don't get it. And He started helping me to make that real clear in my mind and my heart. And I said, oh, okay, Lord, you know, and I began to relax a little bit. Anyway, let's get over into Deuteronomy 23. Deuteronomy 23, you ever made God feel used? We'll continue with this lesson right here and we'll see how you make God feel. Deuteronomy 23, 21 to 23. When thou shalt vow a vow unto the Lord thy God, thou shalt not slack to pay it. For the Lord thy God will surely require of thee, it would be sin in thee. But if thou shalt forbear to vow, it shall be no sin in thee. That which is gone out of thy lips, thou shalt keep and perform, even a freewill offering, according as thou hast vowed unto the Lord thy God, which thou hast promised with thy mouth. Now you start thinking about this thing, it just reminds me immediately of faith promise. You ever been involved in faith promise? I can speak for myself. Central Baptist Church out in California where I got saved, they had stuff like that. They had all of February was stewardship month. I'm glad they didn't pick April. We already had enough problems with finances in April. But they had Stewardship Month, and they also had a whole bunch of other stuff. When they would start talking about Stewardship Month, I remember a message, preacher got up there, and he takes a loaf of bread, puts it all on the pulpit, object lesson. Counts off the slices of bread, stacks them up, here's 10 slices of bread. You just give one to God, see how much you get, see how little God gets. He said, okay, how about this Sunday we swap? You keep 10 and give God 90. Say you do that? Sure I did. Then he'd get to give it all Sunday, your whole paycheck. You ever give it all? Yeah, we did. Why is that? Because when I got saved, I really cared. I felt a sense of gratitude and appreciation for what God did for me. We got saved and I said, how much money we got in the savings account? She told me, I said, tithe on it. How come? Did I feel a duty? No, it was desire. It wasn't like I felt responsible and if I didn't pay God that, he was gonna get me. If he had wanted to get me, he could have got me anytime he wanted. It wasn't like that. It was just a desire to do something for him. And so when somebody started telling me, hey, do this and do this and do this, it makes sense to me. I mean, one of the greatest sales techniques on the planet, whether you know it or not, if you're dealing with a husband and wife, As you get them on that balancing act where he's not deciding yes or no, you look at the wife, you say, would that new vacuum cleaner make you happy? You know what that is? That's using somebody's love for somebody else to get what you want. You know what happened to me when I got saved? They started using my love for God to get what they wanted. And I'll show you a little bit more of that in a second. He says, okay, we're gonna talk about doing a little more than you did last year. If you're not closer to God now than you ever were, then you're backslid. You believe that's so? I mean, you think literally Paul was backslidden a bunch of times that he messed up in his life? Peter says, I go fishing. Man, you're backslidden more now than you ever were because you're not closer to God. This thing is not a progression. Better and better every day, and if it's not getting better, then you're backslid is the devil, you know. That ain't the way it is. Is that the way it is with your children? If your child is not doing better today than he did yesterday, then he's backslidden, you know? That's not the way it is. Growth doesn't work like that. I remember my kids, they'd start growing and then they'd stop growing. Then they'd start eating, and then they'd stop eating. When they stopped eating, boy, look out, because you were about to go buy a bunch of new clothes, because them rascals would start squirting up in just days. Pretty soon their pants are up short. We're not as lucky as these guys here. They got a bunch of boys. They keep passing them down. We got a boy and a girl. And it was a little easier to put a shirt on her or pants on her. I'm glad it wasn't the other way around, because we could have never put a dress on him. I mean, I just don't work. Anyway, so they say, do a little bit more than you did last year. Well, if you're given 10%, give 15. If you're given 15, give 20. How about giving any money that you got coming in in the next three months unexpected? If you don't expect to get it, just promise that to God. Now this is all faith promise stuff. This is stuff that they talk to you about doing and doing it for who? Do it for the Lord, do it for the Lord. Can you do that for the Lord? Sure you can. But there's more to it than just doing it for the Lord. There's more to it than I'd make you happy if you had that vacuum cleaner. You wanna make her happy, don't you? God, would that make you happy if they gave more? You wanna make God happy, don't you? They don't come out and say that stuff, but it's all inferred. Boy, that starts messing stuff up like you can't believe. They give you a set amount. You say, okay, we gotta have this much. Here's our budget. And we need this money promises to come in. I remember sitting there in church Sunday night when they put a big thermometer up there on that wall. and they started having faith promise, and they'd raise the thermometer every time somebody promised a certain amount, and raise the thermometer some more, and everybody promised, you know, raise the thermometer some more, you know. I mean, it's stuff like God's got all the money he needs. Unfortunately, it's still in your pockets. Come on, there's gotta be more to it than this. What happened to my yoke is easy, my burden is light? What happened to that? What happened? I'll tell you what happened. Somebody started robbing you. What'd they rob you of? They robbed you of the affections that you have for the one that saved you. And when you got saved, you fell in love with him in a way you can't even describe. What happened to it? Laodicean church robbed it from you. Anyway, they got Christian motivation. You can't out give God, you ever heard that? You ever tried? I did. He said, well, you can't out-give God. You just start giving away all your money to God and see what happens. You think it's bad right now in the economy, you won't be making your mortgage payments, you won't be able to buy food, just give it all away and see what happens. You watch. You know why? Because that's not of God. That's not the way he planned it, that's not the way he designed it. It wasn't a challenge to see if you can out-give me. It was to prove me herewith, saith the Lord. You wanna do these things? Okay, I'll honor that. But he also says you're supposed to dwell with your wife according to knowledge too. What's that mean? That means there's more going on here than meets the eye. There's a whole lot more responsibilities than just God wants your money. Does God want your money? You think he does? What's he really want? He wants your passion. He wants you to be so in love with him that you desire to give it all. You know what? He'd count that just the same as giving it all. Why? Whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all to the glory of God. Wait a minute, you mean God, if I go down here and I buy a tank of gas, I don't have to put it in a plate to be giving you glory? You're not gonna hear that, are you? You mean if I go to Walmart and buy me a steak dinner for me and my wife that I don't have to feel guilty about it because of the starving Chinese? Listen, God give you what he wants you to have and what he wants back from you, not just your gratitude. Don't you think kids are grateful when they get Christmas presents? Don't you think they're grateful when they get some kind of great gift like a new car or something for graduation? Don't you think that gratitude is there? Don't they go out and still kill themselves in them? You think that's what God wants, just your gratitude? No, he wants you to appreciate him more for it and reverence him more. He wants you to really appreciate who He is and be in awe of Him. Fear with admiration. Thanks, Dad, for the car. I'm gonna use that in awe of who you are, Dad. That's the way it's supposed to be. It isn't supposed to be to consume it upon your lusts. It's totally different than what we've been led into thinking. Why? Because they want something from you. I don't want anything from you. I just want you to glorify God. Why do I want that? Because that's what he wants. And I know he wants that. Anyway, they said, you can't out-give God. We've got a need. Our budget for the missions is so much. These missionaries need this much. We've got church ministries, like American Christian Academy. They need a certain amount of money to keep operating. I'm still talking about out in California when I first got saved. The stuff that really messed me up as a Christian, and I regret it right now more than I've ever regret. Bus ministries run 50 buses. You know how much it takes just in gasoline to run those gas guzzlers? And they weren't running them just right down the street. 50 buses, believe me, those things were spread out for more than 60, 70 miles out there. There was 20 million people within one hour of our house when we lived out there. And they were running those buses some 35 and 40 miles away each direction to pick up as many kids as they could pick up. You say, well, isn't that a good thing? Listen, listen close. By their fruit you shall know them. They had 2,000 baptized in one year. You know how much the attendance changed? Almost zero. You know where most of the good people came from? Other churches. They didn't come from people getting saved, born again, washed in the blood, regenerated, new creature in Christ Jesus, in love with their creator and desiring to do stuff for him. They came from someplace else they were unhappy with. How come? Church splits. Herein shall men know that you are my disciples, that you have love one for another. I love you in the Lord, but I hate you in the flesh. What a mess. Anyway, this thing has gotten to the point where it's like Laodicean church sales, and I'm a little more off the subject than I wanna be right here, but anyway, what are church sales? They sell the church. We got this dandy little preacher If you knew how much this preacher loved us, boy, he loves his congregation. He's been to seminary. He's got all these degrees. He's been to the mission field. He's done all of these great and wonderful, magnificent things. He travels to all of these big churches and preaches. This guy is somebody. PhD, written all these books and everything. You say you're down on everybody like that? No, I'm down on you selling him. He is not what the church is about. He was not what it was for. He'll never be what it was for. What else do they sell? Well, they don't just sell the preacher. They sell the music program. They sell the youth program. They sell their Christian golf school. You say, is anything wrong with Christian golf? Absolutely not. He's given us all things richly to enjoy, but it isn't about golf. It isn't about how much you can learn to be a better golfer so that you can go fellowship with more of the church people and so that there's no reason for you to leave here at all because we got everything you could possibly want. That's not what it's about, never has been. Buildings, budget, all this other stuff. What about the singles ministry? What about their doctrine, their soul winning program, their seniors program? They have to keep selling it. What about this stuff where they've got community influence? A mayor goes to our church. We got some big business people here in our church. They give you the business if you're not careful. I'll tell you what we got here. We got a few people that care more about each other than they care about fighting. And every once in a while we get in a flush, because we're all sinners. And you get your mind off of who it's all about, and you get your mind on yourself and the problems and your opinion and stuff like that. And hopefully you keep coming back so you get straightened back out. So you say, oh man, I forgot about you, Lord. I was so wrapped up in myself. You are fantastic, aren't ya? Ah, yeah, now everything's starting to feel better. when you begin to think of his ability and his absolutely unrivaled brilliance. When you think in those terms, nothing else matters. You don't have any depression. You don't have any financial problems. When you're thinking about him, man, everything's right with everything that he created. Why? Because of who he is. What in the world is this one that you're thinking of and the one that made us capable of? We kind of forgot that, didn't we? Oh God, help. We kind of forgot who we're talking to, didn't we? That he knows what we need up before we ask. Hadn't he ever bailed you out before you asked him? Doesn't he love you so much that he let his son die for you? Didn't he buy you at a price? You have some kind of a special value to him, precious in the sight of the Lord, the death of his saints? Maybe that's all he's interested in, saying, hey, you're done down there, come on up here with me. Man, everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to be on the next load, you know? Anyway, what else do they sell? God and country, the size of the church. Is this what the church is all about? What about the lives being changed? What about something God's actually doing? Tell me something with substance. Don't sell me on a program to get me to come to your church to put money in your offering plate so that I can go and teach in your classes and bring more friends and more visitors and build the church and get bigger buildings so we can get more people so we can build bigger buildings. I mean, there are some huge Christian ministries, some of them right here in this town. Supposing gain is godliness. What is godliness? Is it how many souls you win? What is it? What is godliness? That is when your heart and your affections are so stirred by just the mention of His name that you see Him, you begin to envision Him. Your thoughts immediately turn back to the fact that it's He that made us, not we ourselves. In Him I live and move and have my being. That's what it is. It's godly-minded. Ah, that guy is so heavenly-minded, he ain't no earthly good. That's right. When you get that godly mind and you aren't any good to hardly anybody except the Lord. Why? Because he can't get you to do anything. That guy can't make you do anything. What happens then? Okay, it's he that worketh in me both the will and do of his good pleasure. That's what happens. You change in such drastic ways that things that used to bother you don't bother you anymore. Your desires are totally different. Your responses to God are different. When you begin to sing the song, something happens between the words in your heart. That's what happens. You see the magnificence of his creation and your thoughts go to him. It's not just, isn't that pretty? It's, oh my Lord, you really do stuff. We paint pictures and take photographs and all of our stuff is still art. God's is alive. He doesn't do anything that's fixed. It's all live, it's all moving. You say, what about half dome up there? Every molecule in the thing's moving. Every molecule, it's all moving. And if that weren't enough, He constantly changes the light on it from day to day, season to season, year to year, just a fixed object. He'll make those shadows change. He'll make the birds fly over that thing. He'll make the clouds come over it. He'll have thunderstorms happening, living art. That's our creator. Where are those things in the church today? How come somebody's not saying, boy, we had 35 people saved, and every one of them just fell in love with God? Their hearts are stirred, their families are straightened out, they quit doing all of this stuff, and they come to church with this load lifted and joy, and just absolutely can't wait to be there. That's the way I was when I first got saved. Before my wife got in that hospital, I was miserable. I'd got to the point where it was just pure duty. Anyway, let's get back to this. What are you talking about? Faith promise. Now, you guys want to do something for God? You can't out-give God. You know, by and by, when you look on His face, you'll wish you had given Him more. This is not to be entered into lightly or unadvisedly. You ever heard those phrases? We only hear that about a wedding. Why? When thou shalt vow a vow unto the Lord thy God, thou shalt not slack to pay it, for the Lord thy God will surely require it of thee, and it would be sin in thee. You're not gonna hear this, but if thou shalt forbear to vow, there shall be no sin in thee. You're not gonna hear that stuff. Why? Because they're interested in you buying that vacuum cleaner for your wife. That's exactly what's going on. When he said, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it? And there's none that doeth good, he didn't exclude preachers. And he sure didn't exclude you. We are all sinners, all of us. Now, I'm not looking down on anybody. I'm just saying that I resent the fact that somebody stole my love for God and converted it into working to accomplish their desires, not my father's desires. You're not gonna hear it. God takes this real serious. You're not gonna hear that. Why? They want that thermometer to go shooting on up there. You know how many of those people promise and never do it? You have any idea? There's a bunch of them. Well, things didn't go the way I thought. That's why they got to that point where they say, well, anything that comes in over the next three months, you promise to give that to God too? What a mess. They're just taking advantage of the numbers. Oh no, that's God. Listen, if God wanted money, you think he needs yours? If he owns the cattle on a thousand hills and he owns the hills and he owns the oil under the hills, what do you have that God needs? You say, what are you getting on this for? You ever make God feel used? Why is that? You ever promise something to God and not fulfill it? I promise to pay you back. Okay, well, you're a good friend of mine. Here's the money. Well, as soon as I get paid, oh, well, I had some unexpected bills. Never get it. Destroys the friendship. Our sin hath separated us from our God. It shall be sin in thee. Oh, wait a minute, God forgave all my sins. When he's talking about that stuff, he's talking about fellowship. That thing back there in 1 John where he's talking about fellowship. He's talking about he that saith he hath not sinned is a liar, and the truth is not in him. That stuff is about fellowship. But if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins. Anyway, you're not gonna hear this. 2 Corinthians 9-7, every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give. Listen, not grudgingly, nor of necessity, for God loveth the cheerful giver. You are not supposed to give because of the need. What's our need? For the buses, for the ministries, radio program, TV program, we got all this insurance we gotta pay on these buildings and all the rest of this stuff? Not grudgingly, nor of necessity, for God loveth the cheerful giver. You know what stirred the Lord about that woman that gave those two mites? Because she loved enough to give. and she loved enough to give of her necessity. She wasn't trying to out-give God. That's what stirs him. He loves a cheerful giver. Now let me ask you this. When was the last time you put money in the offering plate and you cheered up because of it? Literally, you cheered up, like somebody telling you a joke. You see how messed up we are? I'm serious about this, I'm dead serious. We don't take God serious at his word, we don't. He didn't say give because it's your duty and your responsibility, and now it's become habit. He didn't say give because, OK, you purpose and there's a 10%. Well, it's not grudgingly. It's not of necessity. Not cheerful either. How come? You're not in love with him enough. You don't have the desire to do something back for him. How come we don't love him enough? Because our attention's been drawn to the work, not to him. That's why. Anyway, now we're gonna get off this subject just a little bit, help you try to understand more of this stuff about the Laodicean Church. You say, why are we going here? Because of some of the conversations I've had this last week. Lord, start opening my understanding, you know, to why some people don't get it. I'm just gonna turn off most Laodicean Church members. If I'm not already turned off, they haven't already shut off the CD. Why is that? Because there's something going on in their heart that resists everything I'm saying. You know why? because they're just like Cain. Their heart's just like Cain. They want to feel a sense of accomplishment by doing something for God, and they hang on to that stuff like hanging on to a tiger by the tail. They're just like Cain. And they get a feeling of pride and accomplishment and self-worth by putting more in the offering plate, by working harder, by doing more. You say, what are you trying to do? Get everybody to just stop doing anything? No, I'm trying to get you to stop doing it for the wrong reason and start doing it for the right reason. And the only way that's gonna happen is not because I'm telling you that you can't out-give God, it's because you fall in love with him brand new and all over again and afresh to where you have the desires that you were missing. And you begin to give, not grudgingly or in necessity, but out of a cheerful heart. That's what's missing. Can't you see clearly how this thing ties back into, I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot. So then, because thou art neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth. Thou sayest, I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing. We got all the answers. We got all the programs. We've got everything we need. Yeah, well, how many cheerful givers do you have? Oh, well, all our people are cheerful givers, you know. They're all doing it for God. Are they really? Is that in their heart or in their mind? Is that grudgingly? I wonder how many of them paid those bills out of a grudging heart because the preacher talked them into it. And unlike a vacuum cleaner, you couldn't get out of it three days later. You ever think in those terms about how messed up the church is and why it's so messed up? It's messed up because the people in the pews don't love God like they ought to love Him. If you don't get the first commandment right, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart. with all thy soul, with all thy strength, and with all thy mind. If you don't get that one right, you're vulnerable. And that's the truth. You think if you love God like that, anybody could distract you? Not likely. The problem is that the Laodicean church members are Martha. And we'll look at that next week. And I don't mean like Martha, they are Martha. And like I said before, for years, I would read that passage. And every time I read that about Martha and Mary, I'd look at that thing and just shake my head and say, well, somebody has to do the work. Does somebody have to sit in the nursery? Does somebody have to teach these kids over there in order to have a Sunday school class? Does somebody have to go to the mission field to have missionaries out there? Does somebody have to sit up there in that sound booth or in other places where they're really distracted? This and here is pretty good. Does somebody have to do that? Well, yeah, if nobody does it, it ain't gonna get done, right? That's because I was a Laodicean church member, and I had no understanding, just like Martha, until he began to open my understanding about these things, and we'll start with this next week. Let's close in prayer.