Sexual Sin

As was last week's sermon, today's message is based on II Samuel chapter 11.
Looking at the scripture and reviewing David's lust and sexual sin we note these cracks in the man's character.
1.  Becoming desensitized  II Samuel 5:13 we note David is building his harem.
2,  Carelessness Sometimes we see inadvertently, but taking a second look is  careless.
3.  Obsession David allowed his assessment to become an obsession, which resulted in
4.  Ungodly actions 

Practical application
     1.  Do not  trust yourself.  David fell,  anyone can fall.  David is a warning.
     2.  Build hedges around your marriage, or around your purity if you are single.
          Accountability partners are hedges against sinful behaviors.
     3.  Force yourself to consider the consequences of sin.  Consequences do not go away with repentance.  The rest of the book of II Samuel is riddled with the consequences of David's sin.
Read Psalm 51 which is David's plea for restoration.

Weeds grow where the grass is thin or nonexistent. 

When one is out of the way of duty, he is in the way of temptation.

Take the energy of lust and put it toward your relationship with Jesus Christ.

Rob Cochrane, guest speaker

Sunday morning

Football? If You Say So.

A testimony to how bad all  the other  teams  in the NFL must be.  How did  it happen  that both  the NFC and  the AFC championship games were so lopsided?  If those were the four best  teams. . .

I don't  care  if the  final  score is 3-0 or 49-48,  it  is  supposed  to  be  interesting, riveting, a chance right  to  the end  that  either  team may be  the victor.

What a total waste  of my time last Sunday. 

Over-indulgence

Scripture lesson 2 Samuel 11:1.  King David stays in Jerusalem while the troops go to  battle.

David  looked  on Bathsheba and self-indulgence led  to over-indulgence and  to  adultery and  murder.

David had a life-long woman  problem  and a  lack  of  restraint.  He embraced it.

Over-indulgence is more than a physical thing, it is a spiritual flaw.
It is idolatry in  which one turns to self-gratification instead of God.

Self-indulgence looks like a lot  of different things: lust, gluttony, greed.

After self-indulgence defeat hangs like  a heavy weight around the neck.

We believe we will find happiness in indulgence, but
Happiness comes  not from earthly pleasure but  from God.

Self-control is freedom; gluttony is bondage.
Self-control comes  from God.  It  creates a space in which we  enjoy the presence of God.

There is no excess with Jesus.   One cannot have too much of God.

*Give thanks.
*Memorize scripture.
*Stay active; not just physically, which is good, but spiritually.  Pray and  read your Bible.

What is consuming me?  Is it God? 
  

Pastor Joe  Deckard

Sunday morning

Game of the Day

Today's game seems to be guessing  and  lining up who will attend  the  inauguration and  who won't.

Let the record show that I shall not be  in  attendance.

The Sin of Pride

The Scripture: James 4:1-10  (NIV)

Submit Yourselves to God

4 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? ² You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. ³ When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

⁴ You adulterous people,^[a] don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. ⁵ Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us^[b]? ⁶ But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:

“God opposes the proud
    but shows favor to the humble.”^[c]

⁷ Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ⁸ Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. ⁹ Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. ¹⁰ Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

Most sin begins with pride.

• Obvious pride
• Subtle pride
• Deadly pride, which includes pretense to humility.  

 Low self-esteem is just pride inverted: One sets the standard so high he cannot achieve it.

In II Samuel 12 we see Nathan calling David out for his sin.  "You are the man."  David was so prideful he did not recognize his own sin.  Deadly pride.

Pride makes everyone sick except the one who has it.

Have a pride problem?

1.  Give God his throne back.  (Daniel 19:23)

2.  Crucify the carnal nature.   Cannot do this on your own: let the Holy Spirit into your life.

Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Jesus Christ.

Brief notes on the sermon of 

Pastor Johnnie Blair

Sunday morning

It may be foie gras to you, but it is goose liver nonetheless.

The amount of ink and air time devoted to the "news" that an alien entity meddled in our election process is fascinating, especially the "how dare they?" aspect.

Truly, it is as though we have never meddled in the internal affairs of another political entity.

Study your history.

Engaging the Culture

engage: to attract or please

engage: to mesh, as gears

engage: to bring into conflict

When the  church today speaks of "engaging the culture," I get the queasy feeling that they mean to attract or please.  This then might well lead to meshing with the culture, and if so then there is no need for the church.  The culture will do just fine.

I think that for the church to engage the culture it must bring itself into conflict with the culture,  The church must be ready and able to address the worldly culture with holy truth,  never shying away from the necessity of the culture to change, to conform to Christ.  Christ will never change to accommodate the culture.

But that is scary.  Yes, it is. Jesus said, "Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you."

To arms!  Engage the culture!

The promise:  "If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor."

The unintended consequences:  The doctors by the squad folded their practices and went on to do something else with their lives.

Mine did.  And here I sit, sick as a dog and have no physician.  I have insurance, though!

The Year of the Lord's Favor

Pastor prefaced his sermon with a review of 2016.  We laughed.  Then he gave this advice to the Millennials:  The Builders and the Boomers already think you sit around and do nothing.  Stop making and posting videos that prove their point.

In the Book of Leviticus we read that every fiftieth year was the Year of Jubilee.  Jubilee was a reset in which debts were cancelled, servants were released and the land went back to its original owners.

In Isaiah 61 we read the promise of the coming Christ in which as in years past we had Jubilee, upon His coming we will see The Year of the Lord's Favor.  Then turning to the scripture lesson we find Jesus in the assembly in his home town being handed the scriptures from which he reads the passage from Isaiah and reveals that the Year of the Lord's Favor has come.  The King of Israel is also the Head of the Human Race!  We are living in the Year of the Lord's Favor.


We are called to join in on Christ's mission by living out the Year of the Lord's Favor.
-----Face 2017 knowing the favor of God is on your life.  (This is not a prosperity gospel proclaiming that you will be rich in material things and free from problems.)
-----Start thinking about His mission more than our own.  In this we will attain His favor.

Pastor proclaimed that. . .

-----This will be a year of divine Acceptance.  Acts 10:34,35 asserts that God does not show favoritism, but accepts those who do right.

-----This will be a year of divine Anointing.  God wants you to be a presence in 2017.
 The anointing:  God places his hand upon you to a purpose.

-----This will be a year of divine Authority.  In Acts chapter one we are told that we shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon us.
The power enables us to live a victorious life; to live above the things that used to keep us down.

Living on our own is a restricted life; with God we have unlimited possibilities.

*Jesus is right for whatever is wrong.*

When the Holy Spirit dwells within you, people will see and want to see Jesus.

Pastor Johnnie Blair

Sunday morning