I'm not really a story-type preacher, but I felt led to preach in this direction tonight. This is probably the first sermon ever preached in the history of the world entitled "The Bear in the Attic." Jesus often taught by using everyday, earthly stories to illustrate a spiritual truth. You'll just have to trust me a little while that this has a spiritual point.

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One of my favorite fictional authors is the outdoor humor writer Patrick F. McManus. I own every book that he has ever written and have been reading his works since I was in junior high school. Typically his books are collections of short stories that center around his growing up in Idaho as a young boy or about country families or hunters and fishermen. The stories are fictional and quite funny and I have always liked his brand of humor.

His latest book is entitled "The Bear in the Attic" after the longest story in the book. It is a hilarious story about an "Uncle Charles" who is the head of a timber cutting firm. On one of the job sites, a mother bear is shot by one of the workers leaving her less-than-week-old little cub. None of the tough men want to kill the little critter whose eyes aren't even open yet and so they take it to the boss, whose reputation is that of cruelty. The little cub is so cute, that the man decides to take it home to show his wife before he kills it. His wife thinks that it is so cute that she decides to keep it as a house pet and names it "Pooky."

It isn't long before Pooky's eyes open and he begins to walk about the house. Charles' wife house train the bear so that the bear learns to go the door and whine when it needs to use the restroom. For a while, Charles' family and their tamed pet bear cub, is the envy and talk of the small country town where they live. Pooky sleeps on the couch and acts generally like a dog and everyone thinks he is adorable. They feed it dog food as well as all the table scraps that they can scrounge. Pooky begins to grow up.

The trouble begins when Pooky gets old enough and smart enough to learn to open the fridge. They have to buy a second fridge just for Pooky, because he will not eat anything unless it comes out of the icebox. As he gets bigger, the grocery bill gets more expensive. Finally, Charles decides that the situation is getting out of hand and decides to take Pooky out to the woods and teach him to eat grubs. He finds an old log and tears it open to reveal most bears favorite snack, but Pooky - used to table food and real meat and gravy - looks at him as if he has lost his mind when he tries to put some of the grubs in the young bear's mouth.

As winter came, the family noticed that Pooky seemed to be looking for a "secluded place" to hibernate. Charles wanted to take him out to the woods and leave him, but his wife suggest maybe the upstairs attic would be a better place. Up Pooky goes in the attic. He whines for three days and then finally curls up in a dark corner and goes into hibernation, sleeping for the winter. The days are now so peaceful that the family occasionally forgets about the "bear in the attic."

They don't hear from Pooky until the first day of April. As Charles was going to work, he heard a cry from the Attic. The cry is louder and deeper and little more mature now. When he comes home from work, Pooky has eaten everything in the house, is much bigger now and is sitting in his favorite chair. When he demanded that the bear get out of his chair, the bear just looks at him and grins. He has to sit elsewhere. Now muscles are starting to show on the bear, and when he walks claws click on the hardwood floors. The many visitors that once stopped by to see the "cute, little cub" now hardly ever come. The dog food bill is getting worse.

One day in the spring, Charles took Pooky fishing with him, and Pooky found a huckleberry patch with plenty of berries to eat. While the bear was intent upon the berries, Charles sneaked back to his truck and left the bear stranded in the woods miles from the house. Both he and his wife breathed a sigh of relief because the bear was becoming more and more a problem rather than a pet.

As the next winter came, the wife was in the back kitchen by the stairs leading to the attic. She heard a growl outside the door. When she opened up the door, Pooky, now almost a fully grown bear walked past her and up the stairs of the attic where he again hibernated. As the wife later told Charles when he came home from work, "what was I to do to stop him?" The bear slept all winter and awoke again on April Fool's Day. This time scared by the deep ominous cries coming from the attic, Charles and his wife opened the door to the attic and outside, ran and hid in their bedroom with the dog behind a closed and locked door. When they came out, Pooky had eaten everything in the kitchen and the neighbor's poodle and goat was missing.

Another year went by, and sure enough at the start of winter, Pooky showed up at the back door. This time he was so big that he could hardly fit through the attic door. At night, Charles and his wife listened to the heavy bear moving around the attic until if finally went to sleep. A few weeks later, they decided that it was time to move. They bought a house far, far away and decided to rent out the house to two boys who were known as the meanest and cruelest brothers in town. The brothers could not believe their good fortune that Charles had let them move into such a large house, with full furniture, and even TWO refrigerators and all for only $25 a month! The story ends with one of the brothers saying to the other "it almost sound too good to be true after all the bad that we've done in our life." "Do you think this is some sort of prank, after all tomorrow is April Fool's Day?"

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Perhaps you are wondering what this has to do with anything with the Bible. I chose to tell you the bear story because it perfectly illustrates a truth of nature and the Spirit: little things grow into bigger things, and what may seem cute at first will eventually grow into a monster. In the story, Charles makes a statement at the beginning of the story which sort of triggered this sermon. He says "cuteness is one of nature's ways for preserving it's young."

The bear cub was cute at first, but unfortunately, it was still a bear and what started out as a small issue would grow up to be a major problem. In our text, we read a warning to the Hebrew church:

In other words, guard your relationships with every person, and take heed that you live holy or "God-like" in the small, everyday things. The writer then goes on to say "watch carefully every moment carefully making sure that a "root of bitterness" doesn't take root within your heart. The word for "root" here means "to begin to grow up" or "to begin to form." It refers to a plant first beginning to sprout and spread roots right before it is about to push through the ground. When a plant "roots" itself, on the surface there is no sign that anything is happening until a thin stem pushes through the soil. But long before their is any outward evidence of growth, roots have pushing out of the seed into the soil and that is what causes the plant to grow.

The writer says that we must look out for "roots of bitterness" which is a reference to a Word of the Lord in Deuteronomy:

God likened turning back to sin as being the result of a root of "gall and wormwood." I found that both of these plants are known for two traits: they grow extremely fast, and they taste bitter, and are even deadly if enough is taken. Isn't that what sin does: it grows and spreads quicker than you realize in your life, it eventually leaves a bitter taste in your spirit, and -- if not repented of and walked away from -- will eventually bring spiritual death to every area of your life. There is not a person in this room that does not know that partaking of sin is a bitter affair in the end and there's probably not a person in this room that is "saved" that desires to return to a life of sin. If you do, and you still view sin as pleasing and something "good" then one day I can tell you that you will look back and find that it is indeed a plant of "gall and bitterness." It is deadly and life-killing.

The pain received in a life from sin is not easy nor fun. The few minutes thrill of adultery is not worth the lifetime and heartache caused in a broken marriage and family. The instance satisfaction and brief buzz of substance abuse does not last as long as the hangover, sickness, and disease and problems that it brings. The lie that you though so necessary becomes much more work to cover than just telling the simple truth. Sin is no fun taskmaster: it takes you further than you want to go and keeps you longer than you intended to stay. And when it is finished "brings death."

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If all of that is true, and it is, then why do so many people repeatedly fall into sin's trap? Why do even some Christians who have experienced the life-changing power of God in their life and who have been taught such principles from the Word of God, sometimes fall back into the same snare of a sinful lifestyle?

The reason is that sin does not come barging in and take over your life by force. It is much more subtle than that. Instead it comes in small and gains a root in your mind before it ever shows itself. It doesn't come into your kitchen, a full-grown grizzly bear, but it presents itself as small, something to be adored and cherished and fed and cared for. And that is why the writer of Hebrews warns the Christians to look out for "roots of bitterness." Not full-grown bitterness and sin, but little seeds of sin, little roots of bitterness that are trying feed themselves off of your life and spirit. The warning is there because God knows the nature of sin. He knows that if you allow a root of bitterness to take root and feed, it won't be long before you've got a entire plant of sin. If you begin to feed the little cub, it won't be long before you've got a bear in the attic.

So many Christians think that it is the large things in their life that matter. They will guard zealously against allowing murder, thievery, and adultery and yet will allow roots of jealousy to take root in their life. They will allow a little root of rebellion to sprout in their life, and justify it with "it's not a big deal to disobey just a little." But what they don't realize is they have just received the cub into their house, and it will soon grow, first into a nuisance, and then to life-threatening danger. "Little rebellion" is just full-fledged rebellion waiting to grow up. It's not cute, it's not to be taken lightly. Yet, so many people become like Uncle Charles' wife and defend it and laugh at it and don't realize the seriousness of it until it's too late and the bear has taken permanent residence in their life.

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Rebellion is the most serious of all roots trying to get a foot hold in your life. It completely destroyed King Saul, who was the subject of our other text in 1 Samuel. Saul started out anointed by God to lead Israel. God used him to lead Israel to great and mighty victories over the Philistines and the Amalekites. He stood head and shoulders above the rest of the men of Israel. He was "comely" to look upon. Everything that the world counts as making a man a success, Saul was. And as I study scripture, I cannot help but notice the similarities between Saul and the bear in our story:

Yet, a root of rebellion got grounded in Saul. It started innocently with almost no outward signs of extreme disobedience. Samuel anointed him king in private, and told him to be ready when he offered burnt sacrifices and announced the plan of God to the people, and God would bless them. When it came time for the prophet Samuel to anoint him publicly and Samuel was ready to present him to the people as God's anointed, Saul had disappeared. They found him hiding among the "stuff." It seemed innocent enough, perhaps he said he was shy or he was scared of the duties of being king of all Israel, but regardless of his excuse, he had already disobeyed the words of the man of God. It was a small thing, and God to my knowledge did not even reprimand Saul for it, but it showed that a root of rebellion was beginning to grab hold of Saul's life (1 Samuel 10:22-24).

Sometimes things that we think are so small and really insignificant, hold the greatest significance. Some people can be completely obedient in salvation and doctrinal issues and never waver and yet disobey in the "small" things of scripture. Frankly, they don't feel certain areas are a big deal so they decide to not obey those areas. What happens too often, is as it happened in the case of Saul: the seemingly small things grow up into problems that cause the person to lose out on salvation and on the blessings of God.

It was years later that we find rebellion and disobedience rearing it's ugly head in Saul's life. The prophet Samuel was a little late in showing up for the normal sacrifice offered unto God before the army went to battle. Saul saw that the enemy was in disarray and thought it best to start out earlier than planned. Seeing as the man of God wasn't there, he decided to offer the sacrifice himself, even though that clearly went against God's instructions (1 Samuel 13:11-14).

When Samuel showed up, Saul tried to make it seem as if he had just been trying to do right, but the man of God wasn't fooled. He pronounced that God intended for Saul's lineage to be multiplied throughout Israel, but because of his rebellion, that his sons would not rule and reign over Israel and another king would be found after him whose "would be a man after God's own heart." What started up small in Saul's life now grew until it had consumed his family's promises and future.

The day came when it was time to wipe out the Amalekites who were idolatrous enemies of Israel. God had determined judgment over them and was going to help Saul and his army get total victory over them. The prophet Samuel then came to Saul and gave him specific instructions on what to do after the battle:

God said that the destruction was to be complete! They were not even to bring home the animals or children of the Amalekites! Because they had been so vile and so unholy and so cruel toward God's people, God had judged that they all deserved to die.

Sure enough, God helped Saul's army and they were completely victorious over the Amalekites that day. But Saul got to thinking about the waste of all that cattle and all of that sheep and how much all of the oxen were worth, and he decided to keep the best of all of the animals. He also kept the Amalekite king alive and didn't really worry about some of the Amalekites that were running away and hiding from the army. Saul's attitude was that "After all it was just a few of them, and sure God had said to completely destroy them, but these were just a few of the perfectly good animals and it was just a few weak warriors here and there that escaped and it would be a lot of work to hunt each of them down and kill them and they weren't capable of causing much trouble anyway." The king was kept to show off that he had captured the enemy leader. Thus pride, greed, and indifference to obedience in small things is what led to the downfall of this anointed king.

The scriptures say:

When "rebellion" begins to get a foothold in your life, it first begins to show itself through greed. Your contributions to the work of God decreases. Work becomes more important than anything else, even ministry. You become worried with "having more." The next step then is that you become prideful and desirous of people's acclaim and praise. You become offended if people don't notice what a great job that you've been doing and praise you for it. You begin to think that perhaps you deserve more recognition and more position and more limelight than you are getting and you begin to think more highly of yourself. The third and final step is that you become indifferent to the obedience of small things. If something is not a major salvational issue or what seems to you a priority, and would involve work, inconvenience, or weathering some persecution to obey, you would rather just ignore it. Hear what I am saying tonight: there are some things which God hates more than others. Some things are abominations and some are not. But even the smallest areas of teaching of God's Word can be fatal if ignored. Even the smallest things can become large problems if they are not obeyed!

When Samuel showed up he asked "did God give you the victory and did you obey Him?" To which Saul replied "I did." Then Samuel said "if you did obey completely, then why do I hear the sound of cows and sheep and why is the king here?" The scriptures say that Saul tried to say "I brought the animals for a sacrifice to God." He tried to religiously justify his rebellion, but Samuel replied with one of the most convicting scriptures of the Bible:

What a powerful statement from the Word of the Lord! There are actually three powerful principles here that must be understood so that we do not allow the root of rebellion to slip into our lives:

No amount of good works or personal sacrifice will ever be worth anything if you do not obey God's Word. God is after simple obedience. He has not asked "hard things" but simple things in the smallest areas. Some people would do as Saul did and hold on to the vices of sin and try to "make up for it" with personal sacrifice or donations or exuberant praise. There's nothing wrong with personal sacrifice, and giving of your time and money and certainly we must praise and worship God with everything within us, but those things alone do not take the place of nor substitute for simple obedience to God's Word.

Witchcraft and the occult is based upon one idea: exalting yourself. Wicca and Satanism is not the worship of the devil, but the worship of self. Satan, Himself, fell first into that trap, and so by worshipping yourself, you are actually worshiping Satan because you are obeying his example!

Rebellion, no matter how small or large is the exaltation of your self over the Word of God. You can use whatever excuse that you want and try to justify it religiously as Saul did, but really, you are saying that you are bigger than God's Word when you don't obey. And even "small rebellion" if there is such a thing, is viewed the same way by God as the Satan worshipers across town. Realize that the small disobedience, will still be rebellion when it grows up. Even small then, it is very serious.

We don't discuss this one as much as the first two points but it is just as true and just as important. Stubbornness is as idolatry! When you are stubborn to obey God's Word, God views it just as if you were bowing a knee to some stone image! Why? Because, again you are making an idol of your own will. You are bowing down to your fleshly desires and stony heart and serving them instead of God, therefore the scriptures say it is the same as idolatry! Let's call stubbornness for what it is: a horrible and destructive sin that God hates and that we need to guard against in our life!

The Spirit of the Lord left from residing upon Saul's leadership. He went at times partially insane. The Lord let an evil spirit trouble him continually. God refused to talk with him and he began to seek out the counsel of witches and warlocks in desperation to try to find God. He went into battle with the Philistines and was struck with an arrow. When he realized that he was mortally wounded he fell upon his own sword and took his life. What had started a small thing had grown into the very thing that brought destruction. Simply put, the cub had become a deadly bear in Saul's life. The "bear in the attic" that had begun as such a cute thing cost Saul everything!

Hear the message of God tonight: no matter how cute or small sin and rebellion and bitterness and unforgiveness and disobedience may seem in your life right now, take heed and search yourself, because it will grow up if you allow it to stay in your life! The story of the little girl and the snake still applies to us today: the snake begged for the little girl to pick it up, and promised not to hurt her and that it was lonely and finally the little girl overcame her fears and picked it up upon which it promptly bit her. When the little girl screamed in anger, the snake replied "you knew what I was when you picked me up." Don't listen to the lies of sin that tries to tell you that it means no harm and is only fun, you should know better. Don't listen to the devil and your flesh that try to tell you that a little disobedience is normal and that a little unforgiveness won't hurt anything. You know what it is, and no matter how small it seems right now, it will grow!

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I close with this:

After the battle, an Amalekite -- one of those who should have been destroyed at Saul's first rebellion -- came along and saw his body and cut off his head and stole his crown! What had seemed a "little thing" at the time to not chase the stragglers of the Amalekite army as God had instructed grew up to not only kill Saul spiritually and physically but to steal his "crown."

The scripture promises a crown of righteousness to those who will stay faithful to God and who obey God's Word and voice:

We will rule and reign with Him one day as "kings and priests" (Revelation 1:6)! And so our crown is representative of the eternal life that we will one day have with Jesus Christ! But the devil knows this and is jealous of that fact and so he wants to do everything that he can to steal your crown. He knows that the only way to defeat you is to attack you from within. And that's why he is trying desperately to get a root of bitterness within you. He's trying to get rebellion or stubbornness to God's will inside of you. He's trying to get a small seed of unforgiveness or doubt within you that can grow. He's trying to present sin as "cute" and as insignificant as that bear cub in our first story. But beware: it will soon grow into problems and eventually you will have a "bear in the attic." When that happens, you may have to leave the house of safety and the temple of the Lord because what has started so small has grown into the worse possible nightmare of costing you eternal life and making you lose out with God.

The last mention of our crowns in the Bible comes with a warning from Jesus Christ:

Hold fast to your walk with God. Guard yourself that no small thing take root within you. Don't bring the cute cub of sin or disobedience into your life, and if it is there, get it out now before it become unmanageable. Search yourself lest a root of bitterness spring up and "defile many." You don't want to wake up one day in the Spirit to have to face a "bear in the attic!" Don't let the devil steal your crown of life through a small thing!