Luke

11:1-13

Last April, a group from our church

spent a weekend together thinking through the kind of church we believed God

was calling us to be.  We reflected on

our great history, our present, and our future. 

Of the words that frequently came up in that meeting, there were five we

unanimously agreed we wanted to be true of Meadowbrooke; those words were:

LoveAuthenticityGospel-centeredness

CommunityEngagement

Since our strategic planning meeting, the staff and I sat down to refine that list into three simple vision words: Pray, engage, and develop.  These words come from our vision statement which states:

“We exist to develop a culture of Jesus followers who prayerfully engage their communities with the gospel.” 

The purpose of a vision statement is to announce what you want to become in the future.  The function of a mission statement is tell others how you plan to accomplish your vision statement.  Our mission statement is almost identical to our vision statement: “Developing people who follow Jesus and engage their communities.”  I believe that for us to accomplish our vision statement, each of our three vision words must become a part of the culture of Meadowbrooke.  This is the reason why I will be using our time together over the next four weeks to answer why each word is so important and how we as a church can develop a culture of prayer, engagement, and development a community.    

For the first two weeks we will

look into why we chose prayer as our first vision word.  We believe that prayer is the posture of

God’s people where the Church’s mission begins, is sustained, and nurtured. 

Jesus prayed all the time during

His earthly ministry.  He took advantage

of every opportunity He had to get alone to pray. For Jesus, prayer was

fundamental to the success of his mission. 

After one such time when Jesus had finished praying, He was approached

by one of His disciples and asked if He could give them all a lesson on how to

pray.  So, He gave them an example on how

to pray, not a mantra to repeat over and over again: “Father,

hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come.  Give us each day our daily bread, and forgive

us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead

us not into temptation.”

The Why and the How We Pray (vv. 5-13)

In Jesus’ answer to his disciples as to how they should

pray, we also are given six reasons why we need to pray.  Jesus models how we should pray by the way he

begun and the way he finished his prayer. 

When we pray, we begin by understanding who God is, and we end

understanding who we are. 

1) We pray because God is our Heavenly Father

When we approach God in prayer, we can approach Him like a child approaches

his/her father.  The point Jesus is

making here is that God is not unapproachable because He calls all whose faith

rests in Jesus Christ His children. 

Remember that passage from Ezekiel 36 regarding the new covenant that

the gospel of Jesus Christ makes us the recipients of: “I will give you a new heart, and

a new spirit I will put within you.”  Romans 8:14 informs us why it is we can

approach God as a child approaches a father: “For all who are led by the Spirit

of God are sons of God.  For you did not

receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received he

Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry ‘Abba! Father!” 

2) We pray because God is God

Secondly, when we do approach Him, we must understand that although God is our Father, He is not like us.  The One who we address: “Abba! Father!”  Is the One before whom the angels must cover their feet and hide their faces anytime they are in His presence as they sing: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory” (Isaiah 6:3)!  Although the Christian is privileged to be a child of God, we must not forget that he is holy.

3) We pray because God’s kingdom is coming (Your kingdom come…)

When we approach God in prayer

Luke

11:1-13

Last April, a group from our church

spent a weekend together thinking through the kind of church we believed God

was calling us to be.  We reflected on

our great history, our present, and our future. 

Of the words that frequently came up in that meeting, there were five we

unanimously agreed we wanted to be true of Meadowbrooke; those words were:

LoveAuthenticityGospel-centeredness

CommunityEngagement

Since our strategic planning meeting, the staff and I sat down to refine that list into three simple vision words: Pray, engage, and develop.  These words come from our vision statement which states:

“We exist to develop a culture of Jesus followers who prayerfully engage their communities with the gospel.” 

The purpose of a vision statement is to announce what you want to become in the future.  The function of a mission statement is tell others how you plan to accomplish your vision statement.  Our mission statement is almost identical to our vision statement: “Developing people who follow Jesus and engage their communities.”  I believe that for us to accomplish our vision statement, each of our three vision words must become a part of the culture of Meadowbrooke.  This is the reason why I will be using our time together over the next four weeks to answer why each word is so important and how we as a church can develop a culture of prayer, engagement, and development a community.    

For the first two weeks we will

look into why we chose prayer as our first vision word.  We believe that prayer is the posture of

God’s people where the Church’s mission begins, is sustained, and nurtured. 

Jesus prayed all the time during

His earthly ministry.  He took advantage

of every opportunity He had to get alone to pray. For Jesus, prayer was

fundamental to the success of his mission. 

After one such time when Jesus had finished praying, He was approached

by one of His disciples and asked if He could give them all a lesson on how to

pray.  So, He gave them an example on how

to pray, not a mantra to repeat over and over again: “Father,

hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come.  Give us each day our daily bread, and forgive

us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead

us not into temptation.”

The Why and the How We Pray (vv. 5-13)

In Jesus’ answer to his disciples as to how they should

pray, we also are given six reasons why we need to pray.  Jesus models how we should pray by the way he

begun and the way he finished his prayer. 

When we pray, we begin by understanding who God is, and we end

understanding who we are. 

1) We pray because God is our Heavenly Father

When we approach God in prayer, we can approach Him like a child approaches

his/her father.  The point Jesus is

making here is that God is not unapproachable because He calls all whose faith

rests in Jesus Christ His children. 

Remember that passage from Ezekiel 36 regarding the new covenant that

the gospel of Jesus Christ makes us the recipients of: “I will give you a new heart, and

a new spirit I will put within you.”  Romans 8:14 informs us why it is we can

approach God as a child approaches a father: “For all who are led by the Spirit

of God are sons of God.  For you did not

receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received he

Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry ‘Abba! Father!” 

2) We pray because God is God

Secondly, when we do approach Him, we must understand that although God is our Father, He is not like us.  The One who we address: “Abba! Father!”  Is the One before whom the angels must cover their feet and hide their faces anytime they are in His presence as they sing: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory” (Isaiah 6:3)!  Although the Christian is privileged to be a child of God, we must not forget that he is holy.

3) We pray because God’s kingdom is coming (Your kingdom come…)

When we approach God in prayer

Matthew 16:13-23

We have finally

reached the end of “The Tree” sermon series. 

My hope and prayer for you throughout this series has been four-fold.  First and foremost, I wanted you to see how

God is able to redeem what may seem irredeemable.  Second, I wanted you to see how God is able

to transform what is evil and ugly into something good and beautiful.  Third, I wanted you to see that the Bible is

not only one story of redemption, but it is also a story about us.  Finally, I wanted you to see that one of the

great themes of the Bible is about a God who seeks and saves the lost.

After Adam and Eve

sinned against God in the Garden, God promised them a redeemer who would crush

the head of the serpent.  However, every

generation that followed proved Ecclesiastes 9:3 to be true: “…the hearts of

the children of man are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while thy

live, and after that they go to the dead.”  Shortly after God promised Adam and Eve a

deliverer who would be of their bloodline, Cain was born. Adam and Eve’s dreams

were ruined when Cain murdered his younger brother Able.  Adam and Eve had a third child by the name of

Seth who offered some sense of hope. 

We are told that with the birth of Seth, people began to worship God again.  However, by the time Noah was born, the earth was full of violence and wickedness.  God decided to purge the earth of evil by flooding it and saving Noah and his family.  After the flood, we are told Noah got drunk and his son Ham victimized his father in some way.  Abraham, who was a descendant of Noah, was promised that through his descendant, all of the nations would be blessed.  Yet he put his wife in harm’s way several times out of a fear for his own life.  Abraham’s nephew, Lot, who is also included in Jesus’ family tree, got drunk and was raped by his two daughters, of those two daughters one of them had a child that belonged to her father that she named Moab.  Moab’s great, great, great grandchild was a woman by the name of Ruth who met the son of a prostitute by the name of Rehab, the mother of Boaz.  Ruth and Boaz’s grandson was King David’s father.  David started out really well, but later in his life as a king, he committed adultery with Bathsheba and had her husband murdered.  Eventually David and Bathsheba had a son by the name of Solomon whose life ended with legacy of idolatry and gross immorality.  Eventually, God withdrew his presence from his people in Israel and all hope of a redeemer seemed lost… until that first cry in a manger on that first Christmas!  Jesus was born to die for the purpose of paying for our redemption with his blood and conquering the curse of sin and death through his resurrection. 

Jesus is the Promised One (vv. 13-16)

Before

he went public as the one promised to the nations, he read the assigned

scripture passage from Isaiah 61:1-2, which states: “The Spirit of

the Lord God is upon me, because

the Lord has anointed me to bring

good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim

liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s

favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn…”

(Isaiah 61:1–2).  The way the people

received his claim that he was the promised messiah, was that they tried to

throw him off of a cliff. 

Throughout Jesus’ life on earth, he demonstrated that he was

who he claimed to be in five ways:

He demonstrated power and authority in the way he

taught (Mark 1:21-22; Luke 4:31-37).He demonstrated power and authority to cure the sick by

curing those who were not well (Matt. 4:23-25; 8:14-16; 9:32-34).He demonstrated power and authority over nature like

the way he calmed a storm and the raging sea (Matt. 8:23-27; see also Psalm

107:23-31).  He demonstrated power over death by rising the dead to

life (Matt. 9:18-26).He demonstrated the power to forgive sin by forgiving

sinners (Matt. 9:1-8).

Matthew 16:13-23

We have finally

reached the end of “The Tree” sermon series. 

My hope and prayer for you throughout this series has been four-fold.  First and foremost, I wanted you to see how

God is able to redeem what may seem irredeemable.  Second, I wanted you to see how God is able

to transform what is evil and ugly into something good and beautiful.  Third, I wanted you to see that the Bible is

not only one story of redemption, but it is also a story about us.  Finally, I wanted you to see that one of the

great themes of the Bible is about a God who seeks and saves the lost.

After Adam and Eve

sinned against God in the Garden, God promised them a redeemer who would crush

the head of the serpent.  However, every

generation that followed proved Ecclesiastes 9:3 to be true: “…the hearts of

the children of man are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while thy

live, and after that they go to the dead.”  Shortly after God promised Adam and Eve a

deliverer who would be of their bloodline, Cain was born. Adam and Eve’s dreams

were ruined when Cain murdered his younger brother Able.  Adam and Eve had a third child by the name of

Seth who offered some sense of hope. 

We are told that with the birth of Seth, people began to worship God again.  However, by the time Noah was born, the earth was full of violence and wickedness.  God decided to purge the earth of evil by flooding it and saving Noah and his family.  After the flood, we are told Noah got drunk and his son Ham victimized his father in some way.  Abraham, who was a descendant of Noah, was promised that through his descendant, all of the nations would be blessed.  Yet he put his wife in harm’s way several times out of a fear for his own life.  Abraham’s nephew, Lot, who is also included in Jesus’ family tree, got drunk and was raped by his two daughters, of those two daughters one of them had a child that belonged to her father that she named Moab.  Moab’s great, great, great grandchild was a woman by the name of Ruth who met the son of a prostitute by the name of Rehab, the mother of Boaz.  Ruth and Boaz’s grandson was King David’s father.  David started out really well, but later in his life as a king, he committed adultery with Bathsheba and had her husband murdered.  Eventually David and Bathsheba had a son by the name of Solomon whose life ended with legacy of idolatry and gross immorality.  Eventually, God withdrew his presence from his people in Israel and all hope of a redeemer seemed lost… until that first cry in a manger on that first Christmas!  Jesus was born to die for the purpose of paying for our redemption with his blood and conquering the curse of sin and death through his resurrection. 

Jesus is the Promised One (vv. 13-16)

Before

he went public as the one promised to the nations, he read the assigned

scripture passage from Isaiah 61:1-2, which states: “The Spirit of

the Lord God is upon me, because

the Lord has anointed me to bring

good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim

liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s

favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn…”

(Isaiah 61:1–2).  The way the people

received his claim that he was the promised messiah, was that they tried to

throw him off of a cliff. 

Throughout Jesus’ life on earth, he demonstrated that he was

who he claimed to be in five ways:

He demonstrated power and authority in the way he

taught (Mark 1:21-22; Luke 4:31-37).He demonstrated power and authority to cure the sick by

curing those who were not well (Matt. 4:23-25; 8:14-16; 9:32-34).He demonstrated power and authority over nature like

the way he calmed a storm and the raging sea (Matt. 8:23-27; see also Psalm

107:23-31).  He demonstrated power over death by rising the dead to

life (Matt. 9:18-26).He demonstrated the power to forgive sin by forgiving

sinners (Matt. 9:1-8).

John 1:1-14

On July 24th

of this week, the Russian backed Syrian government launched an attack on the

last rebel strongholds in Northwestern Syria. 

Over 100 civilians have been killed and that includes at least 20

children.  A photo taken of the aftermath

captured a father looking with horror at his three young daughters teetering on

the edge of a bombed building.  In the

image can be seen one of his daughters, age 5, grabbing the shirt of her 7

month old sister in an attempt to save her from falling.  Both daughters in the image fell; the infant

survived, but the five year old did not. 

The father not only lost his wife, but also two of his three

daughters. 

A Syrian-American

woman, who runs a center for women empowerment in one of the sites devastated

by the attacks, pleaded in a Facebook video: “Mr. Trump, please stop this.  Stop this shelling.  Stop the killing of these innocent people….

Please America.  Please do

something!”  Since the Garden, mankind

has known little peace in the world.  Only one can bring peace, and he is the Prince

of Peace.

When Mary was visited

by the angel Gabriel, she was told: “You

will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall all his name

Jesus.  He will be great and will be

called the Son of the Most High.  And the

Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign

over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end”

(Luke 1:30-33). 

For the first time in

history, God took on human flesh and became like us.  Immanuel got tired like us, hungry like us,

exhausted like us, in every way… Jesus became like us, yet without sin.  The Bible says the reason Jesus was born was

so that we could have One who is able to sympathize with our weaknesses so

that, “we may receive mercy and find

grace to help in time of need” (Heb 4:14-16).  Our greatest need is a savior; one who is

able to save us from our sins and reconcile us to the God in whose image we

bare and offended.  “Sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so

death spread to all men because all sinned” (Rom. 5:12).

On the day of Jesus’

birth, it was not the dignitaries, the princes, the celebrities, nor the rich

who were invited to witness the first moments of Jesus’ life as a baby.  The first to be invited to worship the

Christ-child were shepherds, to whom the angles announced: “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news

of great joy that will be for all the people. 

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ

the Lord.  And this will be a sign for

you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger” (Luke

2:10-12).  Then the curtain of heaven’s

wall opened and the shepherds were given just a sampling of the kind of worship

that takes place in heaven concerning Jesus as all of heaven responded to the

good news announced to the poorest of the poor: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom

he is pleased” (v. 14)!

Through Him We Have Life (vv. 1-3)

When the shepherds came to visit the Christ, their eyes

beheld the Word of God in human flesh according to John’s gospel.  For the Jew, Jesus as the “Word” of God would

have brought to mind the first chapter in Genesis: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”  We learn from the Psalm 33 that, “By

the word of the Lord the heavens

were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host” (v. 6).  The means by which God created was through

His Word.  In the manger on the first

Christmas was the power of God that created everything; in the manger on that

first Christmas was God’s creative, life-giving word. 

He is the image of the

invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were

created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or

dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for

him. And he is before all things, and in him a

John 1:1-14

On July 24th

of this week, the Russian backed Syrian government launched an attack on the

last rebel strongholds in Northwestern Syria. 

Over 100 civilians have been killed and that includes at least 20

children.  A photo taken of the aftermath

captured a father looking with horror at his three young daughters teetering on

the edge of a bombed building.  In the

image can be seen one of his daughters, age 5, grabbing the shirt of her 7

month old sister in an attempt to save her from falling.  Both daughters in the image fell; the infant

survived, but the five year old did not. 

The father not only lost his wife, but also two of his three

daughters. 

A Syrian-American

woman, who runs a center for women empowerment in one of the sites devastated

by the attacks, pleaded in a Facebook video: “Mr. Trump, please stop this.  Stop this shelling.  Stop the killing of these innocent people….

Please America.  Please do

something!”  Since the Garden, mankind

has known little peace in the world.  Only one can bring peace, and he is the Prince

of Peace.

When Mary was visited

by the angel Gabriel, she was told: “You

will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall all his name

Jesus.  He will be great and will be

called the Son of the Most High.  And the

Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign

over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end”

(Luke 1:30-33). 

For the first time in

history, God took on human flesh and became like us.  Immanuel got tired like us, hungry like us,

exhausted like us, in every way… Jesus became like us, yet without sin.  The Bible says the reason Jesus was born was

so that we could have One who is able to sympathize with our weaknesses so

that, “we may receive mercy and find

grace to help in time of need” (Heb 4:14-16).  Our greatest need is a savior; one who is

able to save us from our sins and reconcile us to the God in whose image we

bare and offended.  “Sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so

death spread to all men because all sinned” (Rom. 5:12).

On the day of Jesus’

birth, it was not the dignitaries, the princes, the celebrities, nor the rich

who were invited to witness the first moments of Jesus’ life as a baby.  The first to be invited to worship the

Christ-child were shepherds, to whom the angles announced: “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news

of great joy that will be for all the people. 

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ

the Lord.  And this will be a sign for

you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger” (Luke

2:10-12).  Then the curtain of heaven’s

wall opened and the shepherds were given just a sampling of the kind of worship

that takes place in heaven concerning Jesus as all of heaven responded to the

good news announced to the poorest of the poor: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom

he is pleased” (v. 14)!

Through Him We Have Life (vv. 1-3)

When the shepherds came to visit the Christ, their eyes

beheld the Word of God in human flesh according to John’s gospel.  For the Jew, Jesus as the “Word” of God would

have brought to mind the first chapter in Genesis: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”  We learn from the Psalm 33 that, “By

the word of the Lord the heavens

were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host” (v. 6).  The means by which God created was through

His Word.  In the manger on the first

Christmas was the power of God that created everything; in the manger on that

first Christmas was God’s creative, life-giving word. 

He is the image of the

invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were

created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or

dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for

him. And he is before all things, and in him a

Luke 1:26-35

Peace, Justice, renewal, reconciliation and redemption is

what we all long for in life.  This has

been the hope of very generation from the beginning.  We all want Eden, but it feels like we are

wondering in the wilderness.  The promise

of God through His word is that we are not only made for Eden, but we are made

for a better Eden then the first. 

After Solomon’s death and the kingdom of his father David

torn in two, the Hebrew people were forced to live in a land that was not their

own; shortly before the exiles of the Northern and Southern kingdoms of Israel

and during the exiles, God raised up prophets who spoke in His name to warn,

remind, and encourage His people of the covenant their forefathers entered into

with Him.  While under the oppressive

heal of the Assyrian, then Babylonian, and then Persian Empires the Hebrew

people held onto what must have seemed like a hope as slender as a thread in

the form of a handful of promises:

“The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this,

cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your

belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will

put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her

offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

(Genesis 3:14–15, ESV)

“Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred

and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of

you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you

will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you

I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’”

(Genesis 12:1–3, ESV)

“Judah is a lion’s cub; from the

prey, my son, you have gone up. He stooped down; he crouched as a lion and as a

lioness; who dares rouse him? The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the

ruler’s staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and to him

shall be the obedience of the peoples.” (Genesis 49:9–10, ESV)

“He shall build a house for my

name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be to him

a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will

discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, but my

steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put

away from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure

forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.’ ” In

accordance with all these words, and in accordance with all this vision, Nathan

spoke to David.” (2 Samuel 7:13–17, ESV)

“Therefore the Lord himself will

give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall

call his name Immanuel.” (Isaiah 7:14, ESV)

“For to us a child is born, to

us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name

shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of

Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on

the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with

justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal

of the Lord of hosts will do this.”

(Isaiah 9:6–7, ESV)

“But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah,

who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth

for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old,

from ancient days.” (Micah 5:2, ESV)

“For behold, the day is coming,

burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble.

The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor

branch. But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with

healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. And

you shall tread down the wicked, for they

Luke 1:26-35

Peace, Justice, renewal, reconciliation and redemption is

what we all long for in life.  This has

been the hope of very generation from the beginning.  We all want Eden, but it feels like we are

wondering in the wilderness.  The promise

of God through His word is that we are not only made for Eden, but we are made

for a better Eden then the first. 

After Solomon’s death and the kingdom of his father David

torn in two, the Hebrew people were forced to live in a land that was not their

own; shortly before the exiles of the Northern and Southern kingdoms of Israel

and during the exiles, God raised up prophets who spoke in His name to warn,

remind, and encourage His people of the covenant their forefathers entered into

with Him.  While under the oppressive

heal of the Assyrian, then Babylonian, and then Persian Empires the Hebrew

people held onto what must have seemed like a hope as slender as a thread in

the form of a handful of promises:

“The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this,

cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your

belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will

put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her

offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

(Genesis 3:14–15, ESV)

“Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred

and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of

you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you

will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you

I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’”

(Genesis 12:1–3, ESV)

“Judah is a lion’s cub; from the

prey, my son, you have gone up. He stooped down; he crouched as a lion and as a

lioness; who dares rouse him? The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the

ruler’s staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and to him

shall be the obedience of the peoples.” (Genesis 49:9–10, ESV)

“He shall build a house for my

name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be to him

a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will

discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, but my

steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put

away from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure

forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.’ ” In

accordance with all these words, and in accordance with all this vision, Nathan

spoke to David.” (2 Samuel 7:13–17, ESV)

“Therefore the Lord himself will

give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall

call his name Immanuel.” (Isaiah 7:14, ESV)

“For to us a child is born, to

us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name

shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of

Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on

the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with

justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal

of the Lord of hosts will do this.”

(Isaiah 9:6–7, ESV)

“But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah,

who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth

for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old,

from ancient days.” (Micah 5:2, ESV)

“For behold, the day is coming,

burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble.

The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor

branch. But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with

healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. And

you shall tread down the wicked, for they

Ezekiel 8:1 – 9:11;

10:18

The story of David

and Solomon not only remind us how easy it is for the godly to fall, but how

dangerously close we are to doing the same. 

After innocence was lost in the garden after the first sin of our great

ancestors Adam and Eve… our problem is the problem of cain: “…sin is crouching at the door, and its

desire is for you” (Gen. 4:7). 

However, over and over again, regardless of the magnitude of the sin,

God’s grace has proven far superior! 

After Adam and Eve’s

sin of wanting to be just like God and their expulsion from the Garden and

subjugation to death… God promise a savior who would destroy the devil.  When the earth was filled with violence and

God had every right to drown every single human being that walked this planet,

He spared Noah and his family to begin again for the purpose of preserving His

promise to the first couple.  God’s grace

is so much bigger than our sin.

God’s grace was

bigger than Abraham’s idolatry, deceit, and failures as a husband; in the midst

of all of his sin, God unconditionally and repeatedly promised to bless the

nations through his descendants.  God’s

grace was bigger than the sins of Lot’s two daughters when he preserved His

messianic promise through their scheming by getting their father drunk and then

raping him for the purpose of getting pregnant by him. 

God’s grace overcame

the victimization of Leah by her father Laban after he fooled Jacob into

marrying her, and God’s love overcame lack of love she received from her

husband by blessing her with Judah as the messianic seed.  God’s grace was bigger than Judah’s hatred of

his daughter-in-law… Tamar, and it overcame her sin after she prostituted

herself to Judah so that she could become pregnant. 

God’s grace was big

enough to overwhelm Rahab’s whoring around Jericho and pervasive enough to

rescue her from a judgment she deserved so that her son Boaz would be born.  After Naomi lost everything, it was because

of His grace that God moved heaven and earth to provide her with a Kinsmen

redeemer and preserve the messianic line through Boaz, and her widowed

daughter-in-law… Ruth.  Little did Naomi

know that God not only rescued her from the loss of everything, but through

Boaz and Ruth, God was working to restore what was lost in the Garden through

Adam and Eve’s rebellion.

Boaz and Ruth had a

child together by the name of Obed who was the grandfather of David.  Through David, much of the Psalms were

written, Israel experienced victory over her enemies, and every king after David

is measured and judged in light of his love for God and greatness as a king.  However, David will always be remembered for

his adulterous affair with Bathsheba and the premeditated murder of her husband

Uriah to cover up the unavoidable evidence of David’s sin growing within

Bathsheba’s womb.   God’s grace proved

too great for even David to escape, for even though he did not go unpunished,

God put away his sin due to David’s sorrow and repentance and through the woman

he sinned with and against.  God brought

from her womb Solomon and Nathan. 

Solomon would become the great ancestor of Joseph, and it is believed

that Nathan became the great ancestor of Mary the mother of Jesus.   

There is no sin too

great, nor heart so far removed from God, that is beyond the reach of a God

whose grace overwhelms and transforms.  However,

we continue to live under a curse that we all long to be delivered from.  We long for the day when disease, injustice,

violence, and death will be no more.  We

long for a day when every tear will be wiped away our eyes and weeping will be

no more.

God’s “Goodbye”

The reign of Solomon

left an open door for rampant idolatry, gross immorality, and systemic

injustice throughout the land.  After his

death, Solomon’s kingdom was divided into a northern and a southern kingdom

where the sin of idolatry, immorality, and injustice spread like gangrene from

the North and spread down to the South to

Ezekiel 8:1 – 9:11;

10:18

The story of David

and Solomon not only remind us how easy it is for the godly to fall, but how

dangerously close we are to doing the same. 

After innocence was lost in the garden after the first sin of our great

ancestors Adam and Eve… our problem is the problem of cain: “…sin is crouching at the door, and its

desire is for you” (Gen. 4:7). 

However, over and over again, regardless of the magnitude of the sin,

God’s grace has proven far superior! 

After Adam and Eve’s

sin of wanting to be just like God and their expulsion from the Garden and

subjugation to death… God promise a savior who would destroy the devil.  When the earth was filled with violence and

God had every right to drown every single human being that walked this planet,

He spared Noah and his family to begin again for the purpose of preserving His

promise to the first couple.  God’s grace

is so much bigger than our sin.

God’s grace was

bigger than Abraham’s idolatry, deceit, and failures as a husband; in the midst

of all of his sin, God unconditionally and repeatedly promised to bless the

nations through his descendants.  God’s

grace was bigger than the sins of Lot’s two daughters when he preserved His

messianic promise through their scheming by getting their father drunk and then

raping him for the purpose of getting pregnant by him. 

God’s grace overcame

the victimization of Leah by her father Laban after he fooled Jacob into

marrying her, and God’s love overcame lack of love she received from her

husband by blessing her with Judah as the messianic seed.  God’s grace was bigger than Judah’s hatred of

his daughter-in-law… Tamar, and it overcame her sin after she prostituted

herself to Judah so that she could become pregnant. 

God’s grace was big

enough to overwhelm Rahab’s whoring around Jericho and pervasive enough to

rescue her from a judgment she deserved so that her son Boaz would be born.  After Naomi lost everything, it was because

of His grace that God moved heaven and earth to provide her with a Kinsmen

redeemer and preserve the messianic line through Boaz, and her widowed

daughter-in-law… Ruth.  Little did Naomi

know that God not only rescued her from the loss of everything, but through

Boaz and Ruth, God was working to restore what was lost in the Garden through

Adam and Eve’s rebellion.

Boaz and Ruth had a

child together by the name of Obed who was the grandfather of David.  Through David, much of the Psalms were

written, Israel experienced victory over her enemies, and every king after David

is measured and judged in light of his love for God and greatness as a king.  However, David will always be remembered for

his adulterous affair with Bathsheba and the premeditated murder of her husband

Uriah to cover up the unavoidable evidence of David’s sin growing within

Bathsheba’s womb.   God’s grace proved

too great for even David to escape, for even though he did not go unpunished,

God put away his sin due to David’s sorrow and repentance and through the woman

he sinned with and against.  God brought

from her womb Solomon and Nathan. 

Solomon would become the great ancestor of Joseph, and it is believed

that Nathan became the great ancestor of Mary the mother of Jesus.   

There is no sin too

great, nor heart so far removed from God, that is beyond the reach of a God

whose grace overwhelms and transforms.  However,

we continue to live under a curse that we all long to be delivered from.  We long for the day when disease, injustice,

violence, and death will be no more.  We

long for a day when every tear will be wiped away our eyes and weeping will be

no more.

God’s “Goodbye”

The reign of Solomon

left an open door for rampant idolatry, gross immorality, and systemic

injustice throughout the land.  After his

death, Solomon’s kingdom was divided into a northern and a southern kingdom

where the sin of idolatry, immorality, and injustice spread like gangrene from

the North and spread down to the South to