Are You Stealing God's Glory Without Realizing It? | Big Ten Week 3

You've been counting the Ten Commandments wrong your entire life. The ancient Hebrews didn't even call them commandments. They called them the Ten Words. And the way they counted them, the way they ordered them, tells a story most of us have never been told. We've turned them into a checklist, a test to pass, a moral fence to stay behind. But what if locked inside these ancient stone tablets lay a wealth of wisdom about who we are and who God calls us to be? Two tablets. Ten words. One story still shaping the world. Let me ask you a question. And I'm not going to ask you to hold your hands up because many of us would be embarrassed, but with all the people this weekend on our campus, would you agree that tons of people have been the victims of identity theft? We hate identity theft. We do everything to protect ourselves with passwords. My daughter, Faith, mine and Michelle's daughter, our oldest child, has worked in the insurance industry for years. And she worked for an agency in Knoxville. And several years ago, while she was at work one day, in the middle of the day, FBI and SWAT hit every door simultaneously. They rocked that building. They wore flap jackets, bulletproof, automatic weapons at the ready. They hit every door and nobody moved. He went to my daughter, told her the FBI said, back away from the computer, ma'am. She began to cry.

My grandfather's an FBI. My grandfather's the FBI. He said, man, you're fine. You're okay. Just don't touch the computer. And they came in that day. And what they had found out is the owner of that company had stolen millions of dollars from his clients. People lost all their money. People lost their businesses. People lost their retirements. It was horrific. But what was worse on my daughter than the day that the FBI broke in was the next day and the next day and the next weeks, as she was back at her desk at the receptionist, answering the phone to the question is, where's my money? To which she would cry and say, I'm sorry. All your money was stolen. They lost businesses. People lost their homes. They lost everything. And all faith could do day after day was weep with the people on the phone that their livelihood had been stolen. That's easy to be angry about that, isn't it? People didn't have recourse. There were laws in place, and yet those laws were broken. And what most of us would say is I would never do what that man did. But there is a theft that all of us have committed. And the victim is God, and we never realize we do it. How you carry the name of Jesus, it is easy to steal his glory.

It's going to be a new thought for some people, and today we're going to talk about it. Who's fired up to be in the house of God this weekend? Come on. Wow. Bagged by popular demand, had to bring Dr. Big Daddy back to try to straighten this thing out. Come on, somebody. Great to see you. Welcome to all of our campuses. We're thrilled you're with us. God behind bars, we love you men and women. All of our campuses, super stoked that you're with us. Online, win community sites all across the state. We're thrilled you picked a great weekend to worship with us. If you're a guest, again, we're super stoked that you are with us. In July, we're going to begin a new series, and it's going to be on spiritual warfare. And so if you want to get ahead, you really want to dive in, I want to encourage you to pick up a very old book by what would be the last century's one of the greatest minds in the kingdom of God, C.S. Lewis. And C.S. Lewis wrote a book called The Screwtape Letters. It's an allegory of spiritual warfare. And we want to help because as pastors, it's our job to equip you to win your war and to walk and to win your world. And we want to add the greatest value we can. So you're going to help us, again, shape the content for the weekend.

On the screen at all of our campuses, there's a QR code that's popping up. Click that QR code and do me a favor. If you've got a spiritual warfare question, put it in, because we're right now building the biblical base for that. And we will take your questions like we did on the Tough Topics series, and we'll rank them according to how many people asked that question. So if you'll do that, that'll help us. By the way, we're in the middle of a series called The Big Ten on the Ten Commandments. This is the third weekend of the series, and it has been incredible, by the way. First series, Pastor Zach killed it, and I'm learning something every weekend. Last weekend with the campus pastor, did Pastor Chase kill it at Pellissippi? Come on, somebody, that was awesome. I was able to be with our North Knots campus. Oh man, those folks are rocking it. It's so good to be with y'all, whatever campus. And so when the original ten were given, Moses took two stone tablets and brought them with him up to the mountain of God and got etched the Ten Commandments, or what they call the Ten Words. Five on one, five on the other, and they lined up across. And so today we're gonna talk about commandment number three, you should not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, and commandment number eight, you shall not steal,

and we're gonna see how those line up. And today we're gonna talk about if you carry his name, you can't steal his glory. So anybody here a Christ follower? Anybody here, if you're driving, keep your hand on the wheel, all right. So if you're a Christ follower, then you bear the name of Jesus, you're a name bearer. When you said yes to Jesus, then he put his brand on you, like a baptism we just saw is like a wedding ring that symbolizes this. If you're ready, say I'm ready. I belong to someone else. Anybody who looks at that knows I have a wife, I belong to her alone. But everybody that's born again, we belong to God. The Bible says you are not your own, you are bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your mortal bodies. The great gift of being a Christian is you get to bear his name. The great weight of being a Christ follower is that you bear his name. Wherever you go, wherever you're at, his name goes with you, and the Bible says you are an ambassador of the kingdom of God. So wherever you do, whatever you say, his brand is on you. Now, few of us will commit identity theft this week, but all of us have stolen God's glory and never realized it. And some of us have stolen and not realizing it.

Commandment number eight, hours you build you didn't work, credit you took that didn't belong to you, a reputation that you shredded with a comment in the break room, the attention that you refuse to give your kids or your spouse when you come home from work because you're too tired, the generosity you refuse to give to someone that you see that's in need. Many of us that claim the name of Jesus live like we've never met him. Each one is an identity theft, identity theft. Number eight says, don't take what's not yours. Number three says, taking his name in vain, using it for your own purposes, using it for you and not for him. Now we have four values. Come on, if you know what I'm saying with me, love God, love people, discover your purpose, win your world. This message is anchored to value number four, win your world. Why? Because as a bearer of the name of Jesus, you win your world by how you carry his name, how people see. And your family's watching you, your neighbors are watching you, your teammates are watching you,

your coworkers, your classmates, they're all watching you and you carry the brand. What are they reading? What are they seeing when they see you? Does your brand point to Jesus? Are you what he said you would be, salt and light? Commandment number three, don't take the name of the Lord in vain. What does it say? Listen, do not take the name of the Lord in vain. How many sermons do you listen to and not do? How many songs do you sing and not believe? Stealing stuff or stealing his glory, it's the same thing. Taking credit for what he did as if you did it is stealing his glory. It's like stolen valor. Now, Here's the problem, the more blessed you are, and I'm telling you, we have thousands of blessed people this weekend at Faith Promise, don't we? Come on, we might talk to some blessed people. Now, the problem is this. The more blessed you are, the more tempted you'll be to take credit for it. Now, Michelle and I, man, we are so blessed, it's ridiculous. It is ridiculous. And as we travel and coach and write and preach at churches and do lots of stuff now representing you, I hear it all the time, I can't believe what you did.

I can't believe that a church could be that big in Knoxville, Tennessee. And people are just, they're just flooding over me. And if I'm not very, very careful, it's easy for my pride to get stroked. Are you with me? I did do a great job, didn't I? Wow, look at that incredible thing I built. I worked, I did. Do you hear it? If you ever see a turtle on a fence post, you know one thing, somebody put him up there. And my home office is a painting of a turtle on a fence post. By my dorm office is a section of fence with a rubber turtle on the fence post. You know why? Every time I walk in and every time I walk out, hey, Chris, you didn't get here on your own. God put you here. And I have, listen, Michelle and I have great kids. Pastor Zach, he's pretty good. Micah, Faith, we have incredible kids. And people will say, man, how did you raise such great kids? And I'm gonna say, I'm not that good. I was very inconsistent. I didn't do family devotions well. I can list more I did badly as a father than what I did. What I did right, Michelle was way better than I was. But here's the deal, I'm not as good as I look.

And every good and perfect gift comes from God. Are you with me? You see, when you steal his glory, he can't trust you with more favor. But we are all tempted to do it. Now, the first five commandments are vertical. They're us and God. Don't take his name in vain. Don't have any other gods before me. Thou shalt not, you know, make idols. We got all these, and then the second five are horizontal. Don't take God's name. Don't take people's stuff. It runs like that. Now, what we tend to think, we've grown up in a culture, the commandment number three is about don't use God's name as a cuss word. Are you with me? I can remember in sixth grade, I said, God. And the teacher thought I said, God. She walked over, she was four feet tall. She was five feet wide. She was Ms. Square Bob, Square Pants, whatever that little dude was, Square, SpongeBob. Except she was mean, he's nice. She walked over to my desk. She grabbed me by the hair of the head. She slid me out of my desk and up and turned me around to her face. And I'm glad she didn't kill me

because I wasn't saved yet. And did you take the name of the Lord in vain, boy? She was huge, scared me to death. See, when you make, and that is part of what this commandment says, but when you make it only about a cuss word, you so shrink this commandment down, it's ridiculous. It's ridiculous to how we shrink it down. And as we shrink it down, it lets us off the hook. Therefore, I can steal God's credit and I can steal God's glory and I haven't broken the 10 commandments. If you carry his name, you can't steal his glory. Yet, how many Christ followers carry his name and live like our lives are our own? See, when you got saved, those of us that are born again, you put his uniform on and your name is not on the back of Jersey, it says Jesus on the back of your Jersey. Are you with me? King Jesus, every word you speak is his, every dollar you earn is his, every hour you have is his, every relationship you're involved with is his. It is all his. What did Jesus say? Pray, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth, in my life, in my family, in my heart, as it is in heaven. Your will be done, not my will, yours. He gave his life on a cross and he bought you.

Are you living like he owns you? Chapter 20, Exodus verse seven. We've quoted a bunch already. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes his name in vain. Now, biblical times, Old Testament, they feared God more than we do. Because we break the Ten Commandments, are you ever worried about punishment? Come on, never. There's not a lot of fear of God. That's why there's not a lot of wisdom. Because the fear of the Lord is the beginning of what? Wisdom. Now again, we learn from an early age. I learned in sixth grade, you don't cuss with his name. If you hit your thumb with a hammer, you don't scream out his name. Don't take his name in vain. The Greek word is nasa, which is to lift or to bury or to carry. And so let me put that, those Hebrew words in. You shall not lift up the name of the Lord your God in emptiness. You shall not carry the name of the Lord your God in vain. How many preachers pull the God card and end the debate about a decision when they say, well, God told me.

That's taking his name in vain. That's using his name for your purposes. Does this make sense? Listen, before it's over, I'm gonna get everybody. If I ain't got you yet, it's coming. I'm an equal opportunity pastor. I hadn't preached in a month, so y'all need it. Come on, y'all with me? And so the third commandment is not so much about your speech, it's about your lifestyle. It's about your ownership. It's about you're a walking billboard for Jesus. Now in biblical times, kings would brand their soldiers and brand their servants or their slaves. Remember the movie Gladiator? He takes a knife and he cuts off the brand of the Roman legion because he was in the Roman legion. See, kings would mark soldiers and servants and they represented the king. Therefore, they could not mar the king's reputation. And the brand is not jewelry, it's a responsibility. At salvation, he didn't just forgive you of your sins, he branded you, he sealed you, he put his Holy Spirit on you. He gave us a down payment of what was to come. Now, let me give you a powerful and very painful illustration about what I'm telling you. In Joshua chapter seven, we find the story of a man called Achan. Now, there's only two people that were alive

that were over 20 years of age that got to go on the promised land, Joshua and Caleb. Everybody else died in the wilderness, including Moses and Aaron. And so they get ready to go, God parts the water of the Jordan River, they march across, they go and they march around and they destroy the city of Jericho. High walls, shouldn't have been able to get in, but God brought the walls down, but God said this. Now, listen, Joshua, everything in the city of Jericho is mine. Do not take anything for yourself. It's the principle of the first, the first 10%. It's the principles all through the Bible. And so don't take anything. And so they go, the walls fall, they raise the city, they do it, they win, they celebrate, they go to the next city, which is Ai, small, easy to defeat. They don't even take the whole army. Israel gets their butts kicked. They run back to camp. 36 Israeli soldiers are dead and they all begin to lament before God. Why God did you bring us over? Why did you let us lose? What is the deal? In verse 11 of chapter seven, Israel has sinned. Listen to me.

When you think your sin only hurts you, you are smoking crack. There is no such thing as a sin that only hurts me. It hurts all of us. Israel sinned. They've also transgressed my covenant, which I commanded them. They have taken some of the things under the ban and have both stolen and deceived. Moreover, they have put some of them, some of those things among their own. What happens? Ai is a soldier, he's fighting. He fights into one guy's house, looks in a closet. And there's an Armani coat, fur line, bad to the bone, bedazzled, I mean, it's nice. I look good on me. He takes it. He sees a bar of gold. He takes it. He sees a bar of silver. He takes it. The battle's over. He digs a hole under his tent and he buries the loot. Nobody will ever know. And the army is defeated the next battle. Okay, so God tells Joshua, bring the 12 tribes. They cast lots. This tribe, bring the clans. This tribe, bring the families.

This family, bring the men. Boom, and the only person left standing is Achan. And Joshua said, Achan, give glory to God. Tell me what you've done, boy. He said, you know, when I was in Jericho, I saw this bad Armani coat and a piece of gold and a piece of silver. And they're in the ground under my tent. He sends some of the soldiers. They dig, they come back. He said, you brought trouble on Israel and our trouble will fall on you. They stone Achan, his wife, and everybody in his family. And then they burn their bones. And then they go and they defeat Ai. See, he stole what was God's, what was devoted to God. God takes stealing his glory or his credit very seriously because when God does something through you and you take the credit, you get the glory and people don't realize God did it. That make sense? Every time what we take as God's, we become an Achan. When you build your platform and not his kingdom, when you use your influence to build your world and not his, you take his kingdom. When you use your spiritual gifts, never to serve in the body of Christ, but only to serve to build your business or build your family or build your retirement, you are stealing what's God's.

80% of us do not serve at all at Faith Promise Church. The Bible says we've all been given at least a spiritual gift and yet we take the spiritual gift and use it in the world. We don't use it with the kingdom. Y'all out there? I hear you breathing. Our testimony, we turn it and we make it about us. The Bible says our bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit and yet we act like we own them. How many things devoted to God's glory are hidden under your tent? Our marriage that is meant for his glory, we turn to our happiness. Our business that is meant to provide for your family and the kingdom that you keep all of the money. Your name that God gave you influence that was meant to be used for him and you make it all about you. Are you willing to dig up the dirt under your tent and give back to God that which is God's? Malachi 3.8, will a man rob God? But you say, how have we robbed God? You've robbed God in your tithes and offerings when you didn't bring them. That's a rhetorical question, would a man rob God? How can you rob God? 80% of us don't tithe. 80% of us don't serve. We take God's tithe money and we build a bigger house.

You're hiding it under your tent. We take God's gifts that he's given, the ability, the influence, and we use it only to further our stuff. We never used to build the kingdom. You're stealing his glory. Now, this is not a stewardship sermon. This is a stolen valor sermon. Well, people hate stolen valor, yet it is God who won the battle for us. It's Jesus who died for us. You all with me? It is he that deserves all the credit, all the glory, all the honor, all the praise. To him and him alone is worthy to break the seals to the land who was slain. Come on somebody, he is worthy of worship and praise. The New Testament used the word so many times, so many times hypocrite, hypocritus, which you can obviously hear our word, we get the word hypocrite. And hypocrite means this, an actor on a stage, someone who wears a mask. It's someone that's playing a part for an audience. Come on somebody, we've all learned to wear masks, haven't we? Have we all learned to play parts and not allow the real us to be seen? Jesus dealing with the Pharisees in Matthew chapter 23. Matthew chapter 23, 25.

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you wash the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside. are full of robbery and self-indulgence. You blind guides, Pharisees, first clean the inside of the cup and the dish so the outside of it may become clean also. Woe to you, scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites, for you are like whitewashed tombs, which on the outside appear beautiful, but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanliness. So come on, church. So you too outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly, you're full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. Does that sting a little bit, or is it just me? Does that sting? Jesus is not yelling at outsiders. He's talking to religious insiders. He's talking to leaders who've learned to wear Bible on their clothes. They got a Jesus hat. They got a Jesus robe. They got Bible hanging off the bill of their cap. They've got prayerful asterisks on. They got bells hanging off them, and they walk through and says, oh, look, they're so holy and religious, and Jesus said you're full of dead men bones and uncleanliness,

and the Pharisees still are alive and well at church. Y'all out there, do you have a public version of you and a private version? A Sunday morning face and a Friday night face full of dead men's bones. Do your lips match your life? Do you have a worship voice and a prayer voice and another voice you use when you're mad at your spouse? Is your Facebook full of verses and still full of gossip? See, Christians, we've learned to perform, hadn't we? Because it's easier to perform and clean the outside and not clean the inside through the hard work of sanctification and discipleship and growing more like Jesus every day. Do we raise hands in worship and hold grudges in our hearts? That's easier to perform at churches at home because you can't keep the facade up at home. My definition of success, the people that know me the best love and respect me the most. I can't fake it in front of Michelle. I can't fake it in front of my kids. See, and let me give you some good news. If you're not dead, God's not done. Now, this has been the law. It's been pretty tough, right? Now, let's bring some grace into it. Philippians 1, 6 said, he that began to work in you will perfect in the day of Christ Jesus.

If you carry his name, you can't steal his glory. We can turn from stolen glory, stolen valor to integrity, which comes from the Greek word integer, which means whole. We can be wholly devoted. We can be wholly his. We can wholly reflect him publicly and privately, the same person. But the Greek word is repentance. We've got to turn back from us and turn to him and give him credit. We got to pay back what we took. We've got to ask forgiveness to the reputation of people that we shredded. The attention that you owe to your family, give it back. The witness that you should be releasing, release it. The glory you should be giving to God, give it. And the reason I know that every single person in every room listening is as guilty as I am is because only one person ever bore the name and never took it in vain. Name's Jesus. Philippians chapter two. For this reason, God also highly exalted him and gave him a name that's above every name that at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God, the Father. Why could God exalt Jesus? Because God could trust his son to run God's play and give God the praise and give God the glory

and build the Father's kingdom. Are y'all with me? Do y'all see a difference? See, Jesus could be trusted. He took the Father's brand and he climbed on a cross and he died for all of us. Now, religious people know how to polish the outside, but on the inside. On the cross, though, the books were balanced. Every theft was paid for. Every devoted dollar stolen from God was paid for. And the resurrection means God's not done yet. It says in Romans 6, for therefore we have been buried with him and in baptism likened to his death so that as Christ was raised from the dead to the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. It goes on to say we are no longer slaves to sin. 2 Corinthians 5, 17, if you're in Christ, you're a new creature. Come on, somebody, new creature. We're not to be conformed to the patterns of this world, which means get all you can, can all you can, and sit on the can. It means we give the glory to God and we just walk with our hands wide open. Let me tell you, you don't have to play a part anymore. You don't have to act something you're not. It's so exhausting, isn't it?

To walk in and act like you got it all together. That's why I just try to be raw and real. I don't have it all together. I suck sometimes. Ask Michelle. She'll say, you're sucking right now, stop it. The mask can come off. The glory can be given. That's salvation. He gives us his name. It's not a guilt trip. It's a gift that God gives us. Now you represent him. Now, you don't represent him if you're not related to him. And you're related to him by second birth, by confessing Jesus as Lord, turning from your sins. And see, when you confess him as Lord, you give up all rights and privileges. He becomes the Lord. He gets the glory. He gets the credit. I tried it 22 years on my own. Didn't like it very much. The last 44 years, I've been his, I love it. I'm a satisfied customer. And so if you're ready to have your sins forgiven, be adopted into heaven, be given a brand new start, then God's ready to forgive you and ready to flow through you. Ready to bless you and give you just,

golly bomb, he's so good. So if you're ready with heads bowed and eyes closed, unless you're driving, if you're driving, keep your eyes open. The rest of us just bow our head. I'm gonna lead us in a simple confessional prayer. Pray this prayer with us. Dear Jesus, I know I've sinned. I've failed. We're separated. All my fault. Forgive me. You died for me. You rose from the grave. Now I turn to you. I confess you as Lord. And I wanna follow you. For the rest of my life. Now let's head bowed and eyes closed. If you prayed that prayer in a minute, just slip up your hands. Say, APC, I prayed that prayer with you today. Just slip it up. I prayed that prayer with you, okay? Okay, just raise it up. Okay. Okay. All right, look up here. All across campuses and Pellissippi and everywhere, people just gave their heart to Jesus.

Can we give God some praise up in the house? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. We have one more worship song. And we're gonna open the altar up. Now listen. Listen to me. Don't miss this. If you're listening, say I am. I am. God has spoken to so many people. You know it and he knows it. And when you refuse to respond, when you refuse to do something about it, your heart gets a little calloused. And then he says something else, you get a little more calloused. A little more calloused. I've had these on my hands for decades with a hammer and tools and all kind of stuff. But without realizing it, if you keep ignoring, the callousness will block out his voice. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your heart as your forefathers did

in the wilderness. Today is the day of salvation. Today is the day to respond. You can have one of these prayer folks that's asking prayer. You can come and take the Lord's Supper. You can get on your knees where you are. You can do whatever you need to do. But listen, we need to repent. And he will give the glory back. We need to take him what's other people's and take him what's God's. Let's stand. Father, would you send your Holy Spirit into this, into every single room right now and give us a holy moment as we worship.