One of the big problems in our society today is coming directly from a lack of time spent in devotion to God. This is a big Problem in our Nation today. A problem I see as being when we allowed prayer to be taken out of school. Why you ask because it set the example to take God out of the lives of upcoming generations. When you take God out the result is we begin to spend less and less time with God. The world or Satan rather desires to remove all references of God from public view. The long term results we are seeing today in a lack of moral and ethical decisions from upcoming generations. The more of God that is removed from public view the worse this scenario will get. What must happen in this great nation the United States of America is that we must return to God. --This reminds me of a story I read about a little girl who ask her father what the United States looked like. The father found a picture in a magazine of the United States and tore it into pieces. He then gave the pieces to his daughter telling her to go to her room and put the pieces together like a puzzle, and she would then see what the United States looked like. After just a few minutes the little girl comes running to her father, daddy, daddy, I did it, I can now see what the United States looks like. The father asked the little girl, how did you do that so fast. Do you know what her response was-

As we have been examining our tendency-s to follow after our own will over the will of God. We have been looking at first Samuel. We have seen that the decision of Samuels two Sons Joel and Abiah who he had appointed to be judges over Israel were doing so not according to Gods will but according to what they saw as pleasing to themselves. Thus what gave them the greatest reward- This stirred the people to ask Samuel for a King to rule over them. We saw that in 1 Samuel 8-6 -7 that even though Samuel was displeased with this request he took it to the Lord who instructed Samuel to give them a warning that they might be made aware of what they were asking, and when they continued to insist upon a king, a king is what would be given to them. The Lords warning given by Samuel can be found in 1 Samuel 8-10-18. This warning told of how the people under the rule of an earthly king would change. It told of how they would be taxed and some would be taken into service to the king and how many would have portions of the land taken and given to the king-s servants. I think we can see this practice today as the results of man choosing his will over Gods will. As we closed the first part of this message we were beginning to make the connections that God will give us warnings and instructions as to how we should live our lives. Yet when we being blinded fail to see what is clearly lying in our path ahead, thus our insisting that He give us that which He knows we do not need. He will allow us to travel that path providing the very thing we don-t need that hopefully we will come to see the mistake.

If you were to answer me honestly the question do you consistently seek your own will, or the will of God what would your answer be- I know we all want to say Gods will. But then being honest we would have to admit that we sometimes fall by the wayside and think our will is better, anyone here know what I mean- Then there are those who would say that God will not let me let me travel down the path of my own will. I ask and why do you think that- --It would be wise that we take into our own consideration as we look into the microscope at our own life to see whether we are obediently observing Gods will, or have we inadvertently chosen to serve our own will, that we be certain that the eye we choose to look in the microscope with is not a blinded eye. Can we understand how when we look in the mirror we see ourselves- Do we see what we want to see or what is there- When you look on the outside you see what is visible to the eye correct- When you look through the microscope as to portray the looking deeper beyond what is visible on the outside, to what is on the inside. If you are blinded though by what you wish to see, then will you not see a picture which is swayed in your favor---I hope you are smart enough to realize that though God will Guild us as we follow his will He will keep us strong. Yet if we follow in the pursuit of our own will even though we may have had that strong start doing very well we may find ourselves choosing to make disobedient decisions that will derail what could be a wonderful and God honoring life.

Have you ever thought maybe to yourself at first it is time for you to do something- Well who was it you were thinking of- Could it have been your spouse- Maybe it was a friend. Why this thought could apply to virtually anyone could it not- It may have been to your children, fellow church goers, someone you know who needs Christ in their life. That thought could go on forever could it not- Reminding you of someone whom you would see as needing to do something about their own life, right- How often do you think about thing like that- Well you know what, if I had to guess I would say that at some time most everyone here has had the the thought, Lord it-s time for you to do something. Would I be right- The way the world is going today you just might say Lord why don-t, you do something. Would any of you think this way- Or maybe you know things are not going just as you would like them to. Maybe things seem out of control all around you. You have tried and tried and nothing you do seems to make things any better. You asking the question why is all of this happing- You say my world just seems to be falling apart. Lord I need you to do something. Ever been there- How do things work out for you- I want to ask you the question what are you really doing about it yourself- You want God to intercede but what have you been doing- When you tried was it merely in your ability, by your strength to fix it- Have you failed- Did you ever consider that maybe God has been trying to tell you it-s time for you to do something by letting Him work through you- Has the thought crossed your mind that God is saying I am doing something I put you here, and now I am trying t

When you think about the consequences of sin many times people will say they serve a loving God. A God that is so loving so forgiving that they will never face any consequences as a result of their sins. How is it that so many think that God will overlook our misdeeds, our lies, our idols, our disobedience, our lust, our adultery, our thievery. Do you think that God does not know what you do in secret, just as He knows what you do in public- Do you think that what you do good in public covers over what you do in private- See even those sins you think are hidden in the back of your heart are not hidden from God. Because nothing is hidden form His sight. What we must remember is all sin is sin it makes no difference what the size of the sin is. If you steal 1.00 of 100000.00 one sin is just as much sin as the other and there for there will always be consequences. Know this God does not and will not ignore your sins. In fact you can rest assured that your sins shall find you out, and they will be there before you in those consequences until you give it over to God and seek forgiveness by repenting of your sins. Even so know as we will see that God will cast the sin and guilt of sin as far as the east is from the west yet the consequences are still yours to bear.

How many here this morning would have loved to have had the chance to have been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, maybe the Football Hall of Fame, well at least would have before all the commotion going on today with the players. Maybe you could have been in the NASCAR Hall of Fame instead. This is the way we think, the way we act. Yes I would say even the way we live most often these days. I once knew a pastor who was so entwined with sports that He would not be available for Wednesday night church services because he had to be sure that his son was taking every opportunity to make it big in sports. No he never said it to me but I would have to guess that in all of his own ambitions his son being in some hall of fame must have been his dream. Did it happen no, he never played even on a collage team. I would say there is nothing wrong with dreaming but in all of our dreams for the things of the world why do we not leave more room for the things of God. There are hundreds of halls of fame or well even walks of fame, but I have to wonder how much things would be different if we had as much desire to be in a different hall of fame. A hall of fame that is very unfortunately not likely on anyone-s list to be inducted into, and then yet we most especially as Christians should desire it above all else. Being inducted into this Hall of Fame would really say much more about our character and moral value system than could be said of any of the worldly Halls of Fame. Of which so many are enthused with today. So what is this Hall of Fame-

Even as little babies we begin to create a desire to be accepted by those around us. If we would look closely at ourselves we should see that our socialization is built by picking up on cues of those who we have in our minds as desiring to please. We then often adjust our actions and behaviors to respond accordingly. What though are we doing if we are always looking at other people to recognize our self-worth- Do you think it a sound decision to seek that you are validated by the opinions of other people around you- Is it safe to look take people-s opinions to build your self-worth- No, and I hope you will see this. I hope you know that the popular opinion of people today changes with the wind. If that is how you-re developing you own self-worth then you are acting as do many today, who say what they think you want to hear in order to win your approval. Even though yesterday they may have said they stood for the exact opposite. When we live in this way we are setting ourselves up for a lot of pain and disappointment. Not so long ago we looked at how easy it was to create idols in our lives. Well when we look at popularity as the means to our happiness we are going down that road towards idolatry. See we must look wholly to God to find our personal worth because if we are looking elsewhere for it we have an idol in the making, and that means it is time to smash it. Knock it down tear it up, smash it to peace-s.

This message is very important as I would expect though that many of us know this stuff already. But if we do why is it that we don-t practice it- Do we think it not important or do we simply ignore it- So how much do we know about our responsibility to give to God- What do we know about giving to God of that which is already His- Yeah I can title this part of the series giving unto God, but it is truly about our responsibility to return unto God that which is already his. That word responsibility is important for you to remember here. It is about our responsibility to bring Tithes and offerings unto God. Now then do we understand tithes and offerings- Oh yes I am sure some of us at least say we understand tithes and offerings. But if we understand tithes and offerings why are we not bringing the tithes and offerings unto God- Oh I know there are many excuses that fill the human mind, excuses to not bring the tithe and offering unto God. Have you ever considered that if the Christian believer could be taught or mislead that they would believe the wrong things about tithes and offering, how great would a negative impact would have on the ability of the church to be fully equipped to do the work of the Kingdom of God- Have you considered that if man could be misled about what God intends for His Children to do when it comes to tithes and offerings how big the negative impact on the church this would be- Have you considered that this could be a big part of the problem in the church today- Oh yes some of those excuse are the church has enough money.

So this morning we looked primarily at our responsibility to give unto God a tithe. We examined the tithe as being a tenth but a tenth of your first fruits. This being what makes a tithe different from just a tenth. But towards the end of the message we really began to look see the word offering. Do you remember this- What is the difference between an offering and a tithe- Why should you give an offering and not just a tithe- Well I guess we should first understand that by definition an offering is something offered, normally a gift or contribution made. So now can you see a difference between a tithe and an offering- Remember a tithe given to God is that which already belongs to God. A tithe is what He expects of your return for that which he has blessed or entrusted you with. So what I am wanting you to see here is that because the tithe already belongs to God well then you cannot very well give it as a gift can you. I know this may be hard for some to understand especially if you-re still think in the mind set of what is mine is mine and all that I have is mine. I hope you will see the error in this way of thinking and understand the difference between an offering and a tithe.

Stewardship--Where it begins----So where does stewardship begin- What is the best time for one to learn about stewardship- What do you think you know about stewardship- Our world today lacks stewardship on many, many levels. See you may not realize just how far reaching stewardship really goes. Stewardship is not only about our giving to God but should begin long before you even get to the church. But I would have you know that good stewardship is not even always just about money. What I want you to understand is that stewardship is that, but it is so much more than that. Stewardship is but is also more than how we honor God in our faithfulness of paying tithes and offerings. Stewardship is but it is also more than how we manage our time. Stewardship is about our health, our possessions, and our environment but it is also about so much more as well. What I hope you will get from this series of messages is that by our practice of good stewardship we are showing ourselves as obedient witnesses unto God. I hope you are already begin to understand this. What we must understand is that throughout our lives many, many things will be within our control. Thus we need to look at those things differently than in our control. We can begin to recognize that there will be many things in which we are entrusted with. So the next thing you need to understand is that nothing you count as your possessions is truly yours. In fact every single thing that you believe to be yours is in fact Gods. And to help make this a little simpler for you I will use the simple fact that the government taxes you not just for what