Hopewell Baptist Church Napa, CA Sermon Podcast

Below is an excerpt from the sermon...

If you have your Bibles, let’s open them, please, for just a moment to the book of Ecclesiastes. You don’t have to know how to spell it to find it because it’s right after Proverbs. Ecclesiastes. We’re going to look down in chapter number 1 in just a moment. I want to speak this evening on this subject, as it’s the first Sunday of what we would call the Summer months. And I want to speak on “How to Have a Super Summer.”

I was thinking this afternoon about the weather change, what it does to my spirit when it’s cold, dark, cloudy. I’m naturally a little bit melancholy. I like what one pastor said. He looked at his pastor friend and said, “You look a little melancholy. Your head is shaped like a melon, and your face resembles a colly.” But that’s not what I’m talking about. But weather does affect us. Remember, it was just like a couple months ago we were out under that tent. And I remember I was just praying, “Lord can it be not in the 30s tonight?” And I remember just walking out there dreading it. And I live just three doors down! Just dreading it, thinking no one’s going to come. It’s dark, it’s gloomy. People sitting down blowing smoke out of their mouths because it was cold. And then to see—and it seems comical now—when it was raining, some of you had to pick your feet up as the water flowed beneath your seat. You know the song… I’ve got a river of life flowing under me (instead of out of me). And it was just terrible. And then the windstorm came, and he huffed and puffed and blew the tent down. But now it seems like it’s warmer weather, people’s spirits are more open, and things are different. And there’s something inside of you—not just television advertisements—that makes you want to do something different, makes you want to travel, makes you want to do things, plan. It’s not something’s that says, “Hey, it’s Summer. Let’s stay inside all three months.” You want to do some things. I want to speak a little bit on that tonight, and I hope it will maybe give you some ideas from some of these Scriptures.

Now we’re looking at the book of Ecclesiastes, and it needs a little bit of background here. The theme could be this: be satisfied. So, every book in the Bible, you could put the word “be” in front of it. And so, Ecclesiastes cries out, “hey, be satisfied.” We could call it “maintenance now or repair later.” And it’s talking about this life of Solomon. Solomon is testifying here, though it’s inspired, about his life. And so, let’s look at a few of these key verses, and then we’ll give you his background, his mistake, his endings and then what he said about all of it.

Notice, please, in Ecclesiastes 1:1 “The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. 2. Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity. 3. What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun? 4. One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh…” (Ecclesiastes 1:1–4) And we’ll look at some of these verses in just a moment.

Let’s pray. Father, bless this time we have. Take Thy word and break it. Break the bread of life so it’s small enough pieces, palatable to where we can swallow it and get spiritual strength from it and see what this book has to do with us. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

So, who is this guy, Solomon? Let’s talk about his background for just a moment. Solomon, of course, is the son of David and Bathsheba. And so, after the affair, after the baby died, David and Bathsheba did marry. Bathsheba was his wife. As far as we know, she was probably his favorite wife. It looks like she was not only a wife but also the queen there in Israel. And so again, the old lesson, God can take a bad thing and use it to be a good thing (Romans 8 28). And so, that’s his background. His dad is the king. He’s raised in the palace, much like the princes William and Harry. Much like that. He was raised in the palace. And so that was his background. Then, one evening—you know the story—he has a dream. And in the dream, God appears to him. It’s not a genie. He didn’t rub a lamp and get three wishes. But it was a dream where basically the Lord said, “Ask whatever you want, and I’ll give it to you.” And this was after Solomon had offered thousands of offerings and sacrifices to the Lord. He had a walk with the Lord. He’s a Godly man, and God appears and says, “I’ll give you whatever you want, one thing.” Immediately he responds and says, “I want wisdom.” He said, “I’m going to be leading the nation of Israel. I don’t have enough sense to come in and out of the rain.” He said, “I’m just a child.” He said, “I need wisdom to lead Your great people.” And God smiled on him and looked down and said, “Because you’ve asked for wisdom to help others, not only will I give you that, but I will give you… You didn’t ask for the life of your enemies or long life or great riches.  Because you asked for wisdom, I’m going to give you all the other things, too.” So, his life’s verse could be Matthew 6:33 “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” He gets so much wisdom.

You know the story. These two harlots bring a child, and one says, “It’s mine.” The other one says, “It’s mine, it’s mine, it’s mine.” And who knows. He said, “Give me a sword. All right, cut it, cut that baby in half. Give her half, give her half.” Immediately, the real mother screams and says, “No, no, no! It’s her child.” He said, “You’re the mother. Takes the child.” And rumor got out how wise he was. People began coming to see him. He wrote the book of Proverbs during that time. We believe he wrote the book of Song of Solomon during that time. And even the Queen of Sheba came to hear him. The Bible says when she saw how his servants stood and how he ascended up to the throne, there was no breath left in her. She said—and we get the song from this—"The half has never been told.” She said, “I heard a lot of great things about Solomon, how wise he is, but they didn’t even tell me the half of it.” And the Bible says he answered or told her all her questions. What a wise man. He wrote over 1,000 songs. He wrote the Proverbs. He had wisdom in botany and geology and astronomy. You name the subject, he knew it. People came to him for advice. What a guy. And that’s why ofttimes, we will say that so and so has the wisdom of Solomon. And Jesus even referred to him on several occasions and said, “Notice the flowers. Even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.” And so that was his background, a great background.

But notice here, for a moment, his mistake. Look back, if you will please, just for a moment into 1 Kings 11. We need to see how he got here. And it’s interesting. In 2 Samuel 11, David meets Bathsheba, the neighbor. In 1 Kings 11—interesting these elevens—Solomon meets all these strange, foreign, idol-worshiping women. Notice what it says. Now he’s the king. 1 Kings 11:1 “But king Solomon loved many strange women…” God has always been for one woman, one man, one lifetime. Anytime you start adding to that, it gets complicated. And notice what it says: “many strange.” It doesn’t mean they were weird—that they had one ear, one eye in the middle of their forehead, six toes. That’s not what it means. It simply means that we’re foreign. There were strangers to the nation of Israel. The strange woman, he was not supposed to have them or with them.  1 Kings 11:1 “But king Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh…” I thought he was the enemy. He marries Pharaoh’s daughter, one of Pharaoh’s daughters. “…women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites;” That’s who God’s people fought. You don’t marry them; you battle them. 1 Kings 11:2

“Of the nations concerning which the Lord said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in unto you: for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods: Solomon clave unto these in love.” Verse three, last phrase: “and his wives turned away his heart.” Middle part of verse four: “that his wives turned away his heart.” Verse five: “For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. 6. And Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord, and went not fully after the Lord, as did David his father. 7. Then did Solomon build an high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, in the hill that is before Jerusalem, and for Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon. 8. And likewise did he for all his strange wives, which burnt incense and sacrificed unto their gods.” (1 Kings 11:5–8) And the Lord was angry with Solomon because his heart was turned from the Lord of Israel.

So, what happened? Solomon ends up marrying all these women. And gradually—it wasn’t immediate—they turned his heart away from worshiping God to worshipping their false idols. How in the world he could do that I will never know. His daddy was David who killed the giant. His daddy was the one who penned the book of Psalms. He grew up with royalty. He grew up with God being first, but it just took a wrong marriage to turn his heart toward the false gods. That turning is always slow. It didn’t say it happened in a year or two years. It could have taken 10, 20, 30 years. But in the next chapter, you see Solomon kneeling down, burning candles to idols. How did he get from where he was to here? It was a slow, gradual thing.

I’ve often told teenagers there are three ways to get away from God: join something, get a job, (None of these are wrong, but it puts you around people you ordinarily wouldn’t be around), or fall in love. Pastor, “You know, I can’t come to church all the time. I’m in love.” Uh huh. “Man, you used to be faithful in church.” “I know but we got plans now. I’m in love.” She’s going to come to my church one Sunday, and I’m going to go to her church because I’m in love…” Solomon was in lust… excuse me, love. But it was 300 women and 700 substitutes in case the mother-in-laws were in town. A 1,000 women. Now Solomon is way away from the Lord.

You say, “Pastor, how can anybody get that far away from the Lord?” How can we get as far away from the Lord as we have? He grew up with all these blessings. Yet, you can backslide from anywhere. Well, how did he fall so quickly? It wasn’t quick. It was gradual. It’s always gradual. It’s in the mind, it’s in the heart, and then there’s a turning.

So, we see this background, we see his mistake, then we see his ending. He did get right, and thank the Lord for that. When most people think of Solomon, they think of the wisdom of Solomon. They think of Solomon’s temple. Most people, if you say “Solomon,” they don’t say 1,000 wives that turned this heart to idols. That was one chapter in his life. Thank God that God had mercy. God forgave him. God used him again. And the Book of Ecclesiastes was written after this. So, that means wherever you are in your life, God can use you again. God is the God of new beginnings. “In the beginning, God. You just begin again. “Pastor, I’m away from the Lord.” Begin again. “I started to read the whole Bible through this year in January, and I’m in Exodus 1. Man, I’m way behind.” Begin again.

Below is an excerpt from the sermon...

If you have your Bibles, would you open them, please, to the book of John? John chapter number 1, and we’ll start there in just a moment. Let me also read one verse toward the end of John, and then we’ll jump right into the message. John is a wonderful book. I’ll give you some of the background in just a second. But in John 20:31, this is the theme verse of this entire book, and it says, “But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.” So that’s the entire theme of the gospel of John — “believing.” That word is mentioned many, many times. And “believe” does not mean believing in; it means to put all your trust in. For instance, I look at the chair and I say, “I believe it will hold me.” I really don’t believe that until I try it out. And so, when a person receives Christ, we hear the Good News, we hear He died for us and rose again, we hear He’ll save us if we ask Him, but we really don’t believe it until the moment we ask Him. And so that word “believe” is repeated a lot.

Let’s pray. We’ll give a little background, then we’ll get into the message here. Father, bless this brief time we have. Help us in Jesus’ name, Amen.

The book of John, humanly speaking, was written by the Apostle John. Twelve disciples Jesus had. John was one of the inner three — Peter, James, and John. He’s one of the ones who were on top of the mountain when Moses and Elijah appeared. He had a lot of closeness with Jesus. He’s the one we believe, during the Last Supper, he leaned on Jesus’ chest and asked, “Is it I?” That’s the one who sat by Jesus during the meal. Later on, he’s used of God to write the books St. John, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John, and Revelation. It’s interesting, John said this in his Gospel — “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” He never mentioned his name when he referred to himself. He said, “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” You know me, the one that Jesus loves. And I like that. I think John felt like Jesus’ favorite, and I found this in life: when you believe someone loves you, you’ll go the extra mile for them. So, no wonder John was the only of the twelve disciples standing at the cross during the crucifixion… because he was the one who Jesus loved. He also was one of the ones who came to the empty tomb because he knew that Jesus loved him.

And I just want to say this by way of introduction this morning: trials make us doubt the love of God. If God loved me, why am I going through this? If He really cared, how come this? But John never questioned the love of God. And let me just say it again (You’ve heard it 1,000 times.): God loves you. He loves you personally. He loves you unconditionally. I was speaking to someone recently, and they just kind of felt like they had failed. I said before I hung up on the phone, “I just want to say it: Nothing you can do can make God love you any less. He loves you.” And he loves you as well.

So, here’s the book of John. What’s this book all about? It goes higher than any of the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke. Jesus is king, Jesus is servant, Jesus is man. In the book of John, Jesus in every scripture is pointing toward the fact that He’s God. He wasn’t just a good man. He wasn’t just a prophet. He was God in human flesh.

Now, with that in mind, let’s look at the introduction to the book for a moment. We’re in John chapter 1. We’ll just kind of see some background. John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” John 1:14 “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us…” So, that word “Word” is referring to Jesus Christ. He’s saying he’s always been. In the beginning was the Word. He is the one who made everything, then years later came to the Earth for 33.5 years in a human body. That word “Word” means this: “express.” So, someone says, you know, I just can’t “express” myself. Some people might express themselves by art, but we all express ourselves by what we say. Our words. You want to know what someone’s thinking? Listen to them talk out. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. So, God up in Heaven says you’re wondering what I’m like. Let me just come to the earth in a human body and live in front of you for 33 years, and let me just express myself. So, there’s one description of Jesus there, the Word.

And then we see a little bit further in John 1:9 That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.” And before the verse before that in John 1:8 “He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.” So, not only is Jesus called the Word, then he’s called the light.

Two attributes of light: One, light produces life. No light, no life. There’s got to be light. Plants require light to grow. They’ve got to have light. Light produces life. And that’s what Jesus produces in us.

Not only that, but light reveals. So, you’re in a dark house, you can’t see anything until you turn on a light or a flashlight. When Jesus came, His life was light in a dark world. So, he began revealing what people were really like. And ofttimes, people did not like that. You know, there’s a reason some nightclubs turn the lights really low… so you can’t see how filthy they are when the bright lights come on. You ever been to a movie theater and all of a sudden, the cinema is over and they turn the lights and your eyes hurt? Why? Because our eyes get used to that darkness.

And so, Jesus is called the Word, He’s called the Light, and then later on in this chapter, John the Baptist refers to him as the Lamb. In John 1:36 “And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God!” The lamb, of course, was a sacrifice pointing to the sacrificial death of God’s Son who would die to pay for the sins of the world.

And so, those are the descriptions. He said He came to express, He came to reveal, and He came to die on that cross. So that’s the introduction to this.

Now look down, if you will, in chapter 2, and here’s what we’re going to dwell on. It’s the first miracle of Jesus.

Below is an excerpt from the sermon...

We’re in Acts Chapter 8. Acts Chapter number 8, and I want you to see this.

And I know Summer is starting this coming week, and I do hope everyone, I hope everyone, somehow gets a nice trip this Summer. I hope you get some kind of a break. Make some memories. Travel a little bit. Get a suntan if you need it. Do something special. Take some pictures. I’m just hoping you get to do that. And that’s not a sin. God wants His people to enjoy. He says, “I’ve given you richly all things to enjoy.” And if you can’t, you can take little mini vacations all over here, and you can have little trips, and you can camp out in the backyard, and you can have a picnic in the living room. Yeah, sometimes you have to be creative. and so I hope it’s a great, great beginning to the Summer.

But let’s be faithful in church. If you’re traveling, be in the house of God. If you’re so remote— you’re way, way, way up in the mountains, listen online. If you can’t and that’s so remote, download a message from some preacher somewhere and listen to something. You just don’t want to lose ground in the next 90 days. We want to go into September saying, “What a Summer spiritually it’s been, and I have grown.” And that’s what we want.

So, in regards to some of that, let’s look at Acts for about the next half hour, maybe less. Acts Chapter number 8. Very familiar story. And the Book of Acts, of course, is what took place after Jesus ascended. I mean He has died on the cross, risen from the dead, three days later showed himself forty days to the believers, and then ascended to heaven. Then, immediately the book of Acts starts. This is the church he started. We have that little saying, “Have you ever seen the house that Jack built?” Well, this is the church that Jesus built. And so, here’s what’s going on. Here is a little episode, a little snapshot from this Church.

Acts 8:26-28 “And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south…” Notice it didn’t save the north. God loves us south. You say, “Pastor, I’m from the south… Southern California. That’s not the south. He says, “go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert. [27] And he arose and went: and, behold, a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship, [28] Was returning, and sitting in his chariot read Esaias the prophet.”

By the way, when’s the last time you dropped into a restaurant or you walked by a car and someone had their Bible open and they were reading it? That would be a rare thing, even in America today, to catch someone just publicly reading their Bible. That’s what he’s doing in his chariot.

And it says in verse 29, “Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot. [30] And Philip ran…” (Acts 8:29–30a) And that’s what God wants. Immediate, quick, and excited obedience. “…thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest? [31] And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him. [32] The place of the scripture which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth: [33] In his humiliation his judgment was taken away: and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken from the earth. [34] And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or of some other man? [35] Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus.” (Acts 8:29–35) Every scripture you point to in the Bible, you can find Jesus in it somewhere if you look hard enough. Verse 36: “And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized? 37. And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. 38. And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him.” (Acts 8:36–38)

This must have been immersion. I mean, if he sprinkled him, why would they both get the water waist deep just to pick up a lot of water and sprinkle it? So anyway, there’s that.

And verse 39: “And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more: and he went on his way rejoicing.” (Acts 8:39) It doesn’t say which one went on his way rejoicing. I think either one would be possible. The guy that got saved was probably rejoicing, I’m sure Philip who found him in the desert was also rejoicing.

I want to read one other verse, and then we’ll pray, and then we’ll get into this. Psalm 142:4. David says this, “I looked on my right hand, and beheld, But there was no man that would know me: Refuge failed me; No man cared for my soul.”

What that passage actually means is this: David was saying, “Here I am. I’m hiding from King Saul. I’m in a cave. I’m all alone. And no one is coming to look for me.” A very sad verse. And he said, “No man cared for my soul.” I want to speak tonight on this subject: “They’re Waiting.” They’re waiting.

It was a eunuch, just happened to be going to church. He drove a long distance to hear something at the temple, came all the way back. He’s in a desert under a palm tree or something, I’m sure. And he’s reading the Bible, and he just happens to be in the place of the Old Testament that prophecies the crucifixion, Isaiah 53. And he just happens to be reading that, and it happens to be the Holy Spirit tells Philip. He says, “Go into the desert.” Why? He said, “Just go.” He didn’t see anybody. But after he travelled (I don’t know if his days or hours), he happened to see the chariot part. He happened to see the man reading. The man says, “Why don’t you come up and explain this to me.” And the guy got saved. He was waiting.

David was in the cave waiting. Usually, the message on Sunday morning and Sunday night is for us—like this morning, trying to help us with our issues. Tonight, the message is mostly to help people who are not even here by the truth that will speak on tonight. They’re waiting.

Below is an excerpt from the sermon...

Matthew chapter 5, if you will. When we were in the tent, I spoke on something similar to this. We will go a little bit further and in a different direction. We’re in Matthew 5. This is what we call the Sermon on the Mount. This is the Starting Point class that Jesus had basically. And He is telling the disciples what to expect, what they need to know. And it is the greatest message that’s ever been preached. You can read it in probably about 10 or 12 minutes. But notice the topics He covers. This is the very first topic after what we call the Beatitudes.

Matthew 5:21–22 “Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill…” How many of you are glad, that’s in the Bible—"thou shalt not kill”? And it’s not talking about killing a spider. It’s not talking about stepping on a roach. It’s not talking about war. It’s not talking about someone trying to kidnap you. It’s not talking about a burglar breaking in your house. That’s not what He’s talking about. He’s talking about premeditated murder. He’s saying, “Thou shalt not kill.”

And He says, “Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: 22. But I say unto you…” Notice what Jesus did. He often went a step further. He said, not only is it a sin to murder, “…but I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.” And so Jesus says, “Okay, it’s a sin to commit premeditated murder, but let’s go before that.” He said, “How about not being angry?” An ongoing anger towards someone. Okay, so this is what we’re going to talk about.

And again, God is not talking about someone in line and throws a soda on your face… You’re not supposed to stand there and say,” God bless you.” There is a time to be angry. Your kids misbehave. It’s hard to discipline a child while you’re smiling or laughing. You know, they just don’t get it. From time to time, you have to get your “game face” on. If you’re going to run a company, if you’re going to lead in any way, there’s a time where the countenance changes and you say, “This is not acceptable and here’s how we’re going to do this here.” And that sort of thing. And so, we’re talking about anger that doesn’t stop. That’s what we’re talking about today.

The title of the message this morning is “The Angry People.” And obviously we’re not one of them, right? We’re talking about those people. So, the whole message is for those people that are not in this building, right? Okay, sure is quiet.

I’m not going to read the passage, but if you’re one of those note takers, in James 4:1-2, James talks to the mature Christians and says, “From whence come wars and fightings among you?...” He’s not talking about physical fighting, but he’s asking, “Where does that come from?” Why are you at war with another person? Why are you at war with that person at work? You just can’t get along with them. Why is it that you hold a grudge against someone, and it’s been for years? Why is it that your #1 goal is to make a certain person miserable? James asks, “Where does this come from?” He says it comes from down in the heart. It’s long past whatever they did to you, and now it’s ongoing anger. And it’s a constant war. You ever meet someone you didn’t even know who they were, but you just looked at their face, you could tell they’re at war inside. I mean, they’re a ticking time bomb about to explode, and you don’t even know why.

I was on the elevator one time, and the door shut. It was a man in there and, the door closed. I said, “Good morning.” He said, “It’s not a good morning, and shut up!” Wow! What did you do? I got to the corner, and I just prayed for the door to open. Now, what’s going on? It wasn’t the words I said. There’s a war going on inside of that guy. We’re going to talk about that.

There’s been a lot of anger in the news. I mean, all you have to do is just open the newspaper. Almost every other story has something to do with anger.

Let’s pray. Father, bless this time. Help us, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

How do we define anger? Short fuse. Ticked off easily, chip on the shoulder, ongoing anger issues, not letting things rest, stirring things up constantly, bringing up the past, exploding at the drop of a hat, tip-toeing to be around you, drama, and the words, “What do you mean by that?” Sometimes those are just signs of anger.

Anger itself is not a sin. God has given us that emotion. He says be angry and sin not. It’s the sin part. It’s a trait of God. We mentioned it several months ago. God was angry at the world. He flooded it with water. God gets angry, too.

He was angry at the city of Sodom and Gomorrah. He burned it with fire from Heaven.

He got angry at the Hebrews that were traveling to the Promised Land. They were complaining. He gave them bread. He gave him water. He delivered them out of Egypt. And they said, “We’re tired of this bread. We don’t like quail. We don’t like this water. We wish we were back.” And pretty soon, snakes start showing up. God sent snakes to bite the people. God got angry.

There is a place called Hell, so God must have anger. On the cross, that’s what Jesus suffered. God took his anger against all mankind’s sin and put it on the cross. Does God get angry?

Little Children try to come to Jesus, and the disciples said, “Stay away from Him. He’s too important to bother.” And Jesus got angry at the disciples.

He got angry at their unbelief. He said, “You believe I can do this?” And he could just look at the crowd and know that they didn’t believe He was able to perform a miracle. He got angry.

He healed on the wrong day of the week to some people. They said, “It’s the Sabbath, it’s Saturday. We watch cartoons on Saturday. Don’t heal this person on Saturday.” And Jesus got angry, and He said, “Your day of the week is more important than someone’s health?”

He got angry. People who made excuses angered Jesus. He told the story of a feast, and it represents getting saved. He said someone prepared a great big feast, and they killed the animal, and they put the spread of food out, and everyone said, “Yeah we’ll come. Yeah, yeah yeah.” And then it was time for the feast, and they said, “Well, you know, we bought some land. Well, we got something to do. Well, I got married.” And they made excuses about coming to the feast, and it made Him angry. When people give excuses to God about here’s why I’m not getting saved, here’s why I don’t want your Son, it makes him very, very angry.

The Bible says that we are not to be soon angry. What’s that mean? It’s not a sin to get angry, but it shouldn’t be really fast. He says that we are not to be long angry. And that’s why if you’re married and you’re in the room right now, you’re never to go to bed angry at night at each other. The Bible says, “…let not the sun go down upon your wrath.” (Ephesians 4:26) It’s a sin to go to bed at night when you’re still fuming and sizzling and upset with someone. You say, “Why is that wrong?” Because you wake up, and then it escalates. It’s going to be worse the next day, worse the next day. You resolve those things. He said, don’t be long angry.

Below is an excerpt from the sermon...

If you have a Bible with you, we’re going to be reading one verse in Revelation chapter number 3. Revelation chapter three. A very famous verse. Many of you could quote it. If you don’t have a Bible with you, that’s fine. All of these chapters in Revelation one, two, and three are written to local churches. And so, this is the last church, the church at Laodicea. And all the print is in red, so we realize this is Jesus speaking. Notice this very famous verse here. It’s written to Christians, a local church. Here’s what it says in Revelation 3:20 “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” And so, we hear that first phrase a lot — “Behold, I stand at the door and knock.” And that’s what I want to speak on just for a few moments tonight. I’ll explain the verse.

Father, would You bless this brief time we have. I pray that You would help us. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Let me ask you: Has there ever been a time in your life where you got locked out? I wonder how many old-timers got locked out of a car, and you took that old coat hanger. You remember the old coat hanger? And you would go through the window, and you’re trying and you’re looking at the keys. The keys are in the ignition. You can see the keys, but you got the little coat hanger. I think I helped someone break into their car. I don’t even know if they were the owner. I may have helped them steal the car. I don’t know, but I remember that. How many coat hanger people — you’ve helped get into a car and get your keys by unlocking the car with a coat hanger?

How many of you have ever been locked out of your own house? I mean, you know, you started out the door, one of your kids helped you unlock the door, and… wait a minute… And then you’re walking around the house looking, pushing on windows until you find the open window. And then you took one of your children when child protection wasn’t looking and had them climb through the window and open the door. There’s nothing more embarrassing than locking yourself out of your own house or being locked out of your own car.

Now we’re going to talk to the married couples for a moment. Someone is angry if your mate is locking the bedroom door. “Hey! Hey! The door’s locked.” “I know.” “Hey, you accidentally… hey, the door’s locked.”

We’ve all heard different types of knocks at our door. If it’s UPS, it’s always urgent — “UPS!” Same with Amazon and some of those delivery people, sometimes. It might be a girl scout, and it’s just real sheepish and you can barely hear it. They’re selling cookies. Sometimes, maybe it’s a warrant: “Open up. Napa P.D.!”

So, we have this verse here. Jesus died on the cross, saved all these people, gave His blood, rose again, and paid the payment for sin. People accepted Him into their hearts as their Savior. A local church was formed in a city called Laodicea. Now here He is knocking at the door. He’s locked out of His own church, His people. They were still having church, they were still singing, they were still doing stuff, but Jesus wasn’t even there. He was saying, “Can I please come in? You know, I think you kind of forgot about Me. Can I come in?”

There’s a famous painting originally made famous by Holman Hunt. It’s Jesus knocking at that door. That’s where the verse comes from: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock.” A little boy was at a museum looking at the original, and he studied the painting and looked really close. He said, “Dad, who is that? And what is he doing?” And the dad wisely said, “Son, that’s Jesus, and he’s knocking at everyone’s heart. He wants to come in.” And the little boy studied the painting. And after looking at it pretty closely, he said, “Dad, no wonder He can’t give in. There’s no doorknob. The painter forgot to paint a doorknob.” And the dad wisely said, “Son, it’s on the inside. Only you can let him in.” The little boy was very quiet all the way home, drove home with his dad in silence. They pulled into the driveway, and he just blurted out. The little boy said, “Dad, did He ever get in?” The dad wisely looked at his son and said, “You tell me, son. Did He ever get in?”

And folks here tonight, let me just encourage you — that’s what life is all about. Jesus loves you so much that He died on the cross to take your Hell because He didn’t make Hell for you. He made it for the devil and the demons. He wants you to go to Heaven with Him. So, He knocks and says can I come in? It’s so much better when I come in. I’ll bring peace. I’ll bring forgiveness. I’ll write your name up in heaven. I’ll build your mansion. I’ll take you home with Me one day. But you must let Me in. You’re not born with Jesus in your heart. No one can get Him in. It’s your choice. You’ve got to open the door, and only you can do that.

Let me ask you — Daddy, did He ever get in? Hey mama, did He ever get in? Young person, teenager, child, did Jesus ever get into your heart? That’s the greatest thing you could leave with tonight. Hey, I went to a graduation. I came to watch the graduates, and I did; but when I left, I was on my way to Heaven. That’d be good news. That’d be great news tonight.

But what I found out is this: once He comes in, he keeps knocking. We have a family in our church who recently bought a house. When you buy a house, they give you all the keys. Can you imagine buying a house, and the realtor says, “There you go.”? And you walk in the living room, and you start to walk to the bedroom, and it’s locked. The kitchen is locked. Closets are locked. Furnace rooms locked. “Hey, what’s going on?”

Jesus gets us, He says, “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price…” (1 Corinthians 6:19–20a) He wants all of us. And here’s what Jesus does once He comes in and saves us. He then says, “What’s behind that door?” He starts seeing all the doors in our life, and He starts knocking. “Hey what’s behind that door?”

Below is an excerpt from the sermon...

Alright, take your Bibles, if you will, tonight. Turn the book of Psalm 119. I mentioned this morning how special Psalm 119 has become to me in recent weeks and months. And it truly is. I was telling Brother Berto this morning after the morning service that I’ve been preaching so much in Cambodia, and a couple of times now that I’ve been back in the US, from Psalm 119. It’s just so on my heart lately, and it’s just become so special and precious to me—some of the truths that are there. And so, I want to go back to Psalm 119 again this evening. Verse number 19 is where we’ll start. Then we’re going to jump over to Hebrews for the remainder of the message. We’ll just read this verse, have a prayer, and get right into the message. Psalm 119:19 “I am a stranger in the earth: Hide not thy commandments from me.” I’m particularly interested in the first seven words of the verse. We read the whole verse. “I am a stranger in the earth: Hide not thy commandments from me.” I’m particularly interested, as I said, in the first seven words of this verse that says “I am a stranger in the earth.”

Now, the truth of the matter is that in the Bible, I think it’s over 100 times, there are references to a “stranger.” And maybe you’re thinking like, you know, we’re told when we’re little kids to be aware of strangers—people we don’t know and things like that. That is not the meaning of this word “stranger.” The meaning of the word “stranger” in the Bible is literally a foreigner. You say, “Oh great, he’s going to go all political tonight, preach on foreigners and all that.” No, no, we’re not talking about that. We’re talking about one who belongs to another country. There are sometimes where the words “stranger” is used in the Old Testament, talking about Israel and foreigners, people that came into Israel came along with them in the wilderness wanderings. But oftentimes in the Bible, particularly in the New Testament. When this concept is brought up, it is brought up in the context of being a stranger in the earth. A stranger in the earth, meaning we’re not from here and we’re not going to be here.

And there is another word that comes up a lot. It’s the word “sojourner.” Sojourner is simply a traveler. Another definition that comes up for a “sojourner” is a temporary resident. And then, another word that comes up a lot is the word “pilgrim,” and a pilgrim simply means a traveler, especially a traveler who's on a long journey. They’ll talk about a pilgrimage. It’s someone that goes and takes a long journey for some religious ritual, religious purposes like that.

But I want you to think about these terms tonight, stranger, sojourner, and pilgrim. A foreigner, a temporary resident, someone who’s not from here and someone who is ultimately not going to end up here, one who belongs to another country, another kingdom, a traveler who is on a long journey. And I want to just simply preach tonight on this subject that we are only traveling through. The title of the message is “I am a stranger.”

Now, if you’re a Christian tonight, this is true of you. Even if you’ve never looked at yourself like this, you need to look at yourself like this. Because when we see ourselves for what we truly are, when we see ourselves as temporary residents of this planet, when we see ourselves as strangers that are just traveling through, I can tell you it will change a whole lot about the way we live, about our perspective, about our priorities, about the way we spend our time. And yeah, even about the way that we spend our money. We’re just traveling through, and it’s vital for Christians to understand this.

So, let’s have a word of prayer and then I’ll let you be seated, we’ll begin the message. Lord, I pray that you would be with this brief time in the Word of God tonight. Lord, use this time to challenge our hearts. God, I don’t know what needs are represented in the auditorium tonight, but one thing I do know there are needs and no doubt there are myriad needs, many, many needs, countless needs. And Lord, I just ask that You would reach into each and every heart in a way that only You can do. None of the rest of us knows what each other’s needs are. We’re so good at hiding it. Lord, we’re so good at just putting on a mask and a face, and keeping the real needs of our heart kind of pushed down under the surface. Lord, I pray that we would not have anything hidden from the Lord tonight. It’s impossible anyway. But Lord, may your Holy Spirit just penetrate down into the deepest, quiet little nooks and crannies and recesses of our heart, and really do a work in us tonight in our motives and our motivations, and in our spirit, and in our heart, and in our attitude, in a way that only you can do. We ask these things in Jesus’ name, Amen.

And so, Psalm 119:19. It says, “I am a stranger in the earth.” And as I said a moment ago, we are only traveling through, and it is absolutely vital for the Christian to understand this. Here’s the problem: too many Christians I think battle with unmet expectations, depression, jealousy, envy, and all manner of issues in their life because they don’t understand this proposition that we are strangers. They get stuck like in quicksand. Maybe if you’ve ever been driving a moped (we drive a lot of mopeds there in Cambodia). So, you’re driving along, and I’ve learned if you come across some sand, be ready to stop quickly because on motorcycles the wheels are too small, they’re too narrow, there’s not enough power in the engine. And boy, you can just get bogged down really quickly. And you know what happens a lot of times in our Christian life? We get stuck. We get attached to the world. We get in love with the world. We get entangled with the world. We get bogged down in the world like we’ve run through quicksand, and we begin to literally live our lives every day, every hour, every waking moment is all about the things of this world. That is not the way that God intended us to live.

All right, we’re in Psalms chapter 119. And I want to just read one verse, and then we’ll pray and begin the sermon this morning. Just by a quick word of introduction, I love Psalm 119. I strongly encourage all Christians to spend a lot of time in Psalm 119. 176 verses, the longest chapter in the Bible. Now when I was a kid at the Christian school we were in, we memorized Psalm 119. We literally had to learn eight verses a week, and at the end of the year, we had to stand and quote the entire thing all at once without sitting down. I can’t do that now, but I did it then. I loved Psalm 119 back then, and I love it now. I’ve had several kinds of interactions with Psalm 119, but about a year ago I read a quote by a man (this is 400 or 500 years ago). His name was Philip Henry. His son, Matthew Henry, was a famous theologian and author. And Philip Henry told his son and daughter that if they would read and meditate on one verse a day out of Psalm 119 (again, there are 176 verses), that they could actually go through Psalm 119 two times in a year. And he told his children (they wrote about it in their memoirs later on) that if they would learn to love Psalm 119, then they would, in turn, learn to love the whole Bible.

Now, why was that true? Well, the reason that’s true is that the theme of Psalm 119 is the Word of God. And there’s a whole bunch of words — about eight or nine words — in Psalm 119 that repeat over and over. Words like “precepts,” “statutes,” “law,” “testimony,” “judgments,” and all of these things are synonyms for the Word of God. There are only about two or three verses in all 176 that don’t mention the Word of God. And so, I tried that last year and I really enjoyed it every single day. I read other things as well, of course. But every single day I took the next verse in line. I read it. I meditated on it. I read a lot of other people’s thoughts and views on the verse, and just kind of studied it out. Thought about it, meditated on it, memorized some. Not all. I was trying to memorize all; that didn’t work. I’m getting too old for that, I guess. But I really enjoyed that. So, what I want a preach to you today came out of that study, that time of just concentrated time in Psalm 119.

I want to read this — verse number 92 and read this verse, and we’ll get started. Psalm 119:92 “Unless thy law…” That’s the synonym for the Bible in that verse, the Word of God. “Unless thy law had been my delights, I should then have perished in mine affliction.” I’ll read one more time. “Unless thy law had been my delights, I should then have perished in mine affliction.” I want to speak to you this morning on the subject of the importance of the Word of God in our day-to-day lives.

Now we know the Bible is true. We know the Bible is the Word of God and we know it’s important. We know it’s how we learn of salvation. But I’m afraid that many Christians don’t understand the Bible is vital for your everyday life. The importance of the Word of God. And so, the title of the message this morning is simply this, “Keeping Your Head Above Water.” Keeping Your Head Above Water.

Let’s pray. Lord, I pray that You bless this time we have together in the Word of God. I know there are all sorts of different situations represented in this group today, in this crowd. I know there are longtime Christians. I know there are brand new Christians. I know there are those who are doing well right now, and then there are others that are struggling in any number of areas. But Lord, that’s the marvelous thing about church and preaching the Word of God, is that the Holy Spirit is able to take a sermon and literally just bring it home to every single heart, every single life. Meet the need of each and every person who’s here today. We ask Lord that you do that. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Thank you and you may be seated. Let me read the verse one more time. It simply says this: Psalm 119:92 “Unless thy law had been my delights, I should then have perished in mine affliction.” Now, most of the time when I read or study averse, I start at the beginning and go to the end. Every once in a while, I’ll take words a little bit out of order for various reasons. This morning, I want to start with the last word in the verse. Now, we’re going to look at some other verses, but I want to start at the last word. The last word is simply the word “affliction.” Affliction. Now, that might not be a word that every single person in attendance today fully understands the meaning of. So let me help you a little bit with that. I guarantee you if you don’t know the meaning of the word, I guarantee you have experienced the word. Even if you don’t know necessarily what that word means, I guarantee you there’s not a person here today that has not experienced in the past or currently your share of affliction in this life. It is just the way that life goes. As the Bible says in Job, “Man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward.” So, it’s just as natural as sparks going up out of a fire for mankind to have troubles and difficulties in their life.

The word “affliction,” the first definition that I found is that it means a state of pain, distress, or grief. Now, that’s actually a pretty broad definition. But I want you to think about that — a state of pain. When I think about pain, that’s generally reflective of something in the past. The things that are going to happen in the future don’t hurt yet. You know, I might stub my toe tomorrow, but that doesn’t hurt yet because it hasn’t happened. Right? But if I do something in the past, that causes pain in my life. So, when it talks about pain being a part of affliction that leads my mind a little bit towards the past.

But then I look at the rest of that definition, “distress.” When I think about distress, that kind of talks about the present. That’s now. Those are the things that have got my life really kind of all turned upside down. Those are the things in my life that are bothering me today. That’s the thing I’m confused about and afraid for right now.

And so, we have pain in the past, distress in the present, and then the definition goes on to say, “or grief.” And I think grief can really kind of encompass all of those terms. The second definition is this — listen to this — the cause of continued pain of body or mind as in sickness, loss, calamity, adversity, persecution. I didn’t make that list up. That’s right out of the dictionary. Now, that’s pretty broad, isn’t it? Especially when it talks about body or mind. I mean this is a very, very all-inclusive word, this word “affliction.” And it talks about our disappointments, and our hurts, and our stress, and our trials, and things that are going wrong in our lives — things that go wrong because of some malice on someone else’s part and things that go wrong just quite accidentally and not that anyone is trying to do us wrong. It talks about things that go wrong in our physical lives. It talks about things that go on spiritually, mentally, emotionally. All of these things are encompassed in this word “affliction.”

But here’s a question after I’ve defined the word affliction. Do you have any in your life now? You don’t need to answer out loud or raise your hand or anything, but just think about that in your mind. Do you have any affliction in your life in the last, say, 30 days? Have there been any disappointments? Any hurts, any stress points in your life, anything that’s left you afraid or confused, or angry, or not sure what to do? Not sure what steps next to take in your life? In the last 12 months, have you had any affliction?

Below is an excerpt from the sermon...

Open your Bibles, if you would please, for a moment to Psalm 51. Psalm 51.

It is said of one of my heroes, Charles Spurgeon, the great pastor in London. They said one day, he was walking with a group of people that were crossing a street in London, carriages coming, horses coming, people walking. And he stopped and knelt in the middle of the street, took his hat off, and just prayed silently for a few moments. Then he put his hat back on and crossed the street. Someone said, “Mr. Spurgeon…” (That’s what they called him — “Mr. Spurgeon”) “…What were you doing?” He said, “Couldn’t you have waited to cross the street and pray? I mean, why in the middle of the street?” He said, “I sensed a cloud came between me and my Savior, and I aimed to not even cross the street until it was removed.” That was one of the secrets of the great Spurgeon. Nothing between him and his Savior.

It’s interesting — there are two natures that God compares us to. God’s people are compared to sheep. He compares us to sheep. The sheep gets dirty. It does not like the dirt. You do not see sheep wallowing in the mud. When they get dirty, they want to get clean. That’s the new nature that God gives us after we get saved. Will we get dirty? Oh, yes. Will we step in the mud? Yes. Will we slip and fall? Yes. Will we get dirt on us? Yes. But the nature before we get saved is the nature of a pig. You can bathe the pig, put a ribbon on his tail, spray that Jovan Musk cologne on it. You can spray all that on the pig, and he’ll go right back to that mud puddle and jump right in. It’s his nature. And that’s one of the signs if you really got saved — not if, but when you sin, it bothers you. And so, that’s this chapter here. That’s why this Psalm 51 is such a dynamic chapter. It is David getting right with the Lord. That’s the whole chapter and it’s such a great chapter.

If anyone feels like they are not right with the Lord or they’re not really close to Him now, anyone could pray this psalm out loud sincerely from their heart, and when they finish, they would have to say, “I just got right with the Lord.” It is thorough. It is tremendous. So, I want you to see some of it here. Of course, it is written by David, and you see the little title “To the Chief Musician, of Psalm of David.”

Let’s pray, then. We’re just going to jump in. It’s just kind of verse by verse, and you’ve got your little answer sheets there. And I appreciate it if you want to fill them out. I got a couple of stories, and that’s what we’ll do here. Father, bless at this time the reading of Thy Word. Thank you for people in the middle of the week — some come straight from work, some have not had supper yet, some have had a long day. They got hot, they sweated, they labored, some raised kids, some worked around their house somewhere on the phone all day or computer all day. But they’re here and they made You a priority. So, please give them something. You said, blessed is he that hungers and thirsts after righteousness for they shall be filled. Please fill our soul and give us something. And on the way home, help us say, “I’m glad I was here. I heard something I needed to hear.” In Jesus’ name, amen.

So here it is. Look down just for a moment in your notes. It takes place after David and Bathsheba. So, that’s where this chapter comes in chronologically — after David was immoral with the neighbor, Bathsheba. Also in the notes, it says God expects honesty, not perfection. You’ll find that some of the great Christians in the Bible, there were simply great confessors. Simon Peter — he cussed, he had pride. But when he confessed, then God used him. Jacob took advantage of his dad, lied to his dad, took advantage of his brother. He was called the trickster or the supplanter, or the deceiver. And he reaped. But when he confessed and got things right, he limped afterward. But God called him a Prince of God. He was a different man. So that’s what is happening here in this passage.

By the way of the introduction here. I just said if a Christian would sincerely pray this psalm, it would get them right with God. You’ll see it in just a second. So, here are the nuggets. Let’s look at some of them. Verse number 1, he says in Psalm 51:1 “Have mercy upon me, O God…” Mercy is asking this: “Don’t give me what I deserve.” David says, “I know You ought to kill me. You ought to just wipe me out. You ought to just burn me. Lord, have mercy!” And so, David didn’t want his rights. He was unlike a lot of people in America. He wasn’t protesting for his rights. He said, “Don’t give me what I have coming to me.” That’s the first thing he says. “Have mercy upon me, O God.” He says, “…according to thy lovingkindness…” Notice that long word — God’s “lovingkindness.” I hope someone says that about us one day. “…lovingkindness: According unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.” And notice there, he uses the word “transgressions” plural. He said, “I didn’t just have one sin.” It was more than one sin. Not just one, it was more. And in this passage, you’ll see he names different ways that he sinned against God. All of them have a little bit different connotation — transgressions. It simply means to cross the line. Maybe you’ve had someone talk rudely to you, and you said, “You just crossed the line.” And so, David says, “I know I crossed the line. I crossed the boundary I never should have crossed.”

So, why does he say transgressions plural? Well, I thought he’s confessing the sin he had with Bathsheba. No, there were other sins. One, he was idle. While the warriors were off in the battle, David took the night off, took the day off. Nothing wrong with a day off. But when all his workers were on the front line, that’s probably not the time to take the day off. He was idle. Next, he looked and didn’t turn away from looking at the neighbor bathing. One thing to see someone, another thing to stare at someone. Then what else did he do? He kept crossing lines. He was curious. Who is this? He got curious about who she was. Her husband is here in town. Does she have any kids? Who is she related to? He got curious, and he never should have even been looking at her. Then she came over, and then he’s talking to her. He couldn’t text. He couldn’t use social media. And then there’s immorality. Then he has her husband taken out mysteriously during the battle, and everything’s “okay.” He says, “I didn’t just transgress. I had transgressions.” When we confess to the Lord, when we see our sin as big, God forgives us big. When we see our sin as a little, (“Well, it wasn’t that big. Wasn’t that big of a deal.”) then God reveals it as a big deal. When we make it a big deal, then God forgives it.

Notice David’s heart. No wonder he’s called the man after God’s own heart. Mercy is withholding what I do deserve.