Hopewell Baptist Church Napa, CA Sermon Podcast

If you have your Bibles, let’s open them please to the Book of Romans. Romans chapter number 8 tonight, the famous chapter 8 of Romans. We’ll start by looking at the first verse. I hope you’ll keep your Bible (or whatever you have) open. Maybe you have a phone. You know, it’s all different. You’ve got a phone, you got a laptop, you got an iPad. Maybe you’ve got a memory stick in your head, you just kind of push on your temples, and it kind of comes out in your contact lens or something. But hopefully, you’ll leave your Bibles open because we’re going to be referring to several, several of these other verses in Tomans chapter 8. Romans 8:1 says, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus…” That’s a phrase for being saved—we’re “in Christ.” “…in Christ who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” The theme of this great book of Romans is “the just shall live by faith.” It is all about salvation--ours and helping others to find salvation. So, the topic title tonight is “Nuggets of Knowledge from Romans 8.” Nuggets of Knowledge from Romans 8. And we’re going to look at just six of these nuggets tonight. Some will be quick, some will be a little bit longer than others.

I was talking to Brother Johnson. Mike Johnson on the phone this afternoon. I said, “Brother Johnson, what did you preach on the last few weeks?” He said, “The love of Christ.” I said, “Are you finished yet?” He said, “No, I don’t think I’ll ever finish that.” And I told him, I said, “I’m going verse by verse in detail through Romans 8. We’re covering everything that could possibly be said.” He laughed. Spurgeon said, “You never get finished with even one verse of the Word of God. It’s so rich and so powerful.”

So, let’s pray. Father, again, bless now this brief time we have. Thank you for the Bible. Help us tonight. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

So here it is. Paul has saved 25 years at this time. It was 25 years before that he is imprisoning Christians. He is holding the coat of Stephen as people are picking up stones to throw at Stephen, and stoning that godly deacon. 25 years have passed—a long time, a quarter of a century. God uses Paul to write many of these things that actually affected his life as well. The first thing he says in Romans 8, he said, “There is no condemnation in Christ.” What in the world that mean? The Bible says before we’re saved, in John 3:18, it says, “He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” So what’s it mean? It means when we’re saved, we’re not condemned to Hell. That’s what he’s saying. He says once we’re saved, we’re not condemned to Hell.

But it’s actually referring to something else, too. What’s it referring to? Condemnation in our minds. What are you talking about, pastor? We’re talking about once we get saved, The Holy Spirit never brings up our sins that are confessed. We’re saved. The sins are under the blood. We confess our sins; the Holy Spirit never brings it up. But there are things that are brought up. Have you noticed since you’ve been saved? God does not wipe away all memories of things we should not have done or said or places we’ve been. Somehow, those memories are still there, and they condemn us. Maybe you’ve taught Sunday School before. You’ve stood up to teach and some little voice said, “Who are you to be teaching? Who are you to be singing in the choir? You remember what you did many, many, many years ago? You remember how you were many, many, many years ago?” Know what that is? Condemnation. It is satanic. It is satan bringing up past memories that are already confessed, already under the blood, already dealt with. But he just wants us to feel like we’re unworthy to serve. What is the condemnation? What does he say? He brings up sin. He brings up failures. He brings up the past. He uses words like “unworthy” and “weakness.” He brings up phrases like “You’re not as good as someone else. If only I had hindsight 2020. If only I had done…” He’s the accuser. Satan tempts us to sin, and then once we sin, all he does is accuse us and tell us how bad and unworthy we are.

Now, if he’s never done that to you, get ready. He will because he did that to the Apostle Paul. Here’s Paul writing Scripture and I’m sure that condemnation came into his mind. Who are you to write Scripture? Paul, you killed Christians! Who are you to start churches? You remember what you said and got people to blaspheme? Who are you? And all these sad things… Just let me remind you where it’s coming from. It’s not coming from the Holy Spirit of God. It’s coming from below, and he’ll use it and use it and use it.

I was, I was outside today taking some garbage out, and one of the church neighbors that several of you have been trying to help him, a good person, struggling with alcohol. “Hey pastor!” I mean way down the street—"Pastor!” And so, I’m waiting, I’m going to talk to him, and he’s kind of wobbling a little bit ahead. “I’ve been drinking.” And I said, “What’s going on?” I called him by name. I said, “How can I help?” And he said, “I know I’ve disappointed you.” He said, “I’ve disappointed my family, and just a big disappointment.” I said, “Haven’t we all?” I said, “Haven’t we all disappointed someone?” “Well, I’m just a failure and…and look at me...and I messed up again. I’m drunk again.” I said, “Everyone messes up at some time.” You know, who’s telling him that? The old accuser, the old accuser. I said, “Hey, you’re still loved.” I said, “Take a nap, sober up, and trying to get here tonight.” If you can’t join the club, join the club of failures. Join the club of people that have a past. Join the club of people with some regrets. Join the club of people who wish they could do something over and do a little redo.

And so, here’s Paul. He says, “Hey, if you’re in Christ, it’s not Jesus condemning you and it’s not your Father condemning you.” He said, “There’s no condemnation in Christ Jesus.”

If you have your Bibles, let’s open them, please, to the book of Genesis for a moment. The book of Genesis. Genesis 13.

And here’s a little bit of the story. This is Lot. He is the one where in the New Testament it says, “Remember Lot’s wife. He’s the one who was raised by his uncle Abraham because his father had died. Lot’s father had died. And so, they were in business. They had herdsmen, and somehow Lot’s herdsmen, his workers, were not getting along with Abraham’s workers. Well, all of a sudden, instead of working that thing out, straightening some workers out, they decided, well, let’s depart from each other. Let’s split. Let’s one of us move. And God never told him to do that. You’ll find that people in the Bible that moved, there were two reasons: God told someone to move, one, if they were starting a nation. Okay, probably none of us. And then second, if they were like the Apostle Paul or a missionary, and they were starting a church. And so that’s about the only two times you see that in the Bible. And so, here’s a Lot. He ends up moving for money. It says that in Genesis 13:10 “And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar.”

You remember the story about these very wicked cities, Sodom and Gomorrah. God ended up burning the cities up. He sent fire and brimstone. But notice before Lot even moved in there, it started small. He made a decision. Verse 11. Genesis 13:11 “Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan; and Lot journeyed east…” East is always a direction in the Bible of trouble. “…and they separated themselves the one from the other.” The tragedy did not happen all of a sudden. Lot said, “I’m heading this way. I mean it looks like that’s where the better planes are.” He never deferred to his uncle who raised him. Lot was very selfish when he made that decision. Ten years later, he’s the welcoming committee in the most wicked city ever mentioned in the Bible. It was a little bit at a time. Just a little shift. A little change. A little moving. A little compromise. His daughters married evil people from that town. His daughters were burned up by the fire and brimstone. His wife was told not to look back. She did. She was turned to a pillar of salt. It was just a terrible tragedy. But that all started with a decision.

I’m going to speak today on making proper decisions. God has a plan for all of our lives. We call it the will of God. God really has many wills. He wills or decides what he wants for us to the minutest detail—who we marry, our vocation. And God knows what plan would make us the most fulfilled and give Him the most glory. Sometimes, we think if we surrender to do God’s plan, we’re going to be eating worms and in Africa somewhere under a totem pole. No, you’ll be eating crickets under a totem pole. No, no, no, not really.

Let’s pray, and then we’ll talk some about this. Father, bless this time that we have. Help us to make wise decisions. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

At the end of our life, we will simply be the culmination of all the decisions we made. Today, if you passed any homeless people, maybe they were living in a tent or maybe holding up a little cardboard sign with writing on it. Maybe they were unkempt. Some of that was from decisions made a long time ago. We can choose our decisions. We cannot choose the repercussions of those decisions.

I was researching some for this message and trying to think of in history, the worst historic decisions ever made. I think of the Titanic. They probably never should have sailed. There was a lot of pride. Not enough lifeboats, the wrong person keeping watch, information not shared, didn’t cry out for help in time, unused lifeboats. Once the ship went down, there were still some lifeboats that never even were used. Terrible. A lot of wrong decisions.

Here’s one, the city of Troy. They saw this great big wooden horse outside of the city and said, “What a nice gift!” And what a poor decision! They brought it in, and it was filled with enemies who came out and burned their city down.

I think of the painting. Some of you would know the name, some of you wouldn’t—The Scream by Edvard Munch. There was a granddaughter who was doing some work for a lady, and she said, “I don’t have much to pay you. I can give you a bottle of wine, or I got this old painting.” The girl took the bottle of wine. The old painting was that famous picture. You’ve seen it. It’s kind of in watercolors of this person screaming. That painting was worth millions of dollars. The person took the bottle of wine. What a poor choice.

I think of. Yahoo, the company. They were offered to buy another smaller company for 1 million dollars and they said, “No, it’s not worth it.” It was called Google.

I think of a man by the name of Ronald Wayne. He bought 10% stock in this little upstart company just getting going. And after eight months he said, “This isn’t going anywhere.” So he sold his 10% to the other two partners for $800. The other two partners were named Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in 1978. His shares of that stock would right now be worth 80 billion dollars. What a poor choice.

There was a man who had long, long hair. He was a general named General Custer. He was going to “straighten out” some Indians that were causing some problems at the Little Bighorn. He had four heavy guns. These new guns were called Gatlin guns, kind of like a crank-it-out machine gun. You’ve heard or saw the movie? And he said, “These are too heavy. Why would we need these in this little skirmish with the Indians?” What a decision he made, as later on they called him General Pin Cushion with all the arrows that were in him.

I’m going to give several observations about decisions. Number one, make most of your big decisions in advance. The Bible says in Daniel 1:8, as young Daniel was leaving as a slave, he was leaving Israel to be brought to Babylon. It says, “and Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself.” So, as he was traveling to Babylon, he made some decisions in his heart in advance.

We’re going to do two Bible studies in one tonight. It is always interesting because when you’re speaking to children all the way up to retired people it is next to impossible to have one subject that always covers everything. So tonight, I had the rest of last week’s lesson to cover and then we have a Psalm, so we are kind of going to do both tonight. We’ll be out on time, but it’ll be a Psalm and then we’ve got some tips on childrearing.

For those of you that have grandchildren, children, or you know a kid, or you have a kid that you saw down the street, or you’ve seen a picture of a kid, this message is for you. And so it’ll be something for all of us. So, let’s look if you would, please, at Psalms chapter 19. Psalm 19, and that’s where we’ll start, I think it’s there in the Bible study sheet. And we’ve got bunch of little blanks, and we’ll fill them out quickly. I’ll pray and then we’ll just get right in and this is such a great Psalm. It’s “to the chief musician,” and we do know the author of this one, humanly speaking. It’s David.

Let’s pray. Father, bless this time. Thank You for the Word of God. Give us something that would help us practically in our lives and then also in our area of worship and how we are adored and how we view You. So, please help us now. Help our eyes to be open, our hearts to be tender. People have rushed straight from work. Others have come straight from out of town. A lot of things on our mind. So, I pray You would feed us and help us tonight. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Look at how this starts off. Psalm 19. I would call this “When God Speaks to Me.” That’s what this psalm is—how or when God speaks to me. God wants us to know Him. God wants us to know what He’s like. And so that’s why this Psalm is in the Word of God. Notice, he says in Psalm 19:1 “The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament sheweth his handywork.”

“Heavens”? What would he be talking about? He’s not saying there’re seven layers of Heaven like the Mormons teach. 77 ranks of Heaven. But what he’s saying here is the heavens—that means beyond the clouds, beyond the sky. He’s talking about the stars, the planets, the constellations, the solar systems. He’s saying at night they declare the glory of God. So, they are speaking. Those stars are speaking. From what I hear, from what science is able to measure, the stars are actually making sounds now. I don’t know if it’s in English or Spanish. I don’t know what sounds they are. But it’s simply saying they are speaking to people who have never heard the Gospel.

Sometimes we hear deepest about darkest Africa, or in the Himalayas, or out in the jungle somewhere. How do they know about God? The heavens declare at night. When the settlers were traveling across the country and settling America, when they camped out at night and they had a little of fire and they put their head on a pillow and looked up the heavens. The heavens declared. What do they declare? They declare the power of God.

He must be powerful for those planets just to hang on nothing. He must be powerful to put those rings around Saturn and put the lunar moons around different planets. He must be powerful just to speak and it all happens and it just keeps going and they don’t collide and they keep their proper distances. He’s a big God. So, it declares His power. It declares his creativity. Every star is at a different brightness, a different size. Some are many times bigger than our sun. And just so that’s what he’s talking about.

He says the firmament declares His handiwork. The firmament would refer to the sky, the blue sky, the clouds. You ever just maybe lay on the ground and look up and say, “That cloud kind of looks like an elephant. You see this cloud—it kind of looks like someone I know.” It’s saying that even below the stars, God is speaking from the sunsets to the sunrise, to the rainbow, to the seasons, to that wind blowing, to that cloud cover, to the different types of…” He’s speaking. He’s speaking, “I am in charge. I am big. I am bigger than your problems. I care about you.” The birds don’t look up and say, “What a beautiful sunrise.” Only humans notice these things, and God did all that for us. He could have made it in black and white. He made different colors. Why? I think He’s thinking, “My kids will enjoy that. I think they’ll love these different colors.”

It was, T. Dewitt Talmadge who said what God’s favorite color was. I thought, “What? What do you mean? God has a favorite color?” He said His favorite color is green. I’m reading, I’m saying what in the world? He said because from space, planet Earth has more green than any other color. I said, “Okay, maybe you’re right.” I don’t know. Let’s keep going here. So then, he’s talking about how God is speaking.

Now in your notes there, the heavens speak generally. No one can get saved by just looking up at the clouds. No one gets saved by just looking at the stars and saying, “God must love me. He must have sent His Son to die for me.” It doesn’t happen that way. It’s general. He is speaking generally.

But look down in verse number two. Psalm 19:2–3 “Day unto day uttereth speech, And night unto night sheweth knowledge. 3. There is no speech nor language, Where their voice is not heard.” So, God is speaking through His creation. Verse 4: Psalm 19:4 “Their line is gone out through all the earth, And their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun.” So, it is just all speaking. But nature is not enough to get us saved. There’s got to be specific speaking. God has to speak specifically. And then that’s where His Word comes in. His Word is Him speaking specifically. Given us all the details of his love and salvation.

Below is an excerpt from the sermon...

If you have your Bibles, let’s open them for a moment to the Book of Romans tonight. The Book of Romans. And let’s confess for a moment: how many of you have—maybe you’ve been saved for years—but you have a book of the Bible that when you start reading it, you kind of start getting bogged down? You know, you can’t zip through the stories like you can in the Gospels. Some books, maybe like Romans and maybe like some of the other ones, kind of slow you down. Am I the only one like that? Romans is kind of like that for me, and that’s why I have not preached a whole lot of messages out of it verse by verse. So, we’re just going to cover some highlights tonight. And we’re going to be looking at two chapters—chapters 6 and 7. And it won’t be every verse, so don’t get all discouraged.

I’m just thrilled at the crowd. I told Bro. Reyes tonight. I said, “I’m very encouraged by the crowd.” Many times on Easter or Mother’s Day (Mother’s Day is a lot different than Father’s Day. It’s the same holiday. Father’s Day is the same, except you don’t spend as much.) I know a lot of people spend time with moms or they were out of town and they went somewhere, but a lot of you are back and you sure encouraged me tonight. So, thank you for your faithfulness.

The Book of Romans. Half of the Romans’ Road deals with the subject we’re going to talk about tonight. Many of you when you witness, you’ll turn to the Book of Romans. You’ll use four, maybe five, verses when you’re giving the Gospel presentation. Half of the Romans’ Road deals with this subject. So, let’s look down please in Romans 6. We’ll look at two verses, and I hope you’ll leave your Bible open and underline a few things, and then we’ll just get right into the study tonight.

Notice what Paul says as he’s writing these Christians in Rome. He says in Romans 6:1 “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?” And I just want to throw this out there. There is a doctrine (well, it’s not even a doctrine; It’s a false teaching) going around our country now. It’s called the radical grace doctrine. What that means is some people are saying, once you get saved, you can do whatever you want to do. It doesn’t matter because we’re now under grace. So, don’t make me feel guilty for the way I live. I’m under grace. God’s okay with it. That is not what this is talking about. Paul is not saying now that I’m saved and I’m under grace, I can just do whatever I want to. No. Grace gives us the power to do what we ought to, not just what we want to. So notice again, Romans 6:1–2 “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? 2. God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?”

So, I’m going to speak tonight about a certain relationship we all have. It’s not the boy meets girl, it’s not the girl meets boy, it’s not the parent-child, it’s not the friend-friend, but it’s every Christian’s relationship with sin. Sin, in a nutshell, is just all about selfishness. It is the “I” in the word pride P. R. I. D. E. The Bible says it all started when pride or sin was found in the speaking of Lucifer, the archangel up in Heaven. And then it all went downhill from there.

Let’s pray, and we’ll just jump right in here. Father, bless this time. Help us now, in Jesus’ name, Amen.

So here it is. Hate to tell you, the moment you got saved, you blew it. You can no longer enjoy sin to the fullest. The Bible said about Moses in Hebrews 11 I think it’s Hebrews 11:25 “Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.” What’s he saying? Before you get saved, you have a conscience, but you do not have the Holy Spirit living in you. You know right from wrong. You feel guilt. So, a sinner sins. They feel only guilt. Once you receive Christ, then you feel guilt and then the conviction of the Holy Spirit that lives inside of you. So, then there is a double voice speaking to you. When you get saved, you can never enjoy sin to the fullest. You can sin, but it’s going to eat your lunch. And that’s what it’s talking about right there.

By way of introduction, I’m going to give you several character traits of sin tonight, and then we’ll just jump right in. Look over if you would please to Romans 7:11 (not the one on Redwood Road. Oh, 711, I know what you’re talking about!) In Romans 7:11, notice what he says here: “For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.” This is what Paul is saying: I was deceived by sin. Sin deceives. It deceives to make us think we will be the exception. Everyone else will be the one that gets a DUI but will be the exception. I can drink, but I will not become an alcoholic. I’m the exception. I can look at pornography, but I won’t become perverted in my thinking. I’ll be the exception. But the Bible says in Galatians 6:7 “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” It uses that word “deceived.” Here’s the deception. We sow seeds of wickedness or sin, and the deception is that it doesn’t come up right away. So, we believe that it’s not going to come up. The crops not going to come up. We sowed this, and it doesn’t happen right away. We smoke a cigarette, we don’t get cancer right away. We lie, we don’t get caught right away. We start being deceitful, and we don’t get caught. Nothing happens. But the crop is still coming up, and that’s why it’s so discouraging sometimes for Christians—they sowed all these seeds of sin, then they get saved and they get right, and all of a sudden when they just get into ministry the crop starts to come up. And they say, “Wait a minute, Lord, I’m serving you. Why is this happening?” To tell you why? Because you sowed it. It always comes up. Sin is deceitful. Since it’s not immediate, we cannot just think it’s never going to happen.

Below is an excerpt of the sermon…

If you have your Bibles, would you open them, please, to the book of 2 Samuel this morning? 2 Samuel.

All of us have a different relationship with our mom. Every one of us. Some have had a very godly mother, one who knew how to raise you, and you’ve grown up to call her blessed. Others, perhaps, had a mom who was just never taught. I think of one of our men who told me—he said, “Pastor, I don’t like Mother’s Day.” I said, “How come?” He said, “My mother taught me how to shoot up heroin when I was younger.” He said, “I never had a good relationship. She was a terrible example.” So, for some today you look back and maybe there’s a mom that wasn’t a good example. Here’s what you do: you forgive her and realize if you’d have been raised just like that, you would have turned out just like that, and she probably did the best she knew. So, for some, not a good example. For others, great examples. And then some of you right now have a mom that’s in Heaven right now in a perfect body, a brand new body, and can’t wait till you get there. And so, it’s just a mixture of emotions today. I’m going to speak on something—it’s probably going to surprise you. It is Mother’s Day, and so we’re in 2 Samuel just for a moment.

Before I read the text, Ii’s not every Sunday that my mom is here, much less for Mother’s Day. And I got to thinking just some of the things I’ve admired about my mother through the years: One, she got saved. And so, I was at church one Sunday when the pastor in Louisiana said, “If you’d like to accept Christ as your Savior, leave your seat come forward.” She came down and he said, “Barbara, have you been saved?” She burst into tears and said, “I’ve never been saved.” And I remember seeing my mom pray and accept the Lord as her savior in 1965. Did they have salvation back then? Yeah, it had just started and… no, no. And she accepted the Lord. So, I’m glad I know I going to spend eternity in heaven with her. She won’t be 91 up there and I won’t be 31 down here.

Then second, I remember seeing her at our little coffee table. She had a little brown coffee cup and had her Bible open before school. She had read it every morning. I remember walking in, she said I just finished reading the whole Bible today, and I remember thinking, “What an example, what an example to me.” My mother loves the Bible.

Not only that, I remember when my dad was gone and that’s kind of how it was. He was just MIA (missing in action). We were going through a hurricane, and it was predicted I think 15, 20 inches of rain. The street was flooded. There were boats in our street, boats going down the street in a big ditch in front of our house. The water was right at the edge of coming in our house. She brought my brother and me in the back bedroom. We knelt down by the bed, and she said, “We’re going to pray and ask God not to flood our house.” We needed her here in Napa back in ‘86 and some of the other floods here.

I remember that water came right to the edge of the door and stopped. It was a praying mother. I remember when mom got her first car. She got her driver’s license so that she could drive to church. And dad bought her a car. Don’t hold this against us—a Corvair Monza. Ralph Nader didn’t like it. But a Corvair Monza. And she got that car and invited the Haley family to church. They rode with us, and they all got saved. So, my mother was using her car to help the neighbors get saved.

Then, I remember my mother taking me fishing. We moved to Florida again. Dad was missing and you know, I begged mom, “I want to catch a fish in Florida. I want to go fishing.” So, she found a bridge. I mean a bridge, not a pond…like we’re on a bridge about as high as the southern crossing. My little line went down dozens and dozens of feet. I think it barely touched the water. But we were fishing. I couldn’t even see the line. I mean it was just off the bridge. But I remember her trying to take her boy fishing.

I remember that the whole time she was faithful to dad. She could have had opportunities not to be because he was never home. She was faithful to dad.

And then the day I got saved. I found out later my mother had knelt down behind me while I was praying to accept the Lord. She was praying for me. A Godly mother. Everybody needs a Godly mother. Everybody needs one. You men, you won’t be one, but you can encourage those that are.

So, here’s the passage here. Notice 2 Samuel 11, and I’ll let you remain seated. We’re going to jump around just a little bit in the Scriptures. And I’ve got to really get going here. 2 Samuel 11:1-5, and it says, “And it came to pass, after the year was expired, at the time when kings go forth to battle, that David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the children of Ammon, and besieged Rabbah. But David tarried still at Jerusalem. 2. And it came to pass in an eveningtide, that David arose from off his bed, and walked upon the roof of the king’s house: and from the roof he saw a woman washing herself; and the woman was very beautiful to look upon. 3. And David sent and inquired after the woman. And one said, Is not this Bath-sheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite? 4. And David sent messengers, and took her; and she came in unto him, and he lay with her; for she was purified from her uncleanness: and she returned unto her house. 5. And the woman conceived, and sent and told David, and said, I am with child.”

And we’ll finish some of this in just a moment here. Call the roll of great moms in the Bible. Who do you speak about on Mother’s Day? Eve, the mother of all living? Sarah, the mother of the nation of Israel? Rachel, the one worth working fourteen years for? Hannah, the one that asked for a son, and God gave her Samuel? Jochebed, Moses’ mother, who obeyed God’s plan and saved his life? Who do you preach about? Elizabeth, the one that had a son named John, of whom it says, “Born of women, there was no greater than John”? You speak on Samson’s mother, where she asked the angel, “How shall we order the child?” Or, do you speak on one of these women who are characterized by the negatives in their lives? Ruth, the Moabite, Rahab, the harlot? Or maybe women like Lydia from Macedonia; Jael, the woman that killed a man by nailing a stake through his skull; Deborah, the one that because of a lack of men, she had to be the general of Israel and lead the nation; or maybe the unnamed woman that dropped a millstone and it killed Abimelech and won the war? Or do we speak on Job’s wife, The one with the famous statement, “Why don’t you curse God and die?” (I don’t think anybody likes Job’s, wife.) I want to speak on this subject for a few moments: What I like about Bathsheba. What I like about Bathsheba.

Below is an excerpt of the sermon...

Being choked financially. We cannot think about God’s Word because we’re worried about debt and financial problems. And so here we go.

2 Kings 4. We’re not going to read the whole passage. But this is the miracle of the woman where the handmade that fills up the vessels and God keeps multiplying the oil. Notice what the prophet says to her here. It says in verse number five second Kings four and looking down please in verse five. 2 Kings 4:5-6 “So she went from him, and shut the door upon her…” And I’ve always thought, I’m sure that hurt. Folks, if you just read the bible slow, you get all kind of cool things okay? But he says she “shut the door upon her and upon her sons, who brought the vessels to her; and she poured out. [6] And it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said unto her son, Bring me yet a vessel. And he said unto her, There is not a vessel more. And the oil stayed.” Here’s that text: 2 Kings 4:7 “Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, Go…” Notice what he told her to do with the oil. He didn’t say to use it all on herself. They were in debt. Her husband had died. He says, “Go , sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy children of the rest.”

You know, that’s pretty good advice for all of us. Be industrious. Have something to sell or something to do. Some income. Sell the oil. And then he said, “Right away before you do anything else, pay your debt. Pay your debt.” So, before we take that cool vacation, before we do this or that, we need to make sure that we’re paying our debts. It’s interesting, but here’s how the world sees us as Christians: If we owe them money and haven’t paid them, it doesn’t matter how good we tell them God is, that’s just how people think. You know, if a “Christian” owes someone money and they’re inviting them to church, they’re not going to come to church because they’re thinking, “If you’re a real Christian, you’re going to pay me what you owe me.” So again, sell the oil, pay thy debt, and then somehow budget to live on the rest. And that’s great advice for all of us there. And again, if you’re here tonight and you just declared bankruptcy, we’re not trying to make you feel bad. We will put your picture up here in just a second… but I’m just kidding.

And do we have that picture? There it is. You know who that is? I talked about him last week. That’s that group that was going bench to bench. Now look, it doesn’t even look like Justin Bieber, they don’t look like Michael Jackson. It doesn’t even look like the Monkeys, the BGs, the Turtles, the Animals or even the Beatles at this point. Just average kids. Okay, that’s good, thanks. And if you weren’t here last week, so what was the deal? They played for tips. They were just going outside, elderly people sitting around. “Hey, would you like us to sing a song? What song?” And so, I asked him. I said, “How much you make doing this?” They said, “God is good.” And I said, “But have you… I mean you still have a day job? I mean, you don’t just play one song and go to the next bench full time, really?” They said, “We quit our day jobs.” I said, “How much do you make?” They said, “$600.” I said, “Wow, that’s not bad. Between four of you, $600 a week.” They said, “No, no, no, $600 a day.” I said, “Well that’s like $150 each.” “No, no. Each.” I don’t know how many hours a day they did it—five, maybe six days a week. They were taking home $3,000 a week. Cash, no taxes. Oh, wait till our president finds out. They’re going to be taxed because they’re in the upper echelon. We need to divide their wealth. Anyways… But what I’m saying is, it can be done. There’s a way. “Pastor, I can’t pay my debts. I can’t get out of debt. I just can’t get ahead.” There’s a way if four kids—and they sing mediocre. One guy kinda plays at the guitar—if they can make it, we can too, by the grace of God, we can.

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

Our little answer sheet here will go quickly. We forgot about three or four passages to read. Someone said this: “90% of the problem solving Is realizing there is one.” So, about the time we say, you know, I just can’t get ahead financially. I’m always in debt, never have the things I want. And there’s pressure. And I’m robbing Paul to pay Peter, and I’m not answering the phone, and throwing away credit letters and, and bill collectors are coming. It starts with realizing there’s a problem. Realizing there’s a problem is a great thing to do.

No one is born financially smart. We all have to be taught. I was speaking to someone earlier this week and they said, “You know, my family never taught me anything about finances. You know, my parents never told me anything about it. I mean they just brought money home, paid the bills, and never shared any of it with us.” And I want to say this to the parents: it is always the parents’ responsibility, the leaders, to bear the financial burden. It is not the childrens’ responsibility. I don’t think it’s ever wise to put all the bills on the table and get the kids around. “Look, it’s all because of you!” You know, the debt is acquired by the parents. That’s not the kids’ fault. They need to just feel everything’s great, everything’s secure, everything is wonderful, and that’s our job to do that.

15% Of Jesus’ teachings was on wealth. It was more than the total number of times He spoke on Heaven or Hell. He spoke more on wealth than any of those subjects. Interesting. So, there is a fundamental connection between our spiritual lives and how we handle money.

Below is an excerpt of the sermon...

If you have your Bibles, let’s open them, please, to the book of Deuteronomy. The book of Deuteronomy chapter number 34. And we’re going to finish up this series. We’ve been on it several, several months on those that finished strong. Christians that not only started their Christian life but finished strong. By the way, we’ve had people in our church who have finished strong that are now in Heaven. We’ve got people that served and did God’s will, and whether a short life or long life, they finished strong. And that’s who you want to be. You want to be the person that not only starts but finishes, and not one who finishes terribly but finishes strong.

So, we’re going to look at what the Bible calls the greatest leader outside of Jesus Christ mentioned in the entire Bible. It’s Moses hands down. He had over 1.5 million followers on Facebook. No, no, no, no, I’m sorry. He knew them face to face. A million and a half. They were not employees. They did not have to follow. They were not relatives. They were not slaves that he owned. There were people that willfully followed him. That’s amazing. Some of us have a hard time getting our dog to follow us. You know, it’s like taking a string and trying to push it somewhere. You know, it just doesn’t happen. And then sometimes, a husband has a hard time getting a wife to follow. And sometimes, a lot of wives have a hard time getting that husband to follow. And then trying to get the kids to follow. Try a million and a half who, every once in a while, started picking up stones and saying, “Kill! Kill!” Just amazing. Just an amazing thing.

So, I want us to start off by looking at one person. You may want to jot a note down or something here. I don’t have a lot of funny stories. I think maybe one. And so, you’re just going to have to hang with it. So here we are, Deuteronomy 34. This is the end of Moses life here. And what’s kind of comical to me is as far as we know, he wrote this chapter. What did he write? He wrote where he died and where he got buried. I don’t know if I were him, I would have said, “I’m writing this, Lord. I ain’t doing it. I ain’t doing it. As long as I don’t write it, I’m not dying right now.” “You’re dying, anyway.” He had to write where he was going to die, and he actually wrote that God buried him. That’s strange because it’s the Word of God. It hadn’t actually happened yet. But that would have been kind of strange.

But notice Deuteronomy 34. Let’s look down just for a moment at verse number 10. This is said about one person in the Bible. Deuteronomy 34:10 “And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face.” That Moses had a relationship with God like nobody in the entire Bible. Old Testament, New Testament. No one had a relationship like Moses did. He’s the only one that we know of that, when he got alone with God, he said, “Can I see you?” David never asked that. Elijah never asked that. All those great Christians never asked that. He said, “I don’t want to just talk to your Lord. I want to see you.” You remember the story how God said, “All right.” He said, “No one can see my glory and live.” And He said, “I’ll stroll by you and you can see my back parts, and I’ll cover you and place you in the cleft of the rock.” And that’s where we get that famous hymn, “Rock of Ages, cleft for me. Let me hide myself in Thee…” and then the rest of it. You have to look it up in the hymnbook, okay? And so here it is. He knew him face to face. I want to speak this evening on why Moses finished strong.

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

What did he look like? Kind of help me. Come on, come on. You’ve seen the movies. What did he look like? Long white hair, looks a little bit like Charlton Heston. And a long white beard. And it was all black until he went up to the mountain. And you know, then his beard turned all white. Anyway, I remember the movie, but it’s not like that. All right, here’s what we do know about Moses. It’s is referred to all throughout the Bible—it talks about the “Law of Moses.” The Law of Moses. The Law is the first five books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. The Law. The Law condemns. The Law is like a plumb line that says, “Thou shalt not. Thou shalt not. Don’t cross this.” It seems like the Old Testament is Law, New testament is grace. But if you did cross (and there’s a cross), you cross some lines. And it just kind of seems like, though it’s the same God, the God of the Old Testament is a little bit more severe than the God of the New Testament. Same God, but you remember Elijah? He says, “If I be a man of God, let fire come down and burn you guys up.” 50 guys burned, chicken McNuggets. But in the New Testament, you see a woman caught in adultery, and they’re going to stone her. And Jesus says, “The guy who has never sinned, how about you throw the first stone?” Now you’re kind of seeing a little bit more mercy. I’m glad we have a God that’s judgement and mercy, truth and grace. He’s a package deal. He is balanced.

But as we think of Moses, he’s conncted with the Law of Moses, and then he’s remembered for the 10 Commandments. He’s associated with that. He’s the one the only one to ever receive something written by the hand and the finger of God. Amazing. Moses must have been the most wicked man in the Bible because he broke all 10 Commandments at once. And so, he is remembered.

Not only that, he is revered as just the greatest leader in the Bible. “Where you going? I don’t know. God has led us across the Red Sea. We’re heading toward the Promised Land, wherever that is.” What a man. He was revered.

And then not only that, but he was rewarded. God told him, “You’re not going to the Promised Land.” You remember that? He got angry and hit the rock twice. God says, “You blew it.” But God, in His grace, later on in the New Testament you find Jesus climbs this mountain with Peter James, and John, and lo and behold, guess who’s waiting up there? Moses and Elijah. God is so merciful! He said, “You can look over and see it. You can’t come.” Then, later on, God said, “Oh, come on.” Later on He said, “Come on, get over here now.” As a spirit, not embodied now.

And so what was it that made this man tick? What was it? We’re told. You need not turn there, but in Numbers 12:3, it says he was the meekest man. There was no one meeker than Moses on the earth. Now, what’s the word “meek”? Meek? Most of the time, we think of meekness is this—looking at your shoes as you walk. No, that’s weakness. Your head is down, you’re just kind of looking at someone speaking, and you can’t believe someone spoke to you. And then you look at your shoes. No, that’s not what it is. Meekness is not weakness. Meekness is power under control. It’s a ship with a rudder. It’s a horse with some rains. It’s a powerful person, but under control. So, one of the meanings of the word “meek” is “level.” So, it means this Moses didn’t look to people like, “I’m so inferior to everybody.” Nor did he look down on people and say, “I’m so superior. You’re nothing.” He was a level with everyone. Even ground at the foot of the cross. Were sinners saved by grace. We’re on level ground. And that’s what he’s talking about. Where Jesus said, “The meek shall inherit the earth.” No one is better than or worse than you. We’re all sinners saved by grace.