whatareyouthinking

One of the toughest jobs of being the leader of this flock is—it breaks my heart to have to point out people’s sins—but it’s also my job.  I Timothy 4:13 tells me that I am to “…give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.”  I’ll be doing all of these things today.  That’s the Word of God—amen?

When I first came to this ministry, I was approached by a member of this congregation who had a problem with one of her neighbors.  She went on to explain how she lived two houses down from a family that kept their dog outside all night.  Apparently this dog barked at anything that moved and kept waking this woman all night long.  Now this neighbor of hers was supposed to be a Christian, so she asked me if Christians should even have dogs as pets.  Now I didn’t give her my opinion—oh, no, no, no!  I told her what the Bible says about dogs—amen?

Let’s turn to Deuteronomy 23:18, shall we?  “Thou shalt not bring the hire of a whore, or the price of a dog, into the house of the Lord thy God…for even both these are abomination unto the Lord thy God.”  Right here in black and white, we are being told that dogs are an abomination unto the Lord!  And as we plainly see in this passage, dogs are on an equal footing with prostitutes!  Would you have a prostitute in your house?  Should Christians have dogs as pets?  Probably many of you are wondering why I am making such a big deal of this and why you came here this morning to hear something that might not be sitting well with you right now.  But I want you to live a life that God can bless, and if you are living in a way that is contrary to what the Bible says, you are not living a life that God can bless—amen?

Now some of you might be wondering why it is okay for pagans and non-believers to play with dogs but not okay for Christians.  The Bible tells us why in Exodus 11:7 (please turn with us), “But against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue, against man or beast: that ye may know how that the Lord doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel.”  That’s it right there!  We are not to live the way the world lives—there needs to be a difference!  Let the Egyptians have their dogs!  Let the world have its pet dogs!  But the Lord puts a difference between us and the world, and one of those differences (as we see in this passage) is whether or not we are going to let dogs approach us to lick our faces!  Should Christians own dogs?  Go a little further in your texts to Exodus 22:31 and we shall see how dogs were thought of back in Moses’ time—“And ye shall be holy men unto Me: neither shall ye eat any flesh that is torn of beasts in the field; ye shall cast it to the dogs.”  Whatever was unholy was thrown to dogs!  If dogs were acceptable and holy, the Israelites would not have been commanded to cast unholy things to them—amen?  Give not that which is holy unto the dogs—amen?

In Proverbs, King Solomon tells us, “As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly.”  That’s Proverbs 26:11 if you want to look that up in your Bibles.  Now we’ve already learned why, as Christians, we need to reconsider what we think we know about the appropriateness of dog ownership.  We’ve learned that we need to keep ourselves separated, unique, and holy.  We’ve read earlier that was the explanation that Moses provided the Israelites.  In Proverbs, King Solomon gives us more insight into why the character of dogs and why as Christians we shouldn’t be living like them—or with them for that matter.  Now I’m not telling you to go loose your dog as soon as you get home from church.  This is something that you need to pray about, look over the scriptures that I gave you and then make your decision.  Amen?

Meanwhile, be careful how much run of the house you give to your dogs or other pets.  Have you ever been to someone’s house where the family dog basically controls everything—instead of the biblically mandated head of the house?  Have you ever been invited to someone’s home for a dinner where you can’t even enjoy your meal because the family dog is there—begging at the table?  I have. Yes, I have!  Now, a Christian home should be a holy home because we are to be holy as He is holy.  And we are commanded in Matthew to give not that which is holy unto the dogs.  Dogs should not be running our Christian homes—amen?

Our Savior also tells us in Matthew 15:26, “…It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs.”  Are we feeding our children before we are feeding our dogs?  How many of you know needy families that have pets?  Sadly, probably most of you here.  But what does the Bible say?  Is Matthew 15:26 in your Bibles too—or just mine?

Finally, turn with me if you would to Philippians—chapter three, and we will be closing our message today with verses two and three.  “Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision.”  Let’s stop there for a moment…notice that dogs get lumped together with evil workers, and concision.  Earlier it was dogs, prostitutes, abomination.  In Proverbs; dogs, vomit, folly.  Is anyone noticing a pattern here or is it just me?  Can anyone find me one example in the Bible where a dog is spoken well of?  Can someone find me one example in the Bible where a God-fearing man has a dog as a pet?  Let us continue, shall we?  “…for we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.”

Let us make a commitment today to rid our lives and our homes of anything that is unholy to God.  We will take no confidence in the flesh, but hold fast to the truth of the Written Word—amen?

Let us pray…

***

***