The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 6: What Have You Done?

Episode Date: June 2, 2019

God will not be a means to our end. The Lord our God the Lord is ONE. Click the 1 Samuel Resources tab for the full study journal, summary recap videos and more.

Amen and amen. How are we doing, church? Doing good? Man, I am constantly amazed by the disciples here at the Church of 1122, the measure of faith that God grows up in our people. I mean, seriously, ask yourself, if everything was stripped away from you and all you had was Jesus, would he be enough? That's what we're going to talk about in our time together. If you've got your Bibles, and I hope you do, go to 1st Samuel chapter 13. If you brought your general back, it's on page 30. And we're going to continue in this 12-week series that we're in, in the study of the Book of First Samuel, talking about prophets, priests, and kings.

And you remember last week we talked about Samuel, the prophet, his farewell address, that he basically gave this, choose for yourself this day whom you will serve, kind of talk. He encouraged the nation of Israel to seek God, seek him alone, to reject the idols of this world, and to seek God. And so as you turn the page over to the next few pages, what begins to happen is now Saul is king. By the time you get to 1st Samuel chapter 13,

Saul's been king for about three years. He's been battling against the Philistines. These are kind of the ongoing bad guys all throughout the New Testament. He's got a son named Jonathan that will play a big role in the next few weeks for us. And so for three years, they've been battling back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. And by the time you get to chapter 13, Jonathan, his son, has taken a group of soldiers, and they've gone, and they've whipped some Philistines, and then the Philistines kind of get aggravated about it.

And so they raised this enormous army, I mean enormous army. 30,000 chariots, which would be like Old Testament tanks, and 6,000 horsemen and troops, and then they descend on Israel in this town named McMash, which sounds like a made-up place, but it's really not. And so as they descend on McMash, all of the Israelites, you know, they've kind of been winning the battles lately for the last three years. And as they see, these 36,000-plus bad guys show up, then they're overcome with fear. And the Bible says they begin to hide, like in caves and cisterns, and they're freaked out by fear. Now, all the way back in chapter 10, Samuel tells Saul, so the prophet tells the king, go to this place called Gilgall, which is near McMash. I know you know all these places, but whatever.

And wait for me there. Okay, wait for me there for seven days. And then I will show up and I will make an offering unto the Lord so that we will have his favor. And then I will tell you exactly what to do. And so that's kind of the context where we find ourselves in 1st Samuel, chapter 13, verse 8. And it says, so Saul, he, he waited for seven days, the time appointed by Samuel. But Samuel did not come to Gilgall. And the people were scattering from Saul.

So you get the picture here. Bad guys bearing down. Army is descending. This prophet, this man of God who's supposed to be there in seven days. It's the seventh day, and he ain't showing up. How many of you have ever noticed that God's timing is not our timing? You ever notice that? Now, the Bible says this in 2. Peter, chapter 3, verse 9,

the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness. All right? And he goes on to say, but is patient towards you not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness. So, God may not be slow, but do you know, he doesn't ever seem to be in a hurry. Have you ever known that? Like you pray and you pray and you pray and you wait, I mean all weekend. Well, so this is kind of where Saul is. You know, he's supposed to be. to be here in seven days. It's the seventh day. And essentially, Saul's tired of waiting. Verse 9 says, so. That's a big so. So, Saul trusted God on day one and day two and day three

and four, five, and six. And a part of the way through day seven, Saul decides maybe God can't be trusted. Maybe I'm tired of waiting. I got to do something. about this, because my army's leaving and the bad guys are mounting, and something has to be done. So, that's a big so. By the way, a great way to study the Bible is just study the transition words and to see what the so is there for. You understand? So, Saul said, bring the burnt offering here to me and the peace offering. And he offered the burn offering.

verse 10 and as soon as he had finished offering the burnt offering like if he had just waited like a few I don't know how long it takes to offer a burnt offering I've never really done that but it takes a minute but if he just waited another minute as soon as he had finished offering the burn offering behold Samuel came and Saul went out to meet him and greet him and Samuel said I wish you could read the tone of the text what what have you done what what This is not like, what's you doing, man? That's not what this is. This is like a deep, convicting, oh, no, Saul.

What have you done? And you may look at this and be like, what's wrong with offering the burnt offering and the peace offering? Well, one is 1st Samuel, chapter 10, verse 8. Samuel very clearly says, go down ahead of me to Gilgall. I will surely come down to see you, or down to you, to sacrifice, burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, but you must wait seven days until I come to you and tell you what you are to do. Now, this is not a suggestion.

Remember chapter 4 verse 1, it says that the word of Samuel was made known to all of Israel. Samuel is a prophet of God, so when Samuel speaks and there are quotations in it, this is the word of God. So the Word of God clearly tells Saul directly, wait seven days, and then I'll be there, I'll do the offerings, and then I will tell you what to do. And on the seventh day, on the seventh day, Saul begins to negotiate with himself, which is always the beginning of disobedience. is when you and I take what the word of God says and begin to twist it and be like, well, when he said seven, what did he mean by seven? Like, was that full days or is it part days? And you see, you go all the way back to the original sin,

and what happened in the very first sin, the enemy comes to Adam and Eve and says, did God really say? Hey, listen, all throughout our lives, man, there is what God says and what we want. want. And they very rarely line up. And let me tell you, it's a lot easier, it feels a lot easier, to just twist what God says into what we want, as opposed to surrender our wants to what God says. So be very, very, very careful when we, when you and I, when we began to twist the word

of God to try to line up with our lives, instead of trying to twist our lives to line up with God's word. That is what surrender means. And so he just talks himself into it. Not only that in the book of Leviticus, the Bible says that only a Levite and not only a Levite or a priest is supposed to bring the burnt offering and the fellowship offering. And Saul is from the tribe of Benjamin, so his line is not supposed to bring these kinds of offerings. Now there are two other times where a king does offer this kind of offering, but in both of those cases, King David is going to do it. and King Solomon are going to do it. But in both of those cases, a prophet of God told them to do this.

So the Word of God told them specifically to do this thing and they were obedient to it. And you're like, well, why does that matter? Why does that matter? What's with all these rules in the Old Testament about who could do what and where you've got to wash your hands and all this kind of stuff? And essentially it's this. God determines how we come to him. Period. The sovereign king of the universe determines how we come to him, and in the old covenant, it was through a series of rituals and ceremonies and sacrifices through prophets and priests.

And in the New Testament, the Bible says that we only come to the Almighty Father through the blood of Jesus Christ, which, by the way, is what all of those Old Testament ceremonies and sacrifices were pointing to. Now listen, one of the most offensive things in today's culture is when somebody like me has the audacity to say that Jesus is the only way. Now, I didn't make it up. Jesus himself says it. John 146. Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through me.

But what about good people? I think that falls into no one category, okay? What about religious people? What about people that don't mess up that much? Listen, Jesus said it. Don't get mad at me. I'm like the mailman. I didn't write it.

I'm just delivering it. He said it. To which a lot of folks will say, well, my God would never be so narrow. The God that I serve, his love is for everyone. To which I would say, you're probably right. But we're not talking about the God of the Bible. The God that you were talking about, you have created in your own image. and funny enough, he values all the things you value and tends to overlook all the things you overlook.

You see, the Bible says that we were created in the image of God, but most of our little G-gods that we want to worship, then we create them in our own image. And now think about this. If the almighty one true God is all-powerful and all-knowing, don't you think there's a couple of things that he would see? say that would rub up against you and your opinion? I mean, what kind of God of the universe agrees with everything I agree with? What kind of God is that? That's not a God. That's an imaginary friend. And so this is why it's a really big deal. And so Samuel says to Saul, what have you done? Now, here's what Saul does. I'm going to give it away, okay? Classic man move. Duck, cover, blame. That's what they do. That is. Duck, cover, blame. That's it. Now, he gets it honest. He gets it

honest. The very first man, Adam, when he and his wife Eve have sinned and God Almighty shows up and says, Adam, what have you done? And he doesn't repent. He doesn't say, I'm sorry. The only beings in all of the Garden of Eden is Adam and Eve and God himself. And you know what Adam says? That's ain't my fault. the woman you gave me, she made me eat it. I mean, thinking about that. He has the audacity to say, God, I really can't tell if it's you or my wife, but y'all can work it out, and I will be over here just ready to receive your apology whenever you're ready for that.

So this is what Saul does. He's like, it ain't my fault. When I saw, by the way, pay attention to all the personal pronouns here, when I saw that the people were scattering from me and that you did not come within the days appointed, by the way. So Samuel, this might be your problem too. And that the Philistines had mustard at McMash. I said, now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgall

and I have not sought the favor of the Lord. So I forced myself and offered the burnt offering. Here's what he's saying is I didn't want to I waited and waited and waited and waited and I was really just seeking the favor of God and then I forced myself that's an interesting phrase right here I forced myself

If you've attended 1122 for a while Maybe you've heard me say this about 100 million times That the opposite of faith is not doubt The opposite of faith is fear Because faith produces action and fear paralyzes. Now, I don't know if you can have two opposites, but I think there's another opposite of faith, and it's force. You see, faith is essentially taking your trust and putting it in the sovereign king of the universe. Fear is when you take your trust and you put it in your circumstances.

And when circumstances go awry, then your fear goes bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger. So like the disciples in the boat, the wind and the waves are crashing around them, and they have put their trust in their circumstances, and so they cry out in fear to Jesus. Lord, save us, do you not even care? And I think another place that we can put our trust that is not faith is when we put it in ourselves to control the situation. And that is when we force ourselves.

Let me ask you this. Where in your life are you trying to force things, whereby faith God is asking you to trust him? Single people. are you by force trying to make something happen and by faith God is asking you to trust him and be obedient to him and spend more time becoming the one that the one you're looking for is looking for than going online everywhere looking for one or maybe it's in your finances there's some shady things that work they're not they're not all the way evil you know but they ain't exactly upright but you're trying to force this thing maybe it's a relationship

or a relationship with your family, and you, by force, are trying to take control of the thing because essentially what's happening here is you're tired of waiting on God. And so Samuel says this all. You have done foolishly. You have not kept the command of the Lord your God with which he commanded you. For then the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel, but now your kingdom shall not continue. So you see what a big deal it is when he says,

what have you done? You see, I'll tell you, man, the good news of the gospel is this. God will forgive you of all of your sin, but he does not guarantee to rescue you from all of its consequences. And he looks at Saul in this place, and he says, what have you done? Now, I don't think we're just talking about Israel's first king 3,000 years ago. This event ruins Saul's life forever.

So look at me, pay attention just a second. What if? Just imagine. Use your spirit-infused imagination for a second. Imagine if a prophet of God showed up in your life and something had happened in your life that ruined everything. Because this event is the beginning of the end. for Saul. This event changes everything. He's going to lose his kingdom. He's going to lose his crown.

He's going to lose his son. He's going to lose everything that meant anything to him. This event changes everything. What would that look like in your life? If you were to think, I've lost it all. And a prophet of God walked up to you and said, what have you done? What would that thing be? What would that thing be in your life? In other words, if you were your own in me, how would you take you out? That's what I mean. What would be, listen, in my mind, let me tell you what it would be. If I lost my first church, which is Gretchen and my children, and something happened in my life that I lost the moral authority to be the lead pastor of this church, if those things went away, I would think, oh, what have you done? What would be the thing that would take it away from you?

listen to me, church, you do everything you can do to war against that thing. Because that is how the enemy wants to take you out. We have an enemy, a spiritual enemy, that wants to steal, kill, and destroy you and everything that is good and God glorifying in your life. Make no mistake about it. You and I aren't just having a bad day here or there. If you know Jesus, if you don't, you already are. in his hands. And if you know Jesus, he can't change your eternal destiny, but he wants to ruin

you here on this earth. What would that thing be? You fight against that thing. You war against that thing. You guard against that thing with everything that you are made of. I can tell you, very generally speaking, it's either lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh, or the pride of life. Which one of those would the enemy use to take you out? It's either lust of the of the flesh, sex, sensuality, lust of the eyes, stuff, or the pride of life, status. If you were your own enemy, how would you take you out? And I ain't saying you just like have a little prayer about it. I'm talking about you war against that thing.

The Puritans used to say, you kill sin or it will be killing you. It is a really big deal. And everything that is good and godly in your life, hang. and the balance. This one decision that this brother makes. And Samuel says, what have you done? Listen, here's how you make war against it. Just a couple of ideas. Whatever you do, don't think you're immune. That's called pride. And God opposes the proud. I mean, be careful the moment you look at somebody who has blown their whole life up and think, how could they? I can tell you how they could. Here's how they could.

You start heading down a road one little step at a time. James says that desires turn into temptation, and temptation turns into sin and sin turns into death. That it is a pathway. That very few people have ruined everything in a snapshot. It has typically been a journey they've been on for a minute. And at some point, you're walking down that street, and the spirit of God goes, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

And you go, I got this. bro I think if saul could show up today at our church he would say you ain't got this you ain't got this and so don't you think you're immune to it that's called pride that you cry out not just once to get saved god help me that every single moment and day of your life you cry out god I need your help I can't do this on my own that I need you in me to do through me what I cannot do on my own and one of the ways that God has, one of the gifts that he has given us to help us is His Word. Whatever the things are in your life that you think the enemy would take you out over, whatever the struggle is that you have over and over and over,

then you memorize God's Word as the sword of the Spirit, not to win the battle, but to remind you that Jesus has already won the battle on our behalf. You struggle with lush? You should memorize Job 31-1. I've made a covenant with my eyes and I will not look lustfully after a woman. You notice me reading that one? Uh-uh. You know what the Bible says about Job? That he was the most honorable, godly man on the planet during his time.

Guess what he apparently struggled with? Lust. You know why? Because you don't have to make covenants with parts of your body that you don't struggle with. Like I've never had to make a covenant to, I made a covenant. I will not root for the gators. I don't even have to do that because I've never been tempted with such evil. You understand what I'm saying?

I just don't. And he gets the place in his life where he's like, I got to do something different. You struggle with pride? Maybe you need to go a little Galatius 220. I have been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. That's where you got to go. You struggle with insecurities?

Maybe you need to memorize a little Psalm 139. that you are fearfully and wonderfully made. His works are wonderful. I know that full well. That's how you cry out to the Lord. Lord, help me. His word is living and active, and it just does stuff in the heavenlies

that I can't fully explain. And you got all these feelings rushing around in you all the time. And what you do is you claim the word of God, and over time, maybe not overnight, then your feelings will line up with the truth of God's word. And when the enemy comes, comes at you, tempting you, then you come back at him with the word of God. Don't you think you're immune.

Secondly, you better not do it alone. I dare you. That's why disciple groups matter so much. I dare you to tell somebody. You don't have to tell the whole world. You don't have to put it on Facebook. Okay? But there should be one or two brothers and sisters in Christ that love you enough and that you

trust enough to say, all right, if I was the enemy, here's how I'd take me out. And I want you to check on me on this one. Okay? Listen, this is why I have elders, and you have to have people in your life that love you more than they love what you think about them. So listen, Lars Peterson, we go hunting all the time together. He's one of the elders, and on a weekly basis, he'd be like, are you looking at porno? And I'm like, don't call it that. It's not from the 70s, man. Like, it's called pornography. It's just creepy when you say it that way. Think about this. Because if I start going down that road, now I have to cover sin with more sin and lie the elders. You see how that stuff starts stacking up?

I want to have people in my life that would love me enough that if I were going down a wrong road, if desire was beginning to turn into temptation and temptation into sin, that they would love me enough to stand in the way and be like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, this path has a destiny and this is not God's destiny for you. Do you have somebody like that in your life? Don't do this thing alone. the most dangerous place you could be as a believer is in isolation. Don't believe this mantra, this narrative going around. I don't need a church to be a good Christian. Have you read your Bible?

I mean, being a Christian without a church is like a baseball player without a team. You're just a dude in tight pants, man. You're not a baseball player. Now, I'm not saying your salvation is dependent upon your church membership. I'm just telling you this, that you are not saved by the church, but you are saved into a body, into a family, into the church. And that we are supposed to help one another and out. And the Bible says that the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. Which one does he get?

He never jumps in the middle of the herd. Some of my favorite YouTube things to watch is like when a lion is trying to take out some kind of wart hog and all the wards, and all the warthogs rally against the line. Have you seen these things? You should watch more YouTube for the glory of God. That's what the church is supposed to do. That when your brother or your sister stumbles and falls, that you've got somebody in tight-knit true fellowship.

Fellowship is not potluck on a Wednesday night in a fellowship hall. We don't do any of that stuff. Fellowship is life together, honesty together, raising your hand and saying, brother, I need help. And another brother coming alongside of you, guspling you and picking you up and bearing one another's burdens. The most dangerous place you could be as a Christian is to be isolated. One of the things you will see about Saul is he lives his life in isolation.

Nobody was there in his life to say, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, man, you probably don't want to offer the burnt offerings. That's not going to go good for you or the entire kingdom. Do you have that person in your life? you know when that when that antelope is out there all by himself on the animal planet it's over for that it's we'll be flipping the channels Reagan's like oh look pretty dear I'm like well you don't want to watch this baby okay same thing for you don't go at it alone and then the third thing is this don't think you can tame it the most dangerous thing you can do with sin is call it your pet

I mean you struggle with lust of the flesh and you think well I know I know I mean, you know, we work together. She's super cute and she's not my wife, but it's just some innocent flirting. It leads somewhere, man. It leads somewhere. You think, I know I probably shouldn't be looking at these pictures, but it's not that big a deal, and at least I'm not. Are you sure?

Or you think, I know I've been drinking too much, but maybe I'll just lay off of it a little bit, just cut back a couple of days. And you haven't told anybody this because you don't want to be this honest. But you feel it like this thing has control. of you and you don't have control. Or you think you can control those pills, even though your name's not on the prescription or the prescription's been over,

but you, and you think, I got this. And I'm telling you ain't got this. I mean, I bumped into a guy this week. It's crazy what God's doing through this place. I'm at a store. God does the, I could tell when I walked in the store, he had the light. I think that's my pastor look, you know? And so, amen.

He goes, who you, Jobie, I am. And he goes, well, I live in Orlando. Let's listen to the podcast. And I was like, oh, cool. And he said, it's very nice things. That's all good. And then I just chat, winning for a second. And he says, starts vomiting and all up.

And he says, I'm going through a very unwanted divorce. And he's this sales rep, and he's making Buku dollars and all this. And he says, I have a dream job, and I pay too high of a price, my family. And I thought, where was some band of brothers, not. I mean, they should still be here today, for sure, without a doubt. But they could have been way back here when you were at a crossroads in your life going, hold on, hold on, hold on, man. Your mistress is your job, and she is going to fail you.

Go love your wife like Christ, love the church. You see, and the problem, especially men, women too, but we begin to think, I got this. And I'm telling you, you ain't got this. You cannot treat sin like it's a pet. I've used an example 10,000 times of, you know, like the when animals attack. Don't you love those shows? How many of you have five seconds in? You're rooting for the animal?

Are you with me? So just to see, I went to the Google machine and I just typed in, man attacked by pet and left it blank. And it just went, br-brd. Bird, lion, chimp, deer, tiger, bear, hippo. These are all this year. Bird. I'm like, who gets killed? by a pet bird.

I click on it. How does it start? Florida, man, because it always starts Florida man. Every time. So this idiot in Florida is, he's got this. There's some kind of bird, some kind of killer ostrich-looking blue turkey bird thing. Seriously, I'm not making this up. He's out there with his jeans shorts and his mullet and his natty light.

Look at my bird, man. That's my bird. You know those birds kill people? That's not. It's my pet. It's Ted, whatever his name is. The thing. jumped on him, pecked him to death.

That's true. On March 5th, a man was killed by two pet lions. Two pet lions. And sure enough, you know, the interview of the neighbors, can you believe it? I wish I was one of them neighbors. I wouldn't be his neighbor. Can you believe it? I can.

I can believe it. I don't know if you know this. That's what lions do. They just eat and kill people. My favorite one is there's a guy named Timothy Treadwell. His nickname was Grizzly Man. This idiot decided he loved bears. And for 13 summers, he lived with grizzly bears.

They ate him. They made a movie about it. How sad it was. Is it? Is it really sad? Twelve years in, I thought, he's probably telling people, seriously, it's safe. Twelve years in, here's the thing. Sometimes it takes a minute.

But that's what do. Bears eat meat, all right? They don't put out forest fires. They don't look at hunting off your face. That's not what they do. They eat meat. I don't know if you know this. You're meat on a stick. That's what you are. Like if you put some tacos up here, I might not eat them during the service because I had a smoothie before I came out. But by tomorrow, guess one ain't up here? Tacos. Why? Because I am like an apex predator to a decent taco, all right? Now, all of that's just to say, man, the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking you to devour. And you're like, no, this is just my pet lion. No, that sin will creep up and destroy you and kill you and take away everything good and godly in your life. That is the only thing that the enemy wants to do. And here, listen to me, some of you, listen, please, some of you are at the Christ.

Crossroads. Like you haven't, it's been a desire and a temptation, but it has yet to become sin. Like you've just had the ideas, which could be a sin, but you know, you have not gone down that pathway yet. And I would say stop, repent, turn around, admit it to somebody right now. It ain't going to go good for you. Like you haven't made the bad deal yet. You haven't gone over to her house yet. You haven't smoked it yet. whatever the thing is.

And I would say run away, run to the Lord. Maybe the reason that you are here right now is that the spirit of God would say, want you just come home, what you just come home? That way leads to death. Once you come home to me, this is the only way that you can have life. And then there's some of you, they're like, yeah, appreciate this sermon. It's just a decade late. Thanks.

And you're asking, so what if I've screwed up? I mean, the divorce has happened, the bankruptcies happened, the addictions happened, everything good to me that was the most important things to me are gone. What about me? I think it's amazing how the gospel is on every page of our Bible. Samuel says to Saul, the Lord has sought a man after his own heart and the Lord has commanded him to be prince over his people because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.

I would say the good news of gospel of Jesus Christ tells us no matter who you are and what you've done and when it was and what the current consequences is, if the tomb is empty, anything is possible. And the fact that you're here, that the alarm clock woke you up, and Jesus is alive, means that anything can happen. If the Spirit of God could breathe the rule of life back into the Son of God so that he would start breathing again, then I promise you that God can breathe life back into whatever situation you find yourself in, no matter how dead you think it is.

and no matter how done you think you are, it ain't over. And here's why I say this. If you've been around Bible study, you know who Samuel's talking about here. A man after God's own heart is King David. He's going to show up here in a couple of weeks. You remember like David and Goliath, he becomes King David. He starts writing a bunch of Psalms. And David is the person that Samuel is talking about when he says

that the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart. Well, let me just tell you, if you knew to Bible study, David wasn't perfect. In fact, no matter how bad you think you are, you are JV compared to the sin level of David. So the Bible says that David, when kings are going to war, David was just sitting on the couch. Which, by the way, that's a dangerous place for a man with some unused energy and not much to do. And David, on the time that kings go to war, David's on the couch. couch, he walks out on the roof of his palace and he looks down into somebody else's place and there's Bathsheba taking a bath. And the Bible says that David sends somebody, go get her.

And he, somebody retrieves Bathsheba. She comes to the palace and he sleeps with her. And then she's pregnant. And so David's going to come. cover it up. Meanwhile, like while this is happening, the brother's still writing psalms and stuff. You understand? Still like playing the harp and being the king and like he works at church essentially. And finds out she's pregnant, so he's like, oh, I'll fix this. So he calls Eurya, her husband, who was a soldier, brings him off the battlefield where he really should have been as the king. Brings Erya off the battlefield and says, hey, tell you what, as a favor for you, why don't you go home and sleep with your wife and Uriah is such a like soldier he's like non while my men are sacrificing their life

on the battlefield I'm not going to go sleep with my wife I'm just going to stay on the couch and so David arranges it that Uriah would be on the front lines and that the that the army would essentially retreat and that he would be killed so you struggle with some stuff David is an adulterer and a murderer and a liar and a liar because he's going to cover the whole thing up. I'm not exactly sure how long it goes by, but eventually God tells the prophet Nathan what's going on in David's life.

And you want to talk about a real friend, you want to talk about a real truth teller, that Nathan has to go to the king and point out the sin and inconsistency in his life. So Nathan's trying to figure out, how am I going to do this, man? So he rolls up on him, he goes, hey, hey, King David,

let me tell you a story. There was a rich man. all the sheep in the world. And there was a poor man that only had one sheep. And he raised that one sheep from the time it was a little you, little baby sheep. And the rich guy took the one man's little sheep for himself. What would you do to that man? And David, in sense with anger. He's like, we should get him and kill that man. And Nathan goes, you're that man. Essentially, Nathan did exactly what Samuel did to Saul. Nathan walks in and goes, what are you doing? what are you doing? And in Psalm 51, we see David's response to David potentially screwing everything up.

He starts out this way, have mercy on me, old God. You see, when Saul was confronted with his sin, he just defended. He just defended. But not my fault. You weren't there and I needed to do this. And me and my and what about? That's what he did. He just defended and said, I got this. This is speculation for sure. But I believe, not the Bible doesn't say this, I'm going to stand way over here. I believe if when Samuel shows up and goes, what are you doing? If Saul falls on his face in repentance, everything is different in his life. But because he defends instead of surrenders, then everything changes. Because when David is confronted with his own sin, here's what he writes. Here's what it says.

To the choir master, a Psalm of David when Nathan, the prophet went to him after he had gone into Bathsheba. Pretty frank here in the scripture. Have mercy on me, oh God, according to your steadfast love. Not how much I have loved you, but how much you have steadfastly loved me. Blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me. verse four against you you only have i sin to which you might if you were the attorney for bashiba and you'd be like actually you kind of sin against them too but what david understands is that all sin ultimately is against the lord he says against you you only have a sin and done what is evil in

your sight so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment behold i was brought forth in iniquity and And in sin did my mother conceive me. You know, I say this all the time. You're not a mistakeer in need of a life coach. You're not just a bad decision maker that needs to just make better decisions. What David understands is that at the core of who he is, he's a wretched, wretched, wretched sinner. He says, behold, you delight in truth in the inward being and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.

I'm just going to tell you, I don't know what that means. Like, I can't in Hebrew, I know what the words say, and yet I know this. Apart from the blood of Jesus Christ, redeeming and renewing your soul, there are parts of you deep down in places in your heart that you don't like to think about often, that the only way they can be purified is through the gospel of Jesus Christ. Dude, I'm pro counseling. I'm pro meetings. I'm pro all that stuff, man. I think God heals in all kind of ways. I think he heals through people, prayers, and pills, okay?

Take them all, whatever. But I'm just telling you, there are parts of the soul in the secret heart that only the blood of Jesus can get down in there and do what it does and cleanse you and wash you and forgive you of your sin. That's what he's talking about. Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me and I will be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness. Listen to this. Let the bones that you have broken rejoice.

Listen to me, it ain't over for you. You may have limped in here on some broken legs, but God can heal those broken legs, and you can leap out of here and rejoice because God's not finished with you. This is what he's saying. Hide your face from my sins. Blot out all of my iniquities.

Create in me a clean heart, oh God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your people. presence and take not your Holy Spirit from me, restore to me the joy of your salvation. This is so important because when we began to lose the joy of our salvation, it's when we begin to turn our eyes to the things of this world and worship the false little G gods of this place. And so he's like, remind me of your joy, the joy of your salvation and uphold me with a willing

spirit. You see, listen, this is all talking about what Jesus Christ will do on the the cross for us. And then look where he goes. Then I will teach transgressors, your ways, and sinners will return to you. This is unbelievable. He's a murderer, an adulterer, and a liar. And his prayer is, have mercy on me. And then God, I trust, I trust that you're the kind of God that never waits to hurt, even the self-inflicted kind. Even though, I have done my part to ruin everything good and godly in my life, I know that only a sovereign God can even use our own sin for his good.

And what the enemy intended for evil, and even what I intended for evil, God, you and you alone can't intend for good. Listen, no matter how beaten or broken or battered you are, God's not done with you. that the gospel of Jesus Christ takes the toughest trials, the toughest tragedies, the toughest temptations in our life, and turns them into the most beautiful testimonies for his glory and his grace. And that if you will be obedient and let him, he won't waste a hurt. The way the New Testament says it is this, therefore now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. That word condemnation means unfit for use.

The enemy is trying to whisper in your ear because you are disobedient. You're done. You're condemned. And Jesus Christ says not on my watch. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. He says, deliver me from blood guiltiness, oh God. The Bible says without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin. Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of what David is requested.

here to deliver me from blood guiltiness, oh God. Oh God of my salvation. And my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. Folks, this is why we worship. This is why we sing. This is why that last song ain't time to get out of here. It's time to remind yourself of what Christ has done for you on the cross that we have been cleansed, that we've been weighed wider than snow, and that we're going to lift our voice to say, God, who are we that you would take our place? And we're going to make much of him because he gave it all for us. O Lord, open my lips and my mouth will declare your praise, for you will not delight in sacrifice or I would give it.

You will not be pleased with burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. Oh God, you will not despise. You see, the whole point of this message is this. God will not be a means to our end. The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Saul tried to take control of things. He says, I got this.

He's trying to use God for his own means. And God don't play that. And when Samuel shows up and says, what have you done? Essentially, he was the Lord of his own life. And as you know, we are on this two-year journey where we are just immersed in the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord of your God with all of your heart and all your soul and all your mind and all your strength.

So the question is, what do you do when God commands you to love him with all? And then you realize you haven't. That whether it's the prophet of God, there aren't any prophets like Old Testament anymore, because we all have the Holy Spirit in us. What do you do when the Holy Spirit in you, if you're a believer, convict you at the soul level and says, what have you done? Here's what you do. You do what David does and you repent.

you fall on the mercy of God you walk in the gospel of Jesus Christ we're so blessed around here to have some pretty incredible worship pastors and leaders and every movement has a soundtrack and so they wrote a song last year the Lord is one and in it it says this hear the word of the Lord

our God is one there is no other let it come down like a sword to pierce the hearts of his own. So what do you do? What do you do when the spirit of God in you begins to convict you at the heart level? And you know there's some stuff in your life that the enemy has been dangling in front of you. And if you're not careful, it could take you out. Or what do you do when you've stumbled and you've fallen? Here's what you do. You repent. you come and you fall on the mercy of God and you declare the gospel to be true in your life

that your past does not define you your sin does not define you your habits do not define you your hormones do not define you your addiction does not define you your mistakes do not define you your marital status does not define you your bank account does not define you

your job status does not define you only Jesus Christ gets to tell you who you are so what about you I would pray that this weekend you don't play church. I would pray that this weekend you would be real before the one true God. Because a real Jesus died on a real cross for the real you. Look, the fake you's doing just fine, man. And I pray, if you're trying to fake it in here and just be like, it's all right, it's fine.

I ain't really. Listen, I pray the Lord would wear you out. I mean, from the inside out, he would just wear you out. but you know if you got some junk stirring around and you need to repent, you need to fall on the mercy of God. Then in just a second at all our locations, you're going to stand, I'm going to pray, the band's going to come, we are going to sing those words, and I want to invite you to come and fall on the mercy of God.

Just like David did, to not come with excuses of why it went this way, but just come with a broken and contrite heart and say, created me, oh God, a clean heart washed me wider than snow. Would you please stand and let me pray for you. Our good and gracious Heavenly Father, God, we love you because you love us first. God, I thank you so much that because

of the cross of Jesus Christ, when we stumble and fall, not if, but when we stumble and fall, when we choose to take our eyes off you, when we try to, when we force things instead of by faith trusting you. God, when we succumb to the temptations

of this world, God, I thank you that because of the cross of Jesus Christ that we don't have to run from you and hide like Adam and Eve did and start working to cover our sin and shame. But instead, you come running to us with open arms and says, come to me all who are weary and heavy burden. God, struggling with sin in our life is heavy. It is wearisome. So, God, I thank you that we can come to you. And that you will give us peace. You will give us forgiveness.

you will give us rest for ourselves. Spirit, I pray that you convict us and you draw us to you and that we would declare with our mouths that you and you alone are one. We pray this in the good, strong name of Jesus Christ. Amen.