What God Expects

What God Expects

I Corinthians 4:2

A great preacher in preaching this text once declared that the very first requisite for Christian service is that a man should be a genuine and unanimous man.  That is, a man who maintains a state of honor between his soul and Christ.  God wants us to be faithful.  This requirement of being faithful includes a great many things, we can’t cover them all, but we can at least look at a couple.

Look if you will at the church.  Our church has endeared itself unto us for many years.  We love our church because we have received from it what we put into it.   I recall Mother Wiley expressing her love for Greater Faith and she began to talk about what the Church meant to him.  she talked about how much joy she got out of even the struggles, the moves the setbacks and frustrations.  I thought about it and was reminded of a story of a preacher … and that’s what Mother Wiley was saying, the more we put into our church the more we get out of it.  Many of us gain no excitement from our church because we are not excited about our church.  Maybe the problem of our enthusiasm, exhilaration, and excitement is that we don’t really understand what the church is.

So first of all, God expects us to:

recognize the church as Gods house and our Habitation.  When I lived with my parents I discovered something; that it was not my house, it was where I lived.  Don’t get me wrong, it was home, I benefited from living there, but it wasn’t mine. It was my daddy's house, my mama’s house. I lived there and their rules were my governing authority.  I had responsibilities to uphold so that I would continue benefiting from being in their house. I love going home because of what I got when I was at home, provisions were met, protection was rendered, and peace was exhibited.   So it is with the church, we love our church because it has been good to us and for us it has been:

•     our place of refuge

•     we were saved in the church

•     we were baptized here

•     we have stood with our loved ones

•     we were married in the church

•     we brought our babies to be blessed

•     we brought our departed loved ones

•     we were comforted when we were lonely

•     we were picked up when we were down

This is our church, this is Gods house, our habitation.

Secondly God expects us to remember:

Look at what God gave for His church , see God must have really loved His church, for He gave His only begotten son for His church. He sent Christ to die for His church.  Then what more can we do for our church then we are doing today.  It is difficult for some to understand the tremendous sacrifice which was necessary on the part of God for the life of His church.  It is even more difficult for some to recognize the sacrifice involved in church membership.  What if Moses decided not to make sacrifices, what if he said I’m too tired to go see Pharaoh.  What if Abraham said Isaac is all I have, wait until I get some more sons.  What if Noah came in one day from preaching, “it’s gonna rain” and decided I’m not going out any more until I at least see some dew.   What if they all decided not to make a sacrifice.  My point is that, no of us really understands all that is involved when we initially take our stand for Christ and His Church.  No one understands completely what it means to even when we become deacons, or an elder, or a minister.  We  grow however; through faith and understanding in God, that He knows what He is doing, and through Him doing what He does best. Then our eyes are opened to our responsibility .

This responsibility leads us to knowing what God expects us to give for His Church.  The text says, “it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful.”  Now if God thought enough of the church to give His only begotten Son to die on the cross for her.   What must we give as our

share?  What if your credit report was so bad, you had all kinds of blemishes, glitches, slow payments, and no payments and you had to file for bankruptcy.  What if somebody came along and paid all your bills and loans. And told you you’re debt free just pay me 10% when you get paid.

God took a bankrupt world which funds of life had been depleted by sin. God viewed mans credit report and decided to take all of mans debts and cover them with the Grace and blot out mans blemishes, and blot out mans glitches, and blot out mans slow payments with the blood of His Son on Calvary.  And yet we say we don’t owe Him a dime. 

God knew what material support would be needed for the work of His Kingdom.  That’s why He came up with His own budget.  He ordained the law of the tithe.   God Himself is the owner of all things and man is His steward.  What that means is God built the Budget and told man to manage it..

God has fixed this thing, whatever you can out live, you own. All else belongs to Him.  Now here is what I want to know what do you own?  Why are we stealing from God then.  It’s His, we keep it, and we spend it and then we put our hands behind our backs as though we don’t know what’s going on.  It is Gods law that one-tenth should be brought to the store house.  And because God works on the honor system, we are just dishonest.  God doesn’t garnish our checks, He doesn’t set up an allotment.  He works on the honor system and we steal from the man who gives us breath free. 

Guess what , a tenth is merely our obligation to the kingdom of Christ.  When we go over then we make a sacrifice.  That’s when we are giving God our devotion.  That’s when we are surrendering to Him the things which are His. Have you done all you can to advance God’s kingdom?  Have you sacrificed for your church?  Have you helped?

Have we been faithful to God?  We are in Gods house to do His works, to serve this community, to build Christian homes, to train our children, to lift burdens from weary hearts, to lead. What are you saying preacher?  Our first task is to establish the kingdom of God.  God has never asked us, how much did you do in this kingdom building?  He asks, have you been faithful?  Have you done my work? 

When we begin applying  ourselves to Gods program and cease giving him the left-overs

We will find a new and deeper joy!!

We will see His favor.  Favor is when:

•     all you see is a bad situation; but God is already on the other side of the predicament with deliverance

•     is feeling sick; but God is at the emergency room waiting

•     you’ve been evicted; God has already built you a new house

•     you lose your job; bills are still being paid

•     you lose your job; but start you own business

•     no budget but you still making payroll

I’ve learned that when you’ve been faithful.  God will take care of you.

When you’ve been faithful your problems become stepping stones.

When you’ve been faithful God rearranges your trials, and turns them into trails!

When you’ve been faithful:

•     no mountain is too hard to move

•     no valley is too low

•     no pain is too great

•     no burden is too heavy

Ain’t God somebody!!!!!!  Want He do it , Want He make a way.  I tried Him.

I almost let go.  But I can here the voice of my grandmamma say saying hold on.

I almost let go but I hear the bible saying weeping may endure for the night but joy …

I almost slipped but I hear the songwriter saying the Son is gonna shine if I hold out…