Good morning everybody and welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church.
Good to see everybody here on a Sunday morning.
Find our seats, we will go as it started.
So we found a seat, let's grab a hymnal.
Let's all go to song number 52, song number 52.
Zion's Hill, does that note well?
Sing it out loud.
Song number 52, let's all sing it out together on that verse.
Song number 52, Zion's Hill.
Love you so much and we just thank you for this awesome church.
Thank you for everybody that's gathered here today
and we just ask now that you fill this room with your spirit
and just help us sing out unto you.
Edified this morning, it's in Jesus name we pray, amen.
For our next song, let's go to song number 95,
our song to us this morning, not some.
Those that do know it, let's all sing it out real loud.
Great song, song number 95, The Lord is My Shepherd.
Let's all sing it out together.
The steadfast Baptist, you need a bulletin,
you can lift up your hand nice and high,
one of our ushers can come by and get you guys a bulletin.
On the front we have Bible memory passage, Jude 6.
You can quote the entire passage of Jude,
you can receive a special prize.
Inside is our service and soul winning times,
several regional soul winning times
that meet in different parts of the city.
So if you'd like to go soul winning at a different time
throughout the week, those are some great options for you
and they meet in various areas.
Down below we have our church stats
and we've been doing really good on our numbers.
We already beat our last year's records,
which honestly is really great.
If we continue that pace,
we should basically break every record
we've ever had for every year.
So let's just keep on working hard and being steadfast.
On the right, we have the list of our expecting ladies,
several ladies to be in prayer for, also upcoming events.
This next Saturday is gonna be a soul hunting marathon
in Durant, Oklahoma.
So if you missed yesterday,
if you weren't able to participate yesterday,
you still have an opportunity to participate.
This Saturday, Durant, Oklahoma,
it's about an hour and a half from the DFW area.
There is a signup sheet in our foyer.
Please make sure you're signing up.
And we're anticipating to have a very large crowd.
So also Anchor Baptist Church with Pastor Dylan Oz
is gonna be coming down with about 17 or so of their members.
And so we're really excited to partner with them
and see them.
We have a Shreveport Marathon also in June, June 28th.
That's also one that we like to highlight,
emphasize just because it's a very receptive area.
Yesterday, we ended up having about 54 soul winners
go out to the Cleburne area.
And we had people actually went Friday as well.
So Friday, there was 28 salvations.
And Saturday, it was 91 salvations.
So praise the Lord on that.
And this event-- typically, we don't structure our soul
winning events right on top of each other like that.
But this is kind of the brainchild of Brother Evan
and Brother Sam.
And they just had a really big heart and a vision
to reach a lot of the Marshallese people.
And so it was just kind of something they came to me.
They asked me about.
And of course, it's something that I don't turn down.
So you want to go soul winning, you're
going to find a partner in me.
All right.
So, and our church loves soul winning.
And we love to empower soul winners and soul winning missions trips and events and stuff
like that.
And so that's definitely really exciting to see those kind of numbers and that kind of
a turnout.
So thank you to everyone who participated again, that down below has some of those details.
We're going to be meeting around 9 a.m.
There's the address for the Durant one.
So if you missed out, you can help participate there.
And then on the back, we have the list of prayers.
So if you have any prayer lists that you'd like to add, just please put them in a communication
card, throw them in the offering plate, or you can just email us, steadfast, baptist,
KJV@gmail.com.
And we'd love to be in prayer with you.
We typically go over that on Wednesdays.
That's pretty much all I have as far as announcements are concerned.
We're going to go ahead and sing our Psalm of the Week, Psalm 149, Psalm 149, Psalm 149
near Binders, we have a black binder nearby, Psalm 149, so I'll try to sing it out together.
Bring plates are being passed around.
Go ahead.
Bibles to Proverbs chapter 28, the book of Proverbs chapter number 28.
The Bible reads, "The wicked flee when no man pursueth, but the righteous are bold as
a lion.
For the transgression of a land, many are the princes thereof, but by a man of understanding
and knowledge, the state thereof shall be prolonged.
Poor man that oppresseth the poor is like a sweeping rain which leaveeth no food.
They that forsake the law praise the wicked, but such as keep the law, contend with them.
Evil men understand not judgment, but they that seek the Lord understand all things.
There is the poor that walketh in his uprightness than he that is perverse at his ways, though
he be rich.
Whoso keepeth the law is a wise son, but he that is a companion of riotous men shameth
his father.
He that by usury and unjust gain increase at this substance, he shall gather it for
him that will pity the poor.
He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination.
Whoso causeth the righteous to go astray in an evil way, he shall fall himself,
into his own pit, but the upright shall have good things in possession.
The rich man is wise in his own conceit, but the poor that hath understanding searcheth
him out.
When righteous men do rejoice there is great glory, but when the wicked rise a man is hidden.
He that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall
have mercy.
Happy is the man that feareth all way, but he that hardeneth his heart shall fall into
mischief.
The roaring lion and a raging bear, so is a wicked ruler over the poor people.
The prince that wanteth understanding is also a great oppressor, but he that hateth covetousness
shall prolong his days.
A man that doeth violence to the blood of any person shall flee to the pit, let no man
stay him.
Whoso walketh uprightly shall be saved, but he that is perverse in his ways shall fall
at once.
He that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread, but he that followeth after vain
persons shall have poverty enough.
A faithful man shall abound with blessings, but he that maketh haste to be rich shall
not be innocent.
To have respect of persons is not good, for for a piece of bread that man will transgress.
He that hasteth to be rich hath an evil eye, and considereth not that poverty shall come
upon him.
He that rebuketh a man afterward shall find more favor than he that flattereth with the
tongue.
Whoso robbeth his father or his mother, and sayeth, "It is no transgression," the same
is the companion of a destroyer.
He that is of a proud heart stirreth up strife, but he that putteth his trust in the Lord
shall be made fat.
He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool, but whoso walketh wisely, he shall be delivered.
He that giveth unto the poor shall not lack, but he that hideeth his eyes shall have many
a curse.
When the wicked rise, men hide themselves, but when they perish, the righteous increase.
Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer.
Father in heaven, we thank you for our church and for our pastor and his family.
I pray that you fill him now with your Holy Spirit, enable him, Lord God, to preach a
bold message with clarity of mind.
And I pray, Lord, that you would also give us ears to hear and soften hearts in the room
so that we can receive the preaching of your Word and make applicable changes.
We love you, and in Jesus' name I pray.
Amen.
I want to look at verse 13.
The Bible says, "He that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth and
forsaketh them shall have mercy."
And the title of my sermon this morning is "Seeking New Mercies."
Seeking new mercies.
Honestly, I had a lot of different titles floating around in my mind because the concept
I want to talk about this morning is just the idea that a lot of times when we screw
up or we do something or we sin or we cause a problem, we don't realize that God can
turn that into a blessing.
And you know, alternative titles I had for my sermon are just "When God Uses Our Mistakes"
or "He Turns Our Blunders into Blessings" or "He Turns Our Faults into Fortunes" or
"He Turns Our Sins into Salvation" or "The Blessing of Mercy" or "The Enlarging of
Our Steps."
The Bible brings up this concept how, you know, this idea of a step being enlarged.
Why would a step need to be enlarged?
Is because when you're stepping, you end up making a mistake or you're kind of stumbling
and so your footing doesn't actually land where it needs to be.
So enlarging the steps is actually covering for your mistake, covering for your fault,
covering for where you are weak.
And God has a lot of mercies that he wants to offer unto us and I believe that God is
a very merciful God, yet we still need to seek for those mercies.
We kind of see that here in verse 13.
Notice that if you cover your sins, you're not going to prosper, but if you confess and
forsake it, notice then you can have mercy.
So there is a mercy that God offers.
It's something that we should seek after, and that's what I really want to focus in
on this morning is seeking new mercies.
Now I have four simple points that we're going to talk about this often in the sermon, but
when we sin, what should we do?
After we sin, because we're all going to sin, we sin every day if we're honest with ourselves.
We all have varying degrees of sin.
We all have different lifestyles.
We all have different issues.
People are constantly screwing up.
People are constantly doing things that they're ashamed of.
What do we do after we sin?
Well, number one, we need to acknowledge our sin.
And I have four A's this morning.
We need to acknowledge our sin.
That's what's being mentioned here in verse 13, right?
We need to confess our sin in a sense.
We need to acknowledge that we have sinned.
Number two is we need to accept the consequences of our sin.
Number three, we need to ask for mercy.
And number four, we then need to awake to righteousness.
So those are the four points.
We addressed the first one already, that we need to first confess.
And notice it says and forsake.
And I would say that the four points that I brought up are kind of encompassed in this
idea of confessing and forsaking.
And I'm just elaborating a little bit from other places in the Bible.
But we need to acknowledge our sin, accept the consequences, ask for mercy and awake
to righteousness.
Go over to Hebrews chapter 12, Hebrews chapter number 12.
We notice that our first point is we need to acknowledge that's brought up in Proverbs
28 as confessing our sin.
The Bible brings up when people would go out to John the Baptist that they were confessing
their sins, meaning that they're acknowledging that they have sin.
Without the acknowledgement of sin, there really isn't an opportunity to fix the issue.
And here's a problem in our society is the Bible says that every man does that which
is right in his own eyes.
We typically think that every single thing that we do is right.
And that's just human nature.
By human nature, we're often justifying everything that we do.
We're constantly thinking that everything we do is right.
We constantly think all the decisions we make have some justification for them.
And it's really through reading the Bible, and going to church, and hearing preaching,
that we'll often be confronted on the fact that we've sinned.
And we need to, when we are confronted on the fact that we've sinned, or we've done
something wrong, we need to acknowledge that.
We need to say, "You know what?
The Bible said this.
I need to realize I have sinned," and acknowledge the fact that we have sinned.
Now, what is the second thing is we need to accept the consequence.
We have to realize that God will punish us for our sins, and there's often a consequence
associated with sinning.
What does it say in Hebrews 12 verse 5?
"And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children.
My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked
of him.
For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourges every son whom he receiveth.
If he endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons.
For what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not?"
So the Bible just simply says, "Hey, don't faint when you end up receiving some consequence
to your sin."
So, hey, we have to first acknowledge that we sinned, and then we have to just accept
the consequences of our sin.
We have to recognize, "God, I'm sorry, I've sinned, and I realize there may be a punishment.
I realize there's probably a consequence to what I've done, and I need to just accept
that."
And not faint, not be discouraged, not allow that to cause us to have a bad attitude, but
rather just simply accepting the consequences of our actions.
Go over to Psalm chapter 4, what's the third thing we need to do then is ask for mercy.
Now this is what's great about God.
Just because you accept the consequences of your action does not mean that you will always
receive the consequences of your action.
Accepting the consequences is different than receiving the consequences.
Because at the end of the day, many times when we simply acknowledge that we've done
wrong and we tell God, "I'm willing to take whatever punishment or chastisement I need,"
He simply by asking Him for mercy will say, "You know what?
The fact that you felt bad enough is good enough for me."
And children, this is what you should learn about your parents.
When you do something wrong, when you disobey mom and dad and your mom and dad catch you,
your brother and sister rat you out or whatever, you get caught somehow, you need to just say,
"You know what?
I'm sorry.
You know, hey, I did it wrong.
I screwed up.
You said I shouldn't do this.
I did it."
And say, "You know what?
I'm sorry.
Whatever, you know, I did, I deserve, right?
Whatever punishment is fine."
But then here's the third thing you can do is you can ask for mercy.
Say, "Hey, I did wrong.
Whatever you want, mom and dad, I'll do.
Well, can you please not punish me?
Can you please just let this go?
Can you please give me some grace?
Can you please give me some mercy?"
And many times your parents may actually give you mercy.
You know, as parents, we don't need to always punish our children every single time.
Sometimes we can show them mercy.
Sometimes we can show them grace.
And you know, this is kind of one of the rules of thumb for me is I'm thinking, if I want
God to constantly show me mercy, then I should constantly show my children mercy as well,
shouldn't I?
And as much as I screw up, I would hope that God is constantly being merciful to me and
I'm not always getting punished as I deserve, but that He's being gracious to me.
But I do know this about God, is that God is not just going to randomly show you mercy,
He's going to give you mercy when you ask for it, okay?
Now look at Psalm 4 verse 1, "Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness.
Thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress.
Have mercy upon me and hear my prayer."
Notice that the psalmist is saying, "Hey, God, have mercy on me.
Hey, you've enlarged me in my distress."
Basically, when we make mistakes, when we do things, God can help get us through these
difficulties.
Verse 2, "O ye sons of men, how long will ye turn my glory into shame?
How long will ye love vanity and seek after leasing?"
Selah.
Leasing is lying, okay?
It's not where a landlord rips you off, which seems similar to lying, but it's slightly
different, okay?
"But know that the Lord has set apart him that is godly for himself.
The Lord will hear when I call unto him.
Stand in awe and sin not, commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still."
Selah.
"Live the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in the Lord.
There be many that say, 'Who will show us any good?'
Lord lift thou up, the light of thy countenance upon us.
Thou has put gladness in my heart more than in the time that their corn and their wine
increased.
I will both lay me down in peace and sleep.
For thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety."
So we kind of have a picture of the psalmist is sinned, he's done things that are wrong,
he's not perfect.
The enemies are kind of triumphing over him about it, and he's in distress because of
his enemies, but he's saying, "God, still have mercy on me and I'm going to trust in
you."
And we notice here in the psalm he's saying in verse 5, "Offer the sacrifices of righteousness
and put your trust in the Lord."
So even though we may have screwed up, even though we may have not done right, it doesn't
mean that we can't still trust in the Lord.
It doesn't mean that we shouldn't still seek after him or beg for his mercy or come under
his wing of protection.
We should.
We should not think that when we've sinned against God that we need to draw away, we
need to get away from him.
In fact, we need to come closer to him.
We need to draw near unto him, not run away.
We need to simply acknowledge our sin, accept the consequences, and ask for mercy.
Now the fourth point I have is then we awake to righteousness.
So once you recognize, "Hey, I've sinned, I'm accepting of whatever consequences, and
I'm asking for mercy, I'm going to try my best to not make that mistake again, and I'm
going to do my best to awake to righteousness."
And we see here in verse 5, "Offer the sacrifices of righteousness."
So when you screw up, say, "Hey, God, I screwed up, but you know what?
I'm willing to accept whatever consequences are coming my way.
Will you please not give me those consequences?
But no matter what, I'm going to do better.
I'm just going to try and do better and work on myself, and I'm going to wake to righteousness,
and I'm going to seek after you."
And what I notice in the Bible is often when you're seeking the Lord, no matter what, often
He'll even turn your blunders into a blessing.
He'll often turn your faults into a fortune.
And He'll cause your mistakes to end up being something that turns out to be great, which
is kind of confusing because you're thinking like, "Man, I screwed up."
But then somehow God will turn your screw up into a blessing.
Go if you would to James chapter four, go to James chapter number four.
So kind of covering this, and I'm going to show you a lot of examples of this in the
Bible.
But this is what makes God so great is that not only can God use my successes, not only
can God use it when I succeed or I'm good, God can use me when I'm bad, when I screw
up, when I make mistakes.
God can still use me because the Bible says all things work together for good to them
that love God, to them that are the called according to his purpose.
Now I think some Christians cling to this verse and they need to like embrace some aspect
of it to get this correct.
It's not saying, the Bible doesn't say in Romans, hey, just because you're saved, everything's
going to work out.
It says all things work together for good to them that love God, okay?
Now one aspect of loving God is keeping His commandments.
I believe that another aspect or layer to this though is simply just actually that emotional
feeling that we have where you're pursuing God, where you love God in your heart and
you just want to do what's right.
And when you just have that emotional feeling, when you have a drive, when you're seeking
God, many times He's going to cover your mistakes.
He's going to cover your sins.
He's going to continually give you mercy and grace, and even your mistakes somehow end
up turning out great.
And it's just like when God is for us, who can be against us?
And we have to understand that God is on our side.
Think about it this way.
As a child, you're going to make mistakes, you're going to have imperfections, but as
a parent that's teaching their child, whether that's learning how to ride a bicycle, tie
their shoe, maybe they're learning a skill, a craft, a trade, learning how to work with
wood, work with their hands, do all kinds of stuff, they're going to sometimes make
mistakes.
But as a parent, really all you want is you just want your child to try.
You just want your child to not give up.
You just want your child to keep going and you recognize they're going to probably make
some mistakes here.
And you know in woodworking, it's possible that your child is cutting the wood and they
make a little mistake, but then you being a wise master builder, you can end up taking
that mistake and changing it and now it's like, oh now it's not a mistake.
It's just like a Bob Ross painting, okay?
Bob Ross painting, he makes a little mistake on the painting, but then he's like, now it's
a happy little bush.
You know, now it's a happy little tree.
You know that tree wasn't even going to be there, but now he can turn it into a little
tree or turn it into a little bird or turn it, like it's basically because he's just
so good at painting, even when you make a little blemish or you accidentally stroke
on there a little different, he can just somehow turn it into a masterpiece.
And I believe that's how God wants it with our lives.
Don't give up painting.
Don't give up woodworking.
Don't give up on God.
And even when we make those little blunders, we make those little mistakes, hey, God can
come alongside and God can even turn it into a blessing.
And so we should constantly be seeking God and seeking His mercy.
And those of us that love God, even when we make mistakes, we sin, we screw up, we get
backslidden, we do something wrong, as long as we just get back on the page, get back
on the track, just keep trying.
God will often sometimes turn those mistakes into a blessing for us, but we need to ask
for that mercy.
You know, that's what's good about God.
I don't want my mistakes to just haunt me for the rest of my life.
I don't want my blunders or my sins or my issues to constantly cause me issue.
And you know, if I don't seek God, I'm not going to get that mercy.
I have to seek God, I have to ask for it.
Look what it says in James 4 verse 1, "From whence come wars and fighting among you, come
they not hence, even of your lusts, that war in your members?
Ye lusts and have not, ye kill and desire to have and cannot obtain, ye fight and war,
yet ye have not because ye ask not."
So God is saying, "Man, you guys are constantly bickering and fighting and you constantly
want stuff, but you're not going around, you're not trying to get it the right way.
If you want stuff from God, just ask for it."
Many times we don't have things that we want because we just won't ask for it.
And for some reason this is just part of human nature where humans struggle to ask for things.
And I'm always trying to encourage you, ask for things.
"Hey, I want a soul winning marathon in Cleburne, Texas."
Ask for it.
Because you know what?
If they had never asked me for it, it would have never happened because it's not on my
radar.
It's not something that I'm thinking about.
But then, you know, you could go online and complain like Pastor Shelley never wanted
to do a soul winning marathon in Cleburne.
Well, did you ask for it?
Now again, sometimes you ask for things and you're not going to get it.
What does it say?
Verse three, you ask and receive not because you ask and miss.
You say, hey, can you give me breakfast every single Saturday morning?
And it's like, why?
Is that going to help soul winning or is that just because of some selfish ambition?
It's like, oh, well, that's the reason why you're not getting it.
It's not really legitimate.
But hey, we spent tons of money on soul, like every soul winning marathon, we're spending
tons of money.
I mean, we're spending probably a thousand, two thousand, three thousand, five thousand,
ten thousand dollars.
I mean, it depends on which event.
We're spending tons of money.
We're not afraid to spend money to get a bunch of people saved, but you know, if you're asking
for things that don't really make sense, yeah, you might not get them.
You know what?
God wants us to constantly ask for mercy.
You're never going to, you're never going to be wrong asking God for mercy.
We should be asking God for mercy.
There's an exception in first John I can think of where it says you're asking for life for
your brother that sent us in on a death, but I'm just saying generally speaking, there's
nothing wrong with seeking mercy.
God's not going to be mad at you for seeking mercy.
We should seek mercy generally speaking.
And so that's a great thing we should realize.
We should be constantly asking things from God.
Now if we keep reading, it says, he asked and received not because he asked and missed
that you may consume it upon your lust, ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that
friendship of the world is enmity with God.
Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
So here, you know, we have to make sure that we're on the right page.
We're seeking God.
We're not seeking the world.
We're not going around asking God, can I have a Corvette?
Can I have a bunch of money?
Can I have all these things where I can just consume them upon my lust?
But rather, we're asking for things so that we can bless God.
We can use the resources and things God's given us to serve God.
Because notice, friendship of the world is enmity with God.
Hey, God, make me famous.
Well, why?
Why do you want to be famous?
Because friendship of the world is enmity with God.
And we should realize, hey, if someone comes to me and asks, hey, I want to do a soul-witting
marathon, okay, that's great.
If someone comes up to me like, hey, Pastor Shelley, I have this really awesome sermon
that everybody's going to like on YouTube, when are you going to let me preach it?
And be like, well, why do you, you know, are you just wanting to preach, to preach some
clickbait sermon, to get viral because you just want to get famous, like what's the point
in that?
You know, and people just, sometimes they don't realize that their motivations eke out
through their words or through their actions, and we recognize this isn't the right thing.
But generally speaking, we always like to be asked.
You know, I applied this to church, let's apply this to our own lives.
Hey, at work, if you want something from your boss, ask for it.
Hey, you want more work, ask your boss for more work.
Hey, you want a promotion, ask your boss for a promotion.
Hey, you want a raise, ask your boss for a raise.
Hey, you want to be transferred into another department or move around,
ask your boss for these things.
Don't just always wait for it to happen.
And I'll tell you, there's been many times in my life where I've asked my employer for
different things and I've gotten them almost every time just because I asked.
I remember when I was looking for a job.
There was a place that had a job opening and I knew they were hiring.
And all I did, I just literally showed up, walked in, had a resume in hand, and I just
said, "Hey, I want to work for you guys.
Here's my resume."
And the secretary went and got a boss and then they said, "Hey, do you want to interview
right now?"
And I said, "Yeah, I'm ready."
I was dressed nice.
Obviously, I was dressed in a suit and tie.
I had a resume in hand.
They're like, "Let's interview right now."
I interviewed with them right then, and then they offered me a job.
Now, I'll be honest, I didn't take it, okay, but it was because I had actually had four
job offers, and I took the best one.
But I was willing to take that job, and I did want to work for them.
I just didn't realize that I was going to get offered a better job.
There was the Russians, didn't want to, you know, wasn't going to do that one.
There was this one, another one, and look, I've given that advice to other people, and
other people have done the same thing.
I said this to someone, I said, "Hey, where do you want to work?"
This person's like, "I want to work here."
And I'm like, "You know what?
Get a resume.
Go walk in and say, 'I want to work for you.'"
You know, sometimes what they'll say is they'll say, "We're not hiring right now, but we'll
keep you in mind."
Or maybe you're not qualified yet.
Or maybe it's not a perfect fit yet.
But you know, just that initiative could sow that seed to where then, hey, when they are
looking for somebody, or when the right time does come along, they're going to say, "Hey,
it wasn't the right time, but now I'm interested, why don't you come and talk to us again?
Why don't you come?
You know, what kind of skills?
Did you improve yourself?"
Or you could simply say, "Hey, if I'm not the right fit, what do I need to improve?"
And then I'll come back to you.
And they'll say, "Hey, we really want to see this."
Then you go do that, then come back and say, "Hey, here it is."
Right?
If you go to your boss and you ask for something that's not good though, he might say, "Yeah,
I don't want that.
This isn't the right thing."
But you want something, ask for it.
Hey, ladies, you want something from your husband?
Ask him for it.
This is what women want.
They want mind readers.
I am sorry, none of us are mind readers.
And I guess it's like it's extra special, like to women, that you didn't have to ask
for it.
But you know what?
God is a mind reader, and God still wants us to ask for it.
So riddle me this, God can read my mind, and then he still wants me to ask for it.
You want me to read your mind so you don't have to ask for it, but that's not biblical.
Biblical would be like, "Hey, you want something, you ask for it."
Now again, I'm not saying, "Guys, don't hear me wrong," okay?
That was for the ladies.
Guys, try to read your wife's mind, okay?
It will help your marriage, okay?
Try to anticipate what she's thinking, and you know what?
Sometimes ladies ask a miss, and then you have to try and help them figure out what
they want.
You have to be the Holy Ghost, where they don't know what they asked for as they ought,
and then you just help intercede for them a little bit, okay?
So that was for you, okay?
Ladies, you didn't listen to what I just said, all right?
Don't think your husband's a mind reader and just ask him.
And don't ask him for things that don't make sense.
Ask him for things that make sense that are in line with your husband's wishes, the Word
of God's wishes, right?
These things are going to help us.
Children, you want something from your parents?
Ask your parents.
Hey, you want mercy?
Ask for mercy.
And it goes a long way when you ask for things.
What was the fourth point I had though is we need to wake to righteousness, and this
passage brings this up as well.
Verse 5, "Do you think that the Scriptures save in vain the spirit that dwells in us
lesseth envy, but he giveth more grace?
Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.
Submit yourselves therefore to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.
Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double-minded.
Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep.
Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.
Humble yourselves in the sight of God, and he shall lift you up."
Notice that we kind of have all these points being illustrated for us again, don't we?
That we should acknowledge our sin.
Isn't that what's being referenced here when it's saying, hey, that we need to be afflicted,
and mourn, and weep, and we need to humble ourselves?
We need to recognize, hey, I've sinned.
Then we need to accept the consequences of that.
Third, we need to ask for mercy that's being brought up in this passage.
And then fourth, we need to wake to righteousness, which is being illustrated again here in the
fact that we're purifying our hearts, we're cleansing our hands, that we're trying to
do what's right.
We're drawing nigh unto God, but notice, when you draw nigh unto God, what's His response?
He draws nigh unto you.
Hey, in any situation, we can apply spiritual things to carnal things because they work
the same.
You know, you want to draw nigh to your boss, He'll draw nigh to you.
You draw nigh to your husband, He'll draw nigh to you.
You draw nigh to your parents, your parents will draw nigh unto you.
Hey, you draw nigh unto your pastor, your pastor will draw nigh unto you.
And then sometimes people will complain, they'll be like, "Man, I feel like I didn't have much
of a relationship," and then insert the person, their pastor, their boss, people at church,
their husband, their wife, their children.
You know what?
Sometimes we have to take the first step.
We have to draw nigh unto them, and then they'll draw nigh unto us.
You know, a man that hath friends must show himself friendly, and so if we want things,
we have to sometimes pursue that particular individual.
Go, 1 Corinthians 15, young single guys, you want a wife, you actually have to draw nigh
to a woman.
I mean, it seems self-explanatory at this point, but I don't know anymore, I'm just
trying to say it.
You know, like if you want a wife, you have to draw nigh on them.
You know, sometimes I just try to put them together, you know?
It's like we've had conferences in the past, and it's like, "You, talk to him, now."
You know, it's like, "It's right here, you know, this person, this person, sit down,
talk."
Right?
And then it just kind of helps break over the ice.
But, you know, it's going to be really hard to get a wife if you never talk to a lady.
And so, that's something that you need to think about.
And the guys that are married, I guarantee they approach their wife, they talk to them,
okay?
That's why they have one.
So, if you want a wife, you have to do this.
You have to seek after it.
Hey, you want mercy, you want grace, you got to ask for it.
And we should be constantly seeking for God's mercies in our lives.
Look at 1 Corinthians 15, I want to show you verse 34, "Awake to righteousness and
sin not."
So, here's where I'm kind of getting this point from.
And 1 Corinthians is saying, "Hey, we need to awake to righteousness."
The context of 1 Corinthians is people not preaching the resurrection, not explaining
good doctrine, and he's saying, "You guys have screwed up.
There's people in your church that are screwed up on this issue, but you know what?
Awake to righteousness, preach the right gospel, don't sin."
And of course, what does it say in the preceding verse, "Be not deceived, evil communications
corrupt good manners."
So when you're doing things that are wrong, it spirals out of control.
When you do that, which is right, things end up getting cleaned up and get better.
Go to Lamentations chapter 3, Lamentations chapter 3.
Now, I don't want you to get the wrong impression of my sermon.
I'm not trying to say that there isn't a consequence to sin.
I'm not saying that when you screw up, God may not punish you because we saw clear verses
where He may punish you, there may be a consequence, and sometimes God deals with us harshly.
But in order to avoid that, we should be seeking Him and we should be asking for that mercy.
But what I love about God is how many times He does show mercy and how long-suffering
He really is.
I think people, you know, and again, people get out of the fight, the Christian fight,
for so many reasons.
So what I'm saying is not limited is the only reason, but one of the reasons I notice some
people is they kind of screw up, and then instead of just trying to get right with God,
they allow that screw up to discourage them to think, "Well, there's no point in trying
anymore.
There's no point in doing that anymore."
But it's really important when you screw up to just get right back on the horse.
One of the examples I have is, I remember when I was really young, I was 5 years old,
my dad was teaching me how to throw a baseball.
And it was a real baseball, it wasn't like a softball or something like that, it was
a real baseball, and he's throwing it overhand, he wasn't like tossing it or something like
that.
I mean, he's standing 10, 15 feet away just throwing a baseball at me, and I'm 5 trying
to catch it.
And of course, at 5, I'm not perfect, and one of the times I missed, and it hit me right
in the face.
And I'll just be honest, it hurt really bad.
It was really, really bad.
But my dad, you know, I was crying a lot, I'll just be honest, I cried a lot.
But my dad made me stand there, and then my dad made me continue throwing the ball with
him.
Instead of becoming scared of the ball, and here's the thing, when you get hit in the
face, the next time he throws it to you, you're going to try real hard to not let it hit you
in the face.
This is what my bosses taught me, pain teaches.
My dad wasn't trying to be mean.
My dad wasn't trying to see if he could do it again.
My dad was trying to cause me to not be fearful and get discouraged and give up on baseball
or give up on throwing or give up on catching, but allow myself to just say, "Hey, you know
what?
I need to get back in there and I need to keep going and then move on."
And so sometimes in our life, we may every once in a while catch a baseball to the face,
but it's okay.
Just get back on the horse.
Just keep pursuing God and don't allow those things to discourage you.
The children of Israel are constantly screwing up, constantly doing wrong.
And God's often saying, "Hey, it's okay.
I'll fix it.
I'll cover your sin.
I'll help you out with this issue."
And we need to realize that God has a lot of mercies.
Now, I'm getting my sermon title from this passage in Lamentations because the Bible
talks about God has new mercies, but look what it says in verse number 21.
"This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.
It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not."
God will never stop being compassionate towards you.
Now obviously we could screw up big enough that He takes us home early, but as long as
we have breath in our lungs, we should realize God's compassions won't quit.
He's not going to get too tired of you where He won't just have compassion.
And notice what it says, "They are new every morning.
Great is Thy faithfulness."
What a great loving God that even though we may screw up every day, every year, every
decade, God is still just there like, "Hey, it's alright.
Let's just fix it today."
Having new mercies.
And you know, this is a page that we should take out of God's book that we should constantly
extend new mercies to those in our life as well.
Hey, when a brother in church trespasses against you, what did Jesus say?
"Hey, we're supposed to forgive him seven times seventy."
And it's not literally 490 times, but it's basically just saying, "Your brother repent,
forgive him."
Hey, in marriage, there's going to be a lot of screw ups.
There's going to be a lot of problems, but let's try every day to just have new mercies,
just start over every day, because often what can happen is you allow yourself to hold on
to some bitterness and a little issue becomes a little bit bigger the next day because you
didn't fix it or you didn't have new mercies, and then the next day it's a little bit bigger
and a little bit bigger, and then somehow it's a big snowball and you don't even know
why.
This can happen at work.
Maybe you're kind of upset about your work or your boss, and you're not having new mercies
every day, maybe towards your parents.
I'm sure a lot of kids sometimes, they don't like something their parents did, and instead
of giving their parents some grace, they end up keep snowballing and then it ends up turning
into a big issue because of bitterness.
This can happen at church.
Boy, I'll tell you, it's crazy to see people just get so obsessed about little tiny things,
things that don't really matter, and then just in their mind, it's such a big issue
when it's really not a big issue, it's just they're not having new mercy every day.
And if God's giving us new mercies every day, we should extend new mercies to others every
day.
Mothers, have new mercies for your children.
I mean, your children will screw up often and regularly, and instead of just being mad
at them every day, why don't you give them new mercy every single day and constantly
trying to give them some grace every single day.
The Bible says here, if we keep reading, "The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore
will I hope in Him.
The Lord is good unto them that wait for Him, to the soul that seeketh Him."
Because God is good to the one that what?
Seeks Him.
So what should we constantly be doing in our lives?
We should be seeking new mercies.
Number one, we need to acknowledge our sin before God.
We have to accept the consequences of our sin, but we should ask for mercy and we should
awake to righteousness.
This should be a cycle that we're constantly going through in our lives.
Just every day, every month, all the time.
Hey, when we screw up, hey God, I'm sorry I screwed up.
I'm willing to accept whatever consequence I have, but if so, can you please just be
merciful anyways?
Can you please give me grace anyways?
And I'm going to try and do better next time anyways.
I'm going to do my best.
Even if I get a punishment, I want to do better next time.
And then of course, we can think of all kinds of verses.
We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are
the called according to His purpose.
Skip down to verse 39.
The Bible says, "Wherefore doth the living man complain, a man for the punishment of
his sins, let us search and try our ways and turn again to the Lord."
Hey, instead of complaining about the consequences of your life, why don't you just simply say,
"You know what?
I'm going to turn," meaning repent.
"I'm going to wake to righteousness and I'm going to seek after God.
And if he's merciful, he's merciful.
If he's not, if he's not, hey, I'm just going to keep serving God."
Go if you would to Genesis 20 and I'm going to give you a couple examples in the Bible
of this.
Psalm 18 says, "Thou has enlarged my steps under me that my feet did not slip."
God doesn't want us to slip and stumble and fall and quit on the Christian life.
He wants us to have a victorious Christian life.
And since God wants us to have a victorious Christian life, you know what he's often doing?
He's putting up the bumper rails to our bowling alley.
Who does bowling?
Yeah.
Okay, you done bowling?
Obviously, when you become an adult, you kind of don't want the bumper rails out there.
But it's only because of your pride.
And the children, they love the bumper rails because often they're not going to necessarily
always roll it straight down the line, but those bumper rails just bump it right back
on track.
And you could literally bowl a terrible, you know, roll it terrible.
It hits the side, bounces, hits the middle, and you get a strike.
And it's like, that wasn't even a good, you didn't even roll it well.
In fact, you're not even good at bowling, but you somehow got a strike.
And it's like, this is how God does it for us in the Christian life many times.
We're literally rolling gutter balls, but it just bounces off the bumper that God has
for us, and then it gets us a strike.
And you're thinking like, what in the world?
Let's look at some gutter balls that turned into a strike somehow, okay?
Genesis chapter number 20, in verse number one, now this is Abraham.
And Abraham, he does this before, but I kind of want to highlight this one.
He kind of lied to Pharaoh about Sarah, his wife, being his sister, and not really his
wife, because he was afraid he was going to be killed.
So he was fearful, which is a sin.
It's wrong to be fearful.
It's wrong to lie.
It would be wrong to allow another man to start courting or dating your wife in any
context.
It's wrong, okay?
There's nothing good about it.
Look at Genesis 20 verse 1, he does it again to Abimelech, "And Abram journeyed from thence
toward the south country, and dwelt between Kadesh and Shura, and sojourned in Gerar.
And Abram said of Sarah his wife, 'She is my sister,' and Abimelech king of Gerar sent
and took Sarah."
How would you ladies feel if your husband said, "I'm not even married to her, she's
not my wife," and then another guy took you to date you or court you or something?
I mean, that's weird.
It's weird, it's wrong, it's sinful.
It's definitely a gutter ball, okay?
This is not something that you should ever do.
But God ends up punishing Abimelech, he didn't even know what he was doing wrong.
And then look at verse 14, "And Abimelech took sheep and oxen and men servants and women
servants and gave them unto Abraham and restored them to Sarah his wife.
And Abimelech said, 'Behold, my land is before thee, dwell where it pleases thee.'"
This guy totally rolls a gutter ball, and then at the end of the day he gets a bunch
of money, goods, and gets to live wherever he wants.
Now again, I'm not recommending what Abraham did.
If we go bowling, I'm not going to say, "Hey, try and hit it right in the gutter."
But you know what?
You could accidentally do that and then end up still getting a strike.
And in the same way, sometimes we screw up and then God just turns it into a strike.
It doesn't mean screw up.
It doesn't mean do things that are bad.
It just means God can turn things to good for you when you're pursuing God, when you
love God.
And isn't that crazy?
I mean, Abraham's fear, he was afraid.
He didn't protect his family.
He put them in danger, and yet God made it good.
Now we take application, maybe we make a mistake out of fear, and then God could turn it into
a blessing.
I mean, how many people have made decisions out of fear or out of danger, and then God
still ends up blessing that person.
You're not necessarily doomed.
You know, I've known a lot of people that got the COVID shot.
And I don't think that's right.
I don't like that.
I don't think it's a good thing to do.
But not all of them died.
Not all of them have myocarditis.
I mean, I know people, I told explicitly, don't do this.
This is why it's wrong.
And they got like three and they still seem to be fine.
I mean, I'm not saying that it didn't have a consequence, but I am saying this, you know,
that I don't think was the best.
Obviously, we could maybe put our children in some kind of dangerous situation or have
made a bad medical decision for them or allowed them to do something that was hazardous.
And we're kind of not making wise decisions as parents.
But God can somehow come alongside and still protect us, guard us, bless us.
You know, maybe you put them in a dangerous environment with their schooling or day care
with wrong babysitter, but maybe they got a blessing out of it.
You know, just because kids are in public school or private school doesn't mean that
they can't still learn things.
I went to public school.
I went to private school.
I went to both, actually.
I never was homeschooled.
And you know, I still got blessings out of school.
I still learn things from school, not a lot, but I learned some things, okay.
I learned a lot of negative things, too.
But you know, was that maybe the best decision?
Not necessarily.
But hey, God can still make things work out sometimes.
And we don't necessarily always have to beat ourselves up.
Now does that mean we should do these things?
No, I'm not recommending doing things that are dangerous.
I'm not saying we should fear man and make fear-based decisions, but sometimes we do
these things, and then God can still turn it into a blessing.
Here's another one, Genesis 27, you're pretty close to this.
How about Jacob?
Jacob lies unto his father, and he's very deceitful.
He basically tricks his father.
Genesis 27, let's read verse 8, "Now therefore my son obey my voice," this is his mother
talking to him, "according to that which I command thee, go now to the flock and fetch
me from thence two good kids of the goats, and I will make them savour meat for thy father,
such as he loveth.
And thou shalt bring it to thy father, that he may eat, and that he may bless thee before
his death."
And Jacob said to Rebecca, his mother, "Behold Esau, my brother, is a hairy man, and I am
a smooth man.
Thy father, perventure, will feel me, and I shall seem to him as a deceiver, and I shall
bring a curse upon me, and not a blessing."
So Jacob is saying, "Man, I don't want to go unto my dad and lie to him, because his
dad, Isaac, is going to die, and in his death he's going to bless one of his sons, he's
going to bless the oldies, he's going to bless Esau."
But Jacob kind of wants this blessing, and his mother wants to give the blessing to Jacob
not to Esau.
So she concocts this plan, "Hey, let's lie to dad, let's deceive him, let's trick him
into thinking that you're Esau, and then you'll get blessed."
And he's like, "I don't want to do this because, you know, dad, Isaac's going to figure it
out, and then I'm going to be cursed, I'm not going to be blessed."
But notice how the mother explains this.
She explains in verse number 13, "And his mother said unto him, 'Upon me be thy curse,
my son, only obey my voice and go fetch me them.'"
This is a weird story.
But of course there's a lot of symbolism spiritually in this because Rebecca is a picture of the
Lord Jesus Christ.
And then we have Isaac as a picture of God the Father.
And then of course we are like the Jacob in the story.
And then Esau is a Jew, okay, ethnically speaking or religiously speaking.
And essentially what we have to understand is that, hey, the Jews were replaced by the
Gentiles through the obeying the voice of Jesus Christ.
We got saved, we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ.
And notice His curse would be put upon Rebekah in the same way that our curse for our sin
was put on the Lord Jesus Christ.
And then when we came unto the Father, we're basically clothed in some other garment, which
is kind of a picture of, hey, the righteousness being applied to us, because the mother is
the one clothing Jacob in the same way that Jesus Christ clothes us and covers our sin.
And we end up getting that imputed righteousness.
He gets the curse.
So Rebecca is kind of this swap.
So that's why you see this swap-a-roo.
And what's interesting is how he lies and deceives and gets a blessing.
And think about it this way.
The same for us.
We lied, we sinned, we did wrong, and then we get the blessing of salvation from the
Lord Jesus Christ.
The ultimate blunder turning into a blessing.
The ultimate sin turning into salvation is that we sinned, we screwed up, and then that
gave us the blessing of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And he lies unto his father, but then look at verse 32.
And Isaac his father, this is when Esau comes in, they figured out, and Isaac his father
said unto him, "Who art thou?"
And he said, "I am thy son, thy firstborn Esau."
And Isaac trembled very exceedingly, and said, "Who?
Where is he that hath taken venison and brought it to me?
And I have eaten it all before thou camest, and have blessed him."
Notice this, "Yea, and he shall be blessed."
Jacob lied, deceived, did wrong, and it literally turned into a blessing.
He actually got blessed.
And in the same way, sometimes when we screw up, or we do wrong, God can still end up causing
that to be a blessing for us.
Go over to Numbers, chapter number five, Numbers, chapter number five.
We should get a great appreciation for God, that not only does he like us when we're good,
not only does he like us when we do right, he can still turn our screw-ups into a blessing.
I mean, that's pretty incredible.
That's pretty impressive that God can take flawed humanity and turn it into a blessing.
How about he can take flawed humanity and give us a perfect Bible still, huh?
Some people think like, "Oh, no, no, no.
You lose something in translation.
Oh, no, no.
Man would screw it up.
Oh, no, no.
Man would tamper.
Oh, man would do this."
Yeah, but God is more powerful than our screw-ups and our mess-ups and mankind, and he can give
us a perfect Bible.
Because it's not about man.
It's about God.
And even though we screw up, "Oh, you think that you're saved," yeah, I do.
Yeah, but you think you're going to always do right?
You're going to always be perfect?
No, I know I won't.
But God covers my sin.
I was talking to a lady yesterday and she's just like, "Oh, people always come up to me
and they're like, 'Are you saved?'"
And I'm thinking like, "Yeah, I am saved."
She's like, "Are you saved?"
And I was like, "Yeah, I am saved."
And she's like, "Well, then how do you know you're always going to do right?"
And I said, "I don't.
That's why I know that I'm saved.
I know that I'm saved because I know I won't do right because I just trusted in Jesus."
And then she brings up Matthew chapter number seven.
She's just saying, "What about those people they said they did all these things and then
he says, 'I never knew you.'"
And I'm trying to explain to her, I said like, "Yeah, those people thought that their works
were getting him to heaven they weren't trusting in Jesus and she's like I just
want to know what that means and like it's they didn't trust in Jesus they're
trusting their works yeah I just want to know what that means and I was just I
was just like it was just sad to see an unsaved person they just can't grasp the
things of God yet and you're trying to explain to them you're trying to be
gracious under them but yeah I am saved and I know that I'm saved not because
I'm gonna continue doing good not because I I'm good not because I was
good not because I am good not because I will be good but because he's good
and if my salvation is not dependent upon me being good and me deserving it
then guess what I don't think the mercies that I get in the future will I
either be related to me being good enough or deserving it enough that's why
it's called mercy because I'm not getting what I deserve so you think like
oh man I deserve this I deserve X okay but many times God doesn't give us what
we deserve I mean what does Abraham deserve for pimping out his wife he
doesn't deserve money and they get to live in the best place what does Jacob
deserve for tricking his father a curse but what did he get he got a blessing
and it's just it's interesting how God will sometimes do these things for us
now Numbers chapter 5 is an interesting story look at verse 12 speaking to the
children of Israel and saying to them if any man's wife go aside and commit a
trespass against him I think that's an important context this whole passage is
about something happened there's some kind of issue okay who we don't know
what happened it says and a man lie with her carnally and to be hid from the eyes
of her husband and be kept close and she be defiled and there be no witness
against her neither she be taken with the manner you know what would the cops
the cops would read this story and say plant evidence okay you know what God
does not believe in planting evidence if there's no witness then let God deal
with it let God judge it okay but there is a way to go about this now what
happened is basically a husband becomes jealous for his wife there must have
been some reason for him to suspect this it's not like him just going on a wild
goose chase there's something that happened there's some event maybe they
flirted maybe there's some kind of indiscretion there's something that
happens that gives them the idea that hey I think there's more to suggest this
little sporting and I'm worried that something serious has happened but I
can't prove it you're saying it didn't happen there's no witnesses so we'll ask
God you know what happened in this particular issue now it says in verse
number 14 and the spirit of jealousy come upon him and he'd be jealous of his
wife and she'd be defiled or the spirit of jealousy come upon him and he'd be
jealous of his wife and she'd be not defiled so we don't know you know if
there's no evidence and the wife is saying this didn't happen we don't
really know but he has the spirit of jealousy for a reason you know this
isn't just random there was obviously something that happened says then shall
the man bring his wife under the priest and he shall bring her offering for the
tenth part of an ifah barley meal he shall pour no oil upon it nor put
frankincense there on for it is an offering of jealousy an offering of
memorial bringing iniquity to remembrance and the priest shall bring
her near and set her before the Lord and the priest shall take holy water in
earthen vessel and the dust that is in the floor of the tabernacle the priest
shall take and put it into the water and the priest shall set the woman before
the Lord and cover the woman's head and put the offering of memorial in her
hands which is the jealousy offering and the priest shall have in his hand the
bitter water that causes the curse and the priest shall charge her by an oath
and say unto the woman, "If no man hath lain with thee and if thou hast not gone
aside to uncleanness with another instead of thy husband be thou free from this
bitter water that causes the curse but if thou hast gone aside to another
instead of thy husband and if thou be defiled and some man have lain with thee
beside thine husband then the priest shall charge the woman with an oath of
cursing and the priest shall say unto the woman the Lord make thee a curse and
an oath among thy people when the Lord doth make thy thigh to rot and thy belly
to swell and this water that caused the curse shall go into thy bowels to make thy
belly to swell and thy thigh to rot and the woman shall say amen amen so we don't
know what happened the husband's jealous for some reason something happened can't
prove it so he says hey you're gonna drink this water did you sin no okay well
we're gonna find out and think about what I've already taught earlier this
woman is not going through the exercise that we did if she did sin what should
she have done she should have acknowledged the sin accepted the
consequences ask for mercy and awake to righteousness you know if a woman did
have an indiscretion what should she do I did it I'm gonna accept whatever
consequence comes as a result of that but you know what please show mercy to
me and fourthly I'm not gonna do it again I'm gonna wait to righteousness
and you know while the Bible does prescribe a death penalty for adultery
or for indiscretions like this that doesn't mean that has to happen of
course husbands and wives can forgive each other and can move on but you know
what you should do what you should hey acknowledge it accept the consequences
ask for mercy and of course what awake to righteousness not do that again or
not do that anymore but this woman is not saying that happened could be she's
lying could be that it's true if she's lying what's gonna happen well her thigh
is gonna rot and her belly's gonna swell she's gonna be cursed of God but what
happens if she was totally innocent from that perspective I'm not saying she's
totally innocent but she's at least innocent from the main indiscretion from
the adultery she may I think reading the story there had to be some issue though
she obviously flirted inappropriately said some kind of a comment is hanging
out getting too close with another man there's some kind of a problem she did
something that wasn't good but it wasn't necessarily adultery okay so she's
innocent from the adultery what would have happened well it says in verse
number 27 and when he have made her to drink the water then it shall come to
pass that if she be defiled and have no trespass against her husband that the
water that caused the curse shall enter into her and become bitter and her
belly shall swell and her thigh shall rot and the woman shall be a curse among
her people and if the woman be not defiled but be clean then she shall be
free and shall conceive seed so notice on one side cursed and the other side
blessing so even though she may have had this little bit of a blemish hey if
she's being honest and she's trying to do that which is right and seeking the
Lord hey it ends up turning into a blessing so even though you may do
something that's not quite right you should always what acknowledge your sin
we have to acknowledge it and we have to accept consequences then we have and
what's the consequence if you think about it probably flirting or something
if you think about the positive side hey yeah but I didn't do that and she's
being honest hey I'm willing to accept consequences she takes the bitter water
and that's proving her innocence for at least from the major indiscretion or the
major issue then she's you know and probably asking God for mercy in this
situation and then she's gonna wake to righteousness and hey she's gonna
conceive seed she's not gonna be guilty of that sin and then she's gonna be
blessed as a result of it go over to Judges 16 go to Judges chapter 16 so
even though we may do things that are not right or cause problems or cause
issues or cause our spouse a little bit of grief hey sometimes God can still
turn it into a blessing look at Judges chapter 16 look at verse number one then
went Samson to Gaza and saw there in harlot and went in unto her wow that was
quick do you think I was a good thing just fornication and this is actually
adultery because he's already married now I think she died so it's just back
to fornication but it did it says look at verse 4 and it came to pass that he
loved a woman in the valley of Sorek whose name was Lila so he commits
fornication with a harlot and then he's with the Lila then he of course reveals
unto her information he shouldn't have done and he suffers greatly for it but
at the end of his life what does it say in verse 28 it says in Samson called on
the Lord and said oh Lord remember me I pray thee and strengthen me I pray thee
only this once oh God that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my
two eyes so he's in a sense kind of acknowledging hey I screwed up but please
don't depart from me give me this strength this one more time and Samson
took hold of the two middle pillars upon which the house stood and on which it
was born up of the one with his right hand the other with his left and Samson
said let me die with the Philistines and he bowed himself with all his might and
the house fell upon the Lord's and upon all the people that were therein so the
dead which he slew at his death or more than they which he slew his life so he
has one great last hurrah and it ends up hey obviously he screwed up he commit
all this fornication he ends up getting blinded a result he's in the prison
house but instead of just being tortured for the rest of his life God gives him a
way to essentially slay all of these Philistines get revenge on all of his
enemies and die in a way more merciful way than having just been a constant
sport of the Philistines and being tortured and suffered of the Philistines
and so it kind of turns into a blessing here that he at least acknowledges ask the
Lord for mercy in a sense and of course that mercy is not necessarily like
getting his eyes back and being alive and sometimes you do so much damage that
you're not gonna ever be restored the same but hey you know many cases there's
not permanent damage and God can fully restore you look at Job no permanent
damage except he lost his children but between him and his wife he ends up
getting completely restored personally and sometimes you know we have to
realize hey it might seem bad right now but God can turn it around or God can
still use you and as long as you got breath in your lungs you know it just
take a few Philistines down with you anyways right I mean no matter where
we're at God wants to use us God wants us to serve him go to 2nd Samuel chapter
11 go to 2nd Samuel chapter 11 and honestly you know for me I've been
thinking about the sermon for a while like probably months and months and
months and I'll just be honest I'll just tell you where the sermon idea came
from okay is how I feel like I really screwed up in ordaining Salvador for
pure words and and I just you know I shouldn't have ordained that person but
then after ordaining him and that just turning into a complete blunder I think
God turned it into a blessing because of a lot of things number one all these
people that were in that church that were serving God and going so many still
go church and still go so many. They just go to Spring Crest Baptist Church and we're able to
bless pastor Enrique Reyes and really kind of just breathe a lot of life into
their church and help him in his transition and you know what he's really
humble guy he loves the Lord he's doing a good work out there and they're
continuing to do a great work out there so it turns out a blessing. Here's the
second thing that's really important is you know throughout that whole
situation I kind of contemplated maybe maybe we need to bring back
Vangus Urbanic and have him keep things going in Houston but that would kind of
take away from some of the work in the Philippines but here's the thing he
released information about his church service they had yesterday or recently
and their most recent church service they had 45 people in church and 40
people in the evening and they got like 30 salvations I think I think they had 10
soul winners and like 30 salvations just for that one day so here's the thing if
we just keep those people in church in Houston we lose 40 something people in
the Philippines whereas hey these people just go to a different church there's no
loss there and then there's only gain in the Philippines and so it's like somehow
by my blunders or by my mistakes or by my problems God can still end up making
things into a blessing maybe not even for me just for other people for the
kingdom of God because it's not about me it's about the kingdom of God and you
know what while Samson killing a whole bunch of people wasn't really beneficial
for him I'm sure a lot of you were really priest of a bunch of Philistines
died you know what I mean and so just because it doesn't work out for you
doesn't mean that it doesn't work out for the kingdom of God you know we could
look at other people that have screwed up or blundered and God still turns into
blessing how about steadfast Baptist Church where a pastor started out got a
church going there was a lot of work put into this church then he makes a lot of
obvious blunders but God didn't just destroy that work God continued to allow
steadfast to get through that issue and still have a blessing and here's one
thing that was going on this church while it was great and had a lot of
great people in it and a lot of rotten people in it too and by going through so
much controversy and so much issue you know what happened we end up purging
ourselves of a lot of dead weight a lot of evil people rotten people and ended
up turning into a blessing because you know what when you have a lot of rotten
people into you know the work of God or infiltrating it can destroy the work of
God and it's important to sometimes purge that get rid of that type of a
element so that the work of God can be accomplished so that we can have in
2025 through halfway of the year we can have over 2,500 people saved.
How does that happen? I mean how many churches are going out and getting that
many people to call upon the name of the Lord to get saved and of course many of
us you know I'm not saying that we wouldn't have tried to keep serving God
but let's just be honest a lot of us probably wouldn't be serving God at the
same level we are right this minute. A lot of people may not have gone to
Cleburne to go soul-warning yesterday without this church's services. A lot of
people may not go on foreign missions trips or go out there and serve God and
you know you get plugged into other churches, other ministries that de-
emphasize soul-warning, have less soul-warning, less mission strips and
they're encouraging you to do different programs. Well often the net result is
less soul-warning, less salvations. You know what? Don't think that this church's
existence is in vain. This church is important to the work of God and what a
blessing. Yeah there might have been a lot of blunders, a lot of issues but God
turned them into blessings and yeah maybe we screw up sometimes and it's not to
say that we didn't screw up. It's not for me to say hey God I didn't send. No I
acknowledge my sin. I want to accept the consequences of my sin but I want to
ask for mercy and then of course what are the... I need to wake to righteousness. I
need to change. I need to do better okay and we all need to do better. Here's
another one, 2nd Samuel chapter 11 verse 3, 2nd Samuel chapter 11 verse 3 and
David sin and inquired after the woman and one said is not this Bathsheba the
daughter of Eliam the wife of Uriah the Hittite. So David sees a beautiful woman.
Hey who's this woman? She's the wife of Uriah. That should be the end of the
story. Whenever you find out a woman is another man's wife you'll leave her
alone. You don't talk to her. You don't inquire after her. Look at verse 4 David
sent messengers and took her. This is very evil and she came unto him and lay
with and he lay with her for she was purified from her uncleanness and she
returned unto her house and the woman conceived. So they end up committing
adultery. There's a child as a result of this. Then he ends up slaying her husband
to try and cover this up. Look at verse 15 and he wrote in a letter saying set
Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle and retire you from him that he
may be smitten and die. He's trying to cover up his sin. What did we read? What
was the first verse that we read in Proverbs? He that cover this sin shall
not prosper but who so confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. David
did not confess his sin and forsake his sin. He instead embraced it and tried to
cover it up. Trying to cover it up and he kills Uriah. Then in chapter 12 he's
confronted by Nathan the prophet verse 7 and Nathan said to David thou art the
man. So he gives a parable and he's saying you're the guy that's the bad guy
in the story. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel I anointed the king over Israel
and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul and I gave thee thy master's house
and thy master's wives and thy bosom and gave you the house of Israel and of
Judah and if that had been too little I would moreover have given unto thee such
and such things. Wherefore ask thou despise the commandment of the Lord to
do evil in his sight thou has killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword and has
taken his wife to be thy wife and has slain him with the sword of the children
of Ammon. So we see what David did. He screwed up, he did this. "Thus saith the
Lord, Behold I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house and I will
take thy wives before thine eyes and give them unto thy neighbor and he shall
lie with thy wives in the sight of the sun. For thou didst it secretly but I
will do this thing before all Israel and before the sun." And David said unto
Nathan, "I have sinned against the Lord." And Nathan said unto David, "The Lord also
hath put away thy sin thou shalt not die." Now notice God just says, "Hey I'm
gonna punish you severely." What is David's response? "I have sinned." Now when
he says, "I have sinned," then what does Nathan say? Then Nathan said, "The Lord also
hath put away thy sin thou shalt not die." So notice, hey, you say acknowledge you're
a sinner, you acknowledge the sin that you did, you accept the consequences of
your sin, and you ask for mercy. Hey, you might actually get it. And not only that,
awake to righteousness, say, "I'm not gonna do that again." One of the good
things about David is he never did that again. Now what's the result of this? Well it
says in verse number 14, "Howbeit because by this deed thou has given great
occasion to thy enemies of the Lord to blaspheme the child also that is born
unto thee shall surely die." So he doesn't die personally but his child that
was conceived is going to die. That's what the prophet says. Now what does
David do in response to this? It says in verse 16, "David therefore besought God
for the child and David fasted and went in lay all night upon the earth." So David
asked for mercy. And this is what I want to explain. Again I'm not trying to
belittle sin because just because you asked for mercy doesn't mean you will
get it. David prays and fasts for this child. He's the one that screwed up. The
child did not screw up. He's praying and asking for this, but what happens, the
child ends up dying. Look at verse 22. And his servants are screwed, like
you know, concerned about David's mental health here. And he said, "While the child
is yet alive I fast on the web for I said, 'Who can tell whether God will be gracious
to me that the child may live? But now he is dead. Wherefore should I fast? Can I
bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he should not return to me.'" So David,
he tried the best for God to be merciful. God ends up punishing him the way he
said. But then he's still going to wait to righteousness. He's still going to
move on. He's going to just accept his consequences and still serve God. He
didn't say, "Oh God, you killed my child, even though I asked for it." I'm done with
church. I'm done with Christianity. I'm done reading my Bible. I'm done going
soul-winding. You know, just because you ask for something and you don't get it,
don't give up on God. And now he's with Bathsheba, a woman he should
have never been with. He killed her husband, should have never done such a
thing. They've had a child together, out of wedlock, a bastard child, out of
adultery, and it dies. But then what does it, what does he do? And David
covered Bathsheba's wife and went in under her and lay with her and she bare
a son. He called his name Solomon and the Lord loved him. Then we get a
blessing of Solomon. This is crazy. Solomon would not exist. Solomon would
not have been a person if it wasn't for David's huge blunder, if it wasn't for
his major sin. Now did he get punished for it? Yes he did. But then God still
turned that bad relationship into a blessing. And you know, here's something
that I would say that I think some of us need to realize is, you know, sometimes
we make bad decisions or sometimes we're in relationships we shouldn't even have
been in. But then God could still turn it around as long as you're seeking God.
Hey, still do the right thing. Here's an example. How about how many people get
divorced and remarried? Now you know, I preach really hard against that. If you
know me, you know I preach real hard against it. I'm sure I make most people
feel really uncomfortable about that issue. And I want to because I want no
one to get divorced ever. And I think the Bible says if you get remarried, it's
an act of adultery. But here's the thing, it's not an act of adultery forever. It's
a one-time event. Then afterwards, you know, that doesn't mean that God's gonna
curse you for the rest of your life, okay? And I don't want people that have
made that mistake or made that decision to now feel like they have to be looked
down upon. I mean, I've had people come up to me and say, "I don't even think I'm
allowed to come to your church." And I said, you know, I'm kind of concerned
when they say that. I'm like, "Why?" And they're like, "Because I've been divorced
and remarried." And I said, "Oh, that's lots of people." I said, "Obviously I
disagree with that." I said, "Hey, I'll preach really hard against it." But you know
what? If you can tolerate me preaching really hard against it, I hope that you
come to our church and I hope that you serve in our church. And you know what? I
don't believe that God is gonna punish your relationship forever. In fact, he may
even give you a blessing. He may even give you a Solomon out of it. Because
getting divorced and remarried is not nearly as extreme as what David did.
David ends up doing way worse than most people, and he gets a Solomon out of it.
But why? Because he kept seeking God and he was seeking new mercies. Hey, you screw
up. Hey, acknowledge you screwed up. Accept the consequences of your screw up, but
then ask for mercy and awake to righteousness. And you know what? If you
get divorced and remarried, you better not go around telling people that that's a
good idea. You better not encourage people to make that kind of a decision.
But let me tell you something. Don't sit here and wallow in self-pity and wallow
in the misery of your decision. Just say, "You know what? I'm gonna accept my
situation and maybe God will turn into a blessing anyways." A blessing that you
didn't know. How many people, you know, have committed this sin and they're
trying not to get remarried and God's using that as an opportunity for them to
get more people saved. And if they ended up getting remarried they'd still be
miserable because, you know what, getting married in a lot of cases doesn't make
you happier. Especially when you're in this divorced remarries recycle. Because
most of the time when you're getting remarried, because you got divorced, you
have to marry someone else that was a divorced. And there's probably a reason
why y'all are divorced. And it's probably not gonna be the greatest
relationship. I'm not saying it can't be. I'm just trying to be honest about the
facts and the reality of life. And so you're like, "Oh man, I got remarried. It's
so great." And then it's like, "Actually, I hated life." You know, it's like Solomon.
He's like, "I got everything that I thought I wanted and then I hated life."
And now you're even distracted from serving God. More problems from serving
God. More issues from serving God. Whereas, hey, God could turn your situation
to blessing. You could have stayed married to that person and ended up not
serving God. Now this is what somebody might mishear me and say like, "Oh man, I
have to divorce my spouse to serve God." Wrong. I did not say that. That is wrong.
I'd never believe in divorce. I don't believe in separation. I don't believe any
of those things. But you know what? If you do it and you get right with God, God can
still use you. Hey, you get right with God, God can still bless your marriage. Hey,
you cause issues in your marriage, God can still bless you in your marriage.
And people don't realize how severe of issues sometimes people are going
through, like adultery, like severe drug use, like, you know, these kind of
indiscretions and all kinds of different things that are happening, or divorce and
remarriage, or whatever, and God can often help those people. You know, I've
counseled dozens and dozens of people on marriage issues and I think, you know,
people are confused. They think that, like, if you ever fight with your spouse, you
have a bad marriage, and I'm thinking like, man, you have a great marriage
compared to everybody else. If you think, like, the worst thing that we do is we
fight with each other once in a while, you have a great marriage. Some people
are dealing with, like, real issues, okay, like severe, severe issues, and, you know,
I'm hoping that I'm gonna make, you know, more stuff because this is just a
constant fight. It's always happening, you know. I grew up, people are constantly
doing marriage counseling, marriage retreats, marriage workshops, and, you
know, I want to do my part to try and help, you know, combat a lot of those
battles because the devil has not been able to destroy us from without. So, you
know, the devil wants to do is he wants to destroy us from within. And what should
we do? We should constantly seeking new mercy. Don't allow the devil to destroy
us from within. Allow us to be steadfast and constantly seeking his mercy and
grace. I have a lot more examples, but go to 1 Timothy 1. I'm going to finish. Here's a
couple other ones I thought of. Paul is told repeatedly, "Don't go to Jerusalem."
The Holy Ghost is saying, "Don't go to Jerusalem." And then he just goes to
Jerusalem. And then God still uses that to drag his carcass back to Rome. Now,
it's probably not the way he wanted to go, but at the end of the day, God still
turned it into a blessing, and he got to Rome, and he got a bunch of people saved.
And we get to learn about how bad lawsuits and the criminal law and
everything is, okay? So we have to learn through his example. There's all kinds of
other examples we can show in the Bible where people screw up, and God ends up
blessing us. And of course, the ultimate is the fact that we sin and we get the
glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. You know, without our sin, we wouldn't have
the gospel. We have the gospel because of our sin. And we get the great blessing
of what Jesus Christ did for us. And we get to see the great love that God has
for us. Does that mean we should sin? No. Should we continue sinning? No. Am I
telling you, hey, go out and sin? No, this is what I'm telling you. And this is
what's the great part of this message. If you just keep serving God, even when you
do sin, God could turn it into a blessing. Isn't that encouraging? So no,
hey, even if I screw up, even if I stumble, God may enlarge my step and I
just still land somehow. It didn't screw up. Hey, I actually threw it in the
gutter, but then the bumper just knocked it back in. I got a strike anyways. Hey,
I lied. I screwed up. I made a mistake, you know, but God is not done with you.
God can still use you. And this message is important to be steadfast. What is
steadfast? Unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. We want to keep
doing that. Why does God want us to keep doing that? Because the work of the
ministry is important. And if we screw up and if we don't get it right, then
who's going to do the work? God needs us to do the work, so God's willing to work
with us, even as flawed and screwed up and messed up as we are. Don't give up on
God, because He doesn't want to give up on you. Look at 1 Timothy 1 verse 14, "And
the grace of our Lord is exceeding abundant with faith and love, which is in
Christ Jesus." This is a faithful saying and worthy of all
acceptation, that Christ Jesus came in the world to save sinners, of whom I am
chief. The Apostle Paul says, "Hey, I was the worst sinner." I think he's
exaggerating, but verse 16, "Howbeit for this cause I obtain mercy, that in me
first Jesus Christ most show forth all long-suffering for a pattern to them
which should hereafter believe on Him to life everlasting." The Apostle Paul was a
pattern of how God can use a screw-up. Someone that was attacking the work of
God now is greatly used by God and of course for salvation. We're going to go
out and we're going to try and help people with this this this step program.
Hey you have to acknowledge you're a sinner to get saved. You have to accept the
consequence that your sin is hell so that you realize you need to be saved.
Number three, you need to ask for His mercy which is calling upon the name of
the Lord in faith and then after you get saved you need to awaken to
righteousness. Don't continue in sin but of course go on serving Him. Now do you
have to do that to be saved? No. Praise God you can just ask for salvation and
you get it and you could do nothing and you're still saved. But of course we
don't tell people that. We tell people, "Hey, awaken to righteousness." Hey, you can
technically but you shouldn't. We should awake to righteousness and we need to go
out and tell that message to people to get saved but then also we need to
embrace it ourselves and we need to constantly seek for God's new mercies
because He wants to give them to us. Please, please, please when you screw up,
when I screw up, when we all screw up, let us be reminded, "Hey, God isn't done
with us." And I think maybe, maybe some people have this weird perception of a
pastor or an evangelist or a minister and they think like, "Man, that guy just
doesn't sin, that's why he keeps serving God." Wrong. In fact, I wouldn't be
surprised if many people in this room are a better Christian than me or sin
less than me. I don't sit, I'm not up here sinless. I make mistakes, I have
problems. Yes, me and my wife fight, okay. Yeah, I screw up. Yeah, I make problems.
But you know what I try to do when I sin? I say, "Hey God, I sinned." When you read
the Psalms, you know we're reading about David and he's constantly saying, "I sinned."
And then you know what I try to do? I try to accept the consequences of my sin. But
then thirdly, and I'm really, I like to do this, I really ask for mercy. I'm like,
"God, please for thy name's sake, you know, deliver me. For thy name's sake, bless me.
For thy name's sake, do good unto your church." And I'm constantly asking for God
and not to be merciful. And of course, you know, I'm trying to show mercy to other people
too, saying, "Hey, you know, people screw up, do bad things. People come to me, they're
like, 'Hey.'" And I'm just, before they even finish their sentence, I'm just like,
"No problem. Don't worry about it. I don't care. Let's move on. Let's keep going." And
that's the attitude we should have. And then we should say, "But, let's awake the righteousness.
Let's not do it again. Let's do better. Let's learn from our mistake and let's keep going
and let's keep serving God." And you know what? Our church is going to keep going by
the grace of God, not because we're perfect. Don't think, "Oh, well, this church is great
because Pastor Shelley is great." No, no. Our church is great because God is great.
Because of God's mercies are we not consumed. Because of God's long suffering. Because of
the fact that God is going to hold us up. I mean, no one would be like, "Pastor Shelley
is an awesome bowler." Every time he rolls a gutter ball and it turns into a strike,
he'd be like, "He's lucky." You'd think like, "Man, that guy's lucky." But you
know what? That's fine. If you want to call me lucky, then call me lucky. I just call
it blessed. I want to be blessed by God. Let's close in prayer. Thank you, heavenly Father,
so much for all of your blessings, for all of your grace, for all of your mercy. I pray
that all of us would recognize that we're sinners and that we sin often, and I pray
that you would help us to have a humble heart and just acknowledge our sin. I pray if there's
anybody in this room that is concerned with anything they've done, with any of their sins,
they would just acknowledge it now and they would just be willing to accept their consequences.
But I pray that we as a congregation would ask for your mercy, ask for your grace, and
I pray that you would help us to awaken to righteousness, that we would keep serving
you, we keep doing what's right, and I pray that you would help use our church to get
more people saved, to turn more people to righteousness, and I pray that you would help
us to be an example of being steadfast in Jesus' name, we pray, amen.
Alright, for our last song, let's go to song number 258. Song number 258. Christ receiveth
sinful men. Song number 258. Let's all sing it out together.