How many of you know about the show Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist? I will say that I have never watched it, so I am in no way endorsing it. The premise behind the show is that this woman is able to hear people’s thoughts. Can you imagine if that was real? What if someone was able to hear your innermost thoughts, good or bad? Guess what, someone can! Except it’s not someone you are walking around, rather it is the sovereign Lord. In our text today, David is making a sincere and earnest plea to God for help not only with his actions or his words, but also his thoughts. Psalm 19:14 says, “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.”

All of Psalm 19 is David speaking of how God is intimately in tune with His creation. He hears and receives praise from all of His creation, and nothing is hidden from God. This brings David, and hopefully us, to an important realization; if God know everything about His creation, then He knows everything about us as well, because we are part of His creation. David knew the sting of sin in his life. Therefore, David is asking God to keep his words, his actions, and his attitudes pure. Yet, David recognizes that he is unable to do this on his own. Therefore, the end of verse 14 is David reminding himself of who God is to him. While David is too weak to fight temptation on his own, He knows that God will give him the necessary strength to resist temptation. David reminds himself that he can’t save himself, but God is his Redeemer. It’s is not only good for us to remind ourselves of who God is, but it is also necessary in our daily struggle against temptation and sin. Maybe you are wondering, what can I do to experience victory and purity in all areas of my life?

1. Be honest with yourself about yourself. Have you ever met someone who was in denial about something that was obvious to everyone else? It’s frustrating isn’t it? Yet, we can be guilty of this ourselves with respect to our sin. Have you ever wondered why we try to find and point out other people’s sin? It’s because it is easier to focus on someone else, than to be honest about our own sinfulness. Many times, the sin that we see and despise in others is sin that we know we struggle with ourselves, and we don’t like ourselves, but we make it about them instead of about us. When the Bible says in Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God”, it means just that, we are all sinners who have and continue to come short of God’s holy standard. While it may be easier to look and judge others, we need to hold up a mirror and talk to the person who is staring back at us.
2. Ask God for a heart checkup daily. One of the scariest times in my life occurred just a couple of months after I got married. Diana along with my mother-in-law and myself took a bike ride one morning before I went to work. I was trying to shed some pounds and be in better physical shape. As the ride was coming to an end, I started not feeling well. Being a guy, I ignored it. We all loaded up in the vehicle and headed back to Diana and I’s apartment so I could get showered, changed, and to work. I didn’t make it to work that day or for about two weeks after. What I ignored at first, made me deal with it later that morning. Nothing prepares a 25 year old man and his new bride to heard the words, “you have had a mild heart attack.” Yet, ready or not, that’s what had happened. Ever since then, I am supposed to have a yearly check-up not only with my regular doctor but also with a cardiologist. This is what I would come to learn, my body had been trying to send me warning signals for weeks before the cardiac event. I didn’t listen to my body, and so I missed the signs, until they were no longer deniable. The same is true for you and I in our walk with the Lord. Because we are sinners by birth and by choice, we readily choose to rebel against God. Oftentimes, we do it without really thinking about it. God in His love and grace, has given His children the Holy Spirit to act as a sin monitor, among other things. When we sin, the Holy Spirit brings conviction in our life, as a means to get us to confess our sin and turn from it. However, when we ignore that conviction, God’s discipline becomes stronger and stronger. God disciplines us according to Proverbs 3:11-12 because of His love for us. Therefore, it is important that we don’t ignore the conviction in our life, or we need to understand that we are inviting the discipline of God into our life. Just like my heart attack didn’t happen overnight, no one ruins their life overnight. It is a building up process. So, how do we keep from sin building up in our life? We daily ask the Lord what David asked of the Lord in Psalm 139, “Search me, O Lord, and try me. Reveal any wickedness that is in me, and lead me in Your way everlasting.” We need to daily get alone with the Lord in prayer and His Word, and ask God to diagnose the condition of our heart. When we do that, there could be a final step needed.
3. Confess any sin and seek God’s help. As we ask God to reveal who we truly are, this is a prayer that pleases God, and therefore He will answer that prayer. When God reveals sin in our lives, we need to confess it then and there. But then we need to take it one step further. We need to ask the Lord to show us in His Word how we can turn from that sin, and not give in to that temptation the next time it comes. The Holy Spirit is there for this purpose among others. Part of seeking God’s help involves prayer, the study of the Bible, and also accountability. We need people in our lives who will hold us accountable not only for what we do or say, but also the attitudes that we are expressing in our words and actions.

What we think is private, isn’t private to God, and in His Word He says that one day everything that was done in secret will be revealed. Before that day comes, are there some things you need to talk to the Lord about, and seek His help in dealing with them? If so, spend the next little bit talking with God and seeking His help. Take your Bible with you, and allow God to speak to you through His Word. He won’t turn you away. It may be painful, but in the end, you will be stronger because you did.

By His grace and for His glory,

Pastor Justin

Have you ever done something, and as soon as you did it, you realized that you did something wrong? Have you ever needed help from someone, but you were afraid to ask, because you knew it would cost you something to get that help that you needed? In today’s text, David is going to have to deal with both of these things. David sinned by taking a census of the people. A census that his closest advisor, Joab, had warned him not to take. However, David went ahead with the census, and as soon as it was over, David knew he had sinned against God. He immediately confessed it, and hoped to not have to pay too high of a price. Yet, God was going to again teach David that sin comes with consequences. The consequence in this case was a plague was sent that would cost 70,000 people their life. God send the prophet Gad to tell David what he must do. He was to buy a threshing floor from a Jebusite, and he was to build an altar on that threshing floor. Today’s text is from the negotiations for that threshing floor. 2 Samuel 24:24 says, “Then the king said to Anaunah, ‘No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price; nor will I offer burnt offerings to the Lord my god with that which costs me nothing.’ So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.”

In this text, David gives us a very important principle. It’s not a sacrifice if it doesn’t cost of something. Araunah was willing to give the threshing floor to David. But David knew for a sacrifice to be acceptable to God, it was going to need to be offered from a right heart. An acceptable sacrifice should be something of value to us. To be clear, being saved costs you nothing, because salvation is a gift from God. However, to live for Jesus will cost you everything. Jesus said in Luke 9:23, “If any man desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” Jesus said to live for Him means that we must die to ourselves and live a life of sacrifice.

Here is one of my greatest concerns with American Christianity. American Christianity is too comfortable. We often treat the commands of Jesus like we do food on a buffet. We take only what we want, and leave the rest alone, as though any of Jesus’ words are optional for the disciple of Jesus. Many times we respond to a difficult text like one of the soils in Jesus’ parable in Matthew 13. I like how Pastor Robby Gallaty describes this parable. Gallaty says that this isn’t about four different types of people and their response to the Gospel. Rather, it is one of four ways that we personally respond to Jesus and the Gospel. One of the seeds landed in the weeds. While it sprouted quickly, it was soon choked out by the cares of this world. How often do you and I say that we want to follow Jesus, but then turn back because we feel that what Jesus is asking of us is just too much? A true sacrifice will cost us something. Yet, we won’t look at what we are losing. Instead, we will focus on Who we are getting. When we love Jesus more than our sin or our stuff, we will see that growing in Jesus is far greater than anything this world has to offer us. I guess the question we need to ask ourselves is this, are we convinced that Jesus is worth it? We will know how we answer that question, not by the words we say, but rather by the live we live, and who we live it for. May we see the indescribable worth of Jesus Christ, and may we echo the words of Jim Elliot, “he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”

By His grace and for His glory,

Pastor Justin

Have you ever felt like you just messed up too big this time? Have you ever doubted how someone could love you in spite of your shortcomings? Here’s the good news, when it comes to God’s love towards you, it’s not about what you’ve done; His love is based on His character. This is what David relays in his confessional psalm. Here is the opening of Psalm 51, “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to your lovingkindness; according to the multitude of Your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions” (Psa. 51:1).

This is the psalm that David writes after being confronted by Nathan the prophet, and being exposed for his sins of adultery and murder. One of the many beautiful things about this psalm is that David quickly focuses the reader on God, and not himself for forgiveness. In our sin nature, we often feel like people should give us the benefit of the doubt, or that they should forgive us because of who we are, or maybe what we have done for them in the past. Yet, David doesn’t entertain any such notion. David says that if he is to be forgiven, it is going to be because of God’s mercy and kindness towards him. Having this proper view allows David to feel confident in God’s love for him, and the fact that God will forgive him. When forgiveness is based on us, our confidence in God’s love very well could wobble at times. God wants us to know of His love for us, and to be confident in our right standing with Him as His child. The easy picture to shows us this is a parent’s love for their child. No matter what our children do, they are still our children, and we still love them. Jesus reminds us in the Gospels, that if we, being evil, know how to give good gifts to our children; how much more so does God?

Maybe you have been blowing it lately. You haven’t been living the life that you know God has called you to as His child. Satan is whispering in your ear of your unworthiness of such an incredible love. Don’t listen to Satan’s lies. God doesn’t love you because you deserve His love or have earned it. God loves you because that is who He is according to 1 John 4. So, stop trying to earn God’s love, and instead rest in His love. If you are a child of God, because of the death and resurrection of Jesus, you are no longer condemned, you are more than a conqueror through Jesus who loves you.

By His grace and for His glory,

Pastor Justin

Have you ever done something that you knew was wrong and thought that you got away with it, only to discover that you hadn’t? Have you ever admitted that you were wrong and expected there not to be any consequences, only to find out there were still consequences? That is what David is going to experience in our text today.

David has committed adultery and to make matters worse, he arranged for the woman’s husband to be killed in battle. In a display of bad character, David didn’t even really care about how his strategy to cover his sin would affect others who were fighting to protect his kingdom. David did everything he could to cover up his sins. However, it was impossible to cover them up from God. God sent a prophet named Nathan to confront him. In the face of being confronted, David immediately confessed he had sinned against God. In a show of mercy and grace, Nathan informed David that God had already put away his sin, that is God had forgiven David. Can you imagine the relief that David had to feel? After all, he had seen firsthand how God could and would rip a kingdom away from the king for blatant sin. What came next from Nathan’s lips, David didn’t see coming. 2 Samuel 12:13-14 says, “So David said to Nathan, ‘I have sinned against the Lord.’ And Nathan said to David, ‘The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die. However, because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also who is born to you shall surely die.'”

Wow, that’s heavy isn’t it? I want to be straightforward here, not every parent who has a child die in infancy committed some sin against God and God is punishing them. It’s important to remember that we live in a fallen world infected by sin. However, this was a specific punishment from God for what David had done. It is also important to know that God still loved David as evidenced by the fact that God had forgiven David for his sins. However, just because we are God’s child and forgiven by God, doesn’t mean there aren’t consequences for our sinful actions. This was a lesson that David and Bathsheba had to learn the hard way. For God, this wasn’t just about David committing adultery and murder. The bigger issue was that David had given the enemies of God reason to blaspheme God. I believe there are several important points we can see in this text.

• Take your sin seriously because God does. We may not think our sin is a big deal, but we can clearly see that God does.
• There are consequences for our actions. While we might hide our attitudes, thoughts, and actions from people; we are not hiding them from God. He sees everything and hears everything. We need to realize that there is no such thing as a victimless sin. What we choose to do will affect others in some way, even in ways that we didn’t imagine it would
• Forgiveness is available. One of the greatest lessons we can see in this text is on the character of God. We see His justice in delivering discipline to David. But we also see the love, mercy, and grace of God. God forgave David before David acknowledged His sin. God showed mercy is not killing David or taking the kingdom away from him. God showed love, as strange as this may seem, by disciplining David. Because God loves His children, Proverbs 3:11-12 tells us that God will discipline us for our sin. The interesting thing about Proverbs 3:11-12 is that it was written by David’s son, Solomon. Who knows if David taught Solomon about the discipline of the Lord years later because of this incident, but certainly the family had first-hand experience of God’s discipline.

The Bible is clear that we are all sinners and come short of the glory of God (see Rom. 3:23). We, like David, deserve God’s discipline because of our sinful decisions. Yet, God has demonstrated His love toward us, as Paul says because when we were still going our own way, God sent Jesus to die in our place (see Rom. 5:8). Because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, we have the opportunity to surrender in faith to Jesus, to be forgiven of our sins, redeemed from our sins, and have a relationship with God that was not possible. The point of this story is God, not David. While David is the reason, the story reveals the person and character of God, as well as the desire of God. If you, like David, have sinned, God is calling you to confess it, and to come to Him in faith. He won’t turn you away. His love for you doesn’t depend on who you are, or what you have done, but it depends on who He is. You have not sinned so greatly that the grace of God cannot cleanse you completely. But you must confess it, turn from your sin, and in faith trust in Jesus’ death and resurrection as your only hope for salvation.

If you need to do this, don’t wait another moment. Today can be the day of salvation for you! If you would like to know more about it, or you have questions, please reach out to me at pastorjustin@westlakebaptist.org. I would love to pray with you, help you in anyway that I can, and celebrate the new relationship and life God has given you by His grace. Until next week, be safe and let’s seek the Lord. If you don’t have a place to watch church online on Sunday, I would encourage you to make your way over to YouTube, search for Westlake Baptist Church (our logo has an anchor), and subscribe to our page. We will be live streaming our service on Sunday at 9:30.

By His grace and for His glory,

Pastor Justin

As I have preached on Sundays and even written here many times, it’s not about how other people treat you, it is about how you treat them, and how you respond when someone treats you poorly. And I will also admit, that sometimes treating them the way Jesus tells us to treat them is a lot easier said than done. In today’s text for Blogging Through The Bible In 2020, we are going to see David praising the Lord for being his protector and deliverer. Psalm 18:20 says, “The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands He has recompensed me.”

In the text, David ties him being delivered from Saul and his other enemies directly to the fact that he didn’t act wickedly or deceptively towards Saul. David continues that theme throughout Psalm 18. God will defend and deliver His children when their heart, their attitudes, their words, and their actions glorify Him. So, what are we to do when we are unfairly criticized or attacked?

1.Trust the Lord. This has been a steady theme throughout this series, especially as we have gotten into the life of David. We can trust the Lord to defend us and deliver us from baseless attacks, as long as, we are living righteously before Him. This is much more than just the words that we say or the things that we do. This also deals with our attitudes. Choosing to walk away and not respond will guard your heart and your testimony. How can we know that God will fight our battles, if we are always running ahead of Him and fighting them ourselves?

2.Confess when we get it wrong. There are going to be times, no matter who we are, because of our sin nature, that we are going to open our mouth before our brain kicks into gear. As difficult as it can be, even as justified as you may feel in how you respond, we must remember that the person we answer to and the person we are to glorify is God. Therefore, when we respond with harsh words or actions, we need to humble ourselves before God and the person and confess it and seek forgiveness.

3. Praise the Lord. Don’t forget to praise the Lord and thank Him for His kindness and goodness, especially when He defends you. Jesus tells a story in the Gospels of how He healed 10 lepers. Out of the 10, only one of them came back to worship Him. If I’m honest, I’m more like the other nine than I am that one. I often forget to thank God for His many blessings. Therefore, let’s try to be intentional about thanking God for His blessings. After all, He isn’t obligated to give them to us, He does it because of who He is, and His great love towards us.

How can you praise the Lord today? What blessings has He given you that maybe you, like me, have taken for granted? Take a few moments now, and just thank Him.

By His grace and for His glory,

Pastor Justin

I wonder how many people reading this remember the original Karate Kid? Remember how frustrated Daniel was getting with Mr. Miyagi? Daniel wanted to learn karate from Mr. Miyagi, but thought he was wasting his time and just doing house repairs for Mr. Miyagi. It wasn’t until Daniel got into karate tournaments that he finally realized that Mr. Miyagi had been teaching him karate the whole time. The house work was preparation.

Have you ever felt like you were wasting your time with some things in life? Have you ever wondered, is this really all there is to life? I think we all go through those moments, when we wonder what God is doing. We are going to see this in the life of David in our text today. David had settled into Jerusalem and had his palace built. The ark of the covenant had finally come to Jerusalem. David looks at his house, and then considers the home of the ark of the covenant, the very representation of God being with Israel, and he wanted to do something. David didn’t think it was right that he was living in a great palace, while God resided in a tent. Therefore, David expressed his desire to Nathan, who was a prophet, to build a home for the ark of the covenant. God spoke to Nathan, and told Nathan to tell David that while it was admirable to want to build a home for the ark of the covenant, David wasn’t going to be the one to do it. However, David’s son would be the one to build it. 2 Samuel 7 gives us the Davidic covenant, the promise from God that someone from the lineage of David would always be on the throne in Israel. Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of this covenant. What David didn’t know is that his time tending sheep for his father was God preparing him to lead the nation of Israel one day. 2 Samuel 7:8 says, “Now therefore, thus shall you say to my servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts: I took you from the sheepfold, from following the sheep, to be ruler over My people, over Israel.'”

All that time in the pasture learning to be a shepherd was David’s schooling for leading a nation. God doesn’t waste an experience in our life. Everything in meant to draw us closer to God, and it is preparation for what God is going to do in us and through us that we might glorify Him with our lives. Even in the midst of this quarantine, God is working in us, and at the right time He will work through His children for His glory and the good of those around us. So what should we do while we wait?

1. Trust God. Just because we don’t see what God is doing, doesn’t mean that God isn’t up to something. When you can’t see the hands of God moving, trust the character of God. Remember that He is good, gracious, merciful, forgiving, and loving.
2. Trust the process. Just like Daniel didn’t understand what Mr. Miyagi was doing was going to prepare him for karate tournaments; you and I are often tempted to believe that what God is doing now, has no meaning or impact for what is coming. However, that simply isn’t true. Again, God doesn’t waste an experience in our life.
3. Be patient. This goes to the first two points. I’m sure you have heard the saying, “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” One of my favorite Charles Spurgeon quotes is, “by perseverance the snail made it to the ark.” I’m convinced that many times we miss out on what God desires to do in and through our lives, because we give up too soon. Don’t give up, keep trusting God, and keep putting one foot in front of the other. When the time is right, it will make sense.
4. Praise God in the meantime. Don’t allow fear or frustration over the future to rob you of your joy in the present. While you are waiting on God to prepare you, learn to praise Him and worship Him. Even if you never see what God was doing the whole time, He is still worthy of our praise and worship.

I hope this will help us see that God is working behind the scenes, and that God is going to continue to work miracles for His glory and our good. I believe when COVID-19 is over, the result will be a stronger, more pure church if we trust Him and we worship Him through the hard times.

By His grace and for His glory,

Pastor Justin

Are you a quick thinker? Would anyone ever accuse you of being rash in decision making? The truth is, we all have some tendencies to make quick decisions, especially when it is about something that we really want or feel strongly about. In today’s text, David is going to show up the opposite side of things, and we can see what the outcome is. In our text, David has already been anointed as king of Israel. He ruled there for a few years, before moving his home to Jerusalem, after defeating the Jebusites. Upon hearing that David is the new king, the Philistines decide that they want to test the new king. There might even be a measure of revenge desired after David had defeated Goliath years earlier. What we are going to learn from David today is what we should do before we act. 2 Samuel 5:19 says, “So David inquired of the Lord, saying, ‘Shall I go up against the Philistines? Will You deliver them into my hand?’ And the Lord said to David, ‘Go up, for I will doubtless deliver the Philistines into your hand.” Did you see what David did before he acted? He prayed.

I can already hear some of your objections. You are probably thinking, sometimes I don’t have time to wait, I just have to make a decision. Some might be thinking, some things aren’t that big of a deal, so it’s not as important or necessary to pray about them. Yet, I would disagree on both fronts. Anything that we pray about is what we are trusting God for. However, the things we don’t pray for are the things that we are trusting ourselves for. The problem, among many, with trusting ourselves is that we are selfish. We often want what we want. Another issue is that all we can see is what is right in front of us. We don’t know what is coming tomorrow, next week, next month, or next year as I believe the last month of COVID-19 has shown us. Simply put, we aren’t in a position to make a decision ourselves, because we don’t have all the facts. As to the second objection, what may seem like a small thing now, can easily balloon into a very big issue. Maybe it isn’t a big deal now, but it could lead to more consequences down the road. So, what are we to do?

1. Realize our limitations. We need to be honest that we don’t know what is coming in our life or in the world. It’s not that we aren’t smart. God has given us a brain. But the fact remains that we can’t see everything or understand every ramification of a decision before we make it.
2. Spend time praying for your day before your day starts. It may sound strange or simplistic, but start your day off praying. In praying, turn the day over to the Lord. Ask for His presence and His guidance. Ask Him to help you be open to His will for that day. The Scriptures are full of promises from God to His children to lead us and guide us in the way we should go. I heard a pastor one time talk about the “7 Up Prayer Method.” Spend the first seven minutes of each day praying over your day.
3. Be open to course corrections. Sometimes, we are going to not pray the way we should. Sometimes we are going to make the wrong decision for any number of reasons. However, if we continue to pray for God to lead us, He will correct our course when we acknowledge we got off course, and seek His help.

God has brought you too far to let you down now. Take time to acknowledge Him, and that His way is best. While you and I may seemingly always be in a hurry, God never is. So pray, and be patient. God will not leave you, forsake you, and He won’t be one second late with the wisdom you need for the right way to go.

By His grace and for His glory,

Pastor Justin

Has anyone ever hurt you, and you secretly wanted to see something happen to them in return? I know, we don’t like to admit that, but sometimes we have those thoughts. Especially if we were wrongfully accused or mistreated. While we might think it would feel good to see it happen, let’s be honest, it doesn’t. In our text today, David has just learned that Saul, Jonathan, and many of the people in Israel have died in battle. If anyone could have felt relieved that Saul was no longer alive, it was David. After all, Saul has spent a considerable amount of time pursuing David, trying to hunt him down and kill him. Now, that threat was over. David could relax. Yet, instead of rejoicing, we see a very different reaction from David. Here is David’s reaction in 2 Samuel 1:11-12, “Therefore David told hold of his own clothes and tore them, and so did all the men who were with him. And they mourned and wept and fasted until evening for Saul and for Jonathan his son, for the people of the Lord and for the house of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword.” David’s heart was broken over Saul’s death. David was so upset at Saul’s death, he had the Amalekite who came and told him about Saul’s death, executed for his role in Saul’s death.

We get yet another glimpse into David’s heart and a better understanding of why David is referred to as a “man after God’s own heart.” Despite what Saul had tried to do to David and how Saul treated David, David still loved Saul and didn’t want to see something bad happen to Saul. This is the example that we are to follow. We see it even more clearly in Jesus when He was nailed to the cross. As Jesus was being nailed to the cross His first words were, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” So let me ask you, how do you react when someone hurts you or takes advantage of you? Is your first reaction, “get them Lord” or is it “forgive them Lord and help me to forgive them as well”? I know it can be difficult. I will go as far as to say, without God’s help it is impossible. Yet, we have the power of the Holy Spirit living inside of us if we are a child of God, to help us with just this sort of thing and more. Let’s remember, that our anger and desire for revenge on those who have hurt us, says more about the condition of our heart than it does about the person who hurt us. So today, let’s allow God to do a spiritual EKG and reveal the condition of our heart. If necessary, confess your sin, ask for forgiveness, and then take steps to begin forgiving the person who hurt you. In the end, you will be glad you did, and God will be glorified; that is a win-win.

By His grace and for His glory,

Pastor Justin

Have you ever done something in secret and then live in fear of being found out? Have you ever pretended to be someone that you aren’t? A word that often gets thrown around towards Christians is the term hypocrite. It is a theatre word. It means to be a stage actor. Many years ago, one person would play several parts in a play. To help distinguish the characters, they would have a different mask to wear or hold up as a clue to the audience of which character they were at that time. This is where we get the word hypocrite. It’s a person who acts one way some times, and then acts differently at others. It is deceitful to you, because you may believe that you are saved when in fact you aren’t. It is also damaging to your testimony and the Gospel. And while you may be able to pull it off for a while, sooner or later, you will be found out. The mask will be pulled off. It can be both painful and humiliating. In today’s text we see this happen to Saul. If you remember from our earlier readings in 1 Samuel, Saul has already been rejected by God as king. As a show, and only as a show, Saul had all of the mediums kicked out of Israel. You might say that Saul was trying to put on a good show so that God wouldn’t reject him, or the people would still follow him as their leader. However, after praying for a while and not hearing anything from God, Saul decided to once again take matters into his own hands. He and his men disguised themselves, and they went to a medium. At first, the disguises worked. However, things took a turn very quickly as we will see in our text. 1 Samuel 28:12 says, “When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice. And the woman spoke to Samuel, saying, ‘Why have you deceived me? For you are Saul.'” The masquerade party was over, Saul had been found out.

Is there anything that you are trying to hide from the Lord or from others? Don’t get fooled by temporary success, because sooner or later the house of cards you have built will come tumbling down. And when it does, it will not only hurt you, but it will also hurt those around you. The harm caused by hypocrisy isn’t just about you. It’s also about your family, your church, and most importantly the Gospel. We already live in a skeptical world when it comes to the Gospel and Christianity. When you and I as Christians say one thing and live another way, we just give another arrow for the enemy to aim and shoot at us. So what is the answer?

1. Be Genuine. No one is looking for the perfect Christian. They are smart enough to realize that you aren’t perfect. So own your struggles. Not in a way to glorify them, but simply be transparent enough to admit that you don’t have it all together. If you can’t do that, that says a lot about you and your walk with God, and not in a good way (see 1 John 1:8)
2. Confess. What we tell our kids is this, if you mess up, own up. Don’t pretend that it didn’t happen. Don’t try to justify or rationalize your actions. Go to the Lord in prayer confessing your sin. He has already promised in His Word that if you genuinely confess, He will faithfully forgive (see 1 John 1:9). Go to those who were hurt by it, or who saw it, and confess your sin, and seek forgiveness.
3. Seek accountability. It’s one thing to own your faults, confess them, and seek forgiveness. The part that is most often left out is seeking accountability in the future. In fact, your lack of accountability, is what led you to do what you did in the first place. Therefore, if you don’t want to continue to fall into the same sinful patterns, you need to seek accountability.
4. Remember who you are in Jesus. Satan loves to accuse Christians, and to tell us that we are not good enough. Here is the thing, we honestly can’t refute that. We aren’t good enough, and we will never be good enough. But this is the beauty of the Gospel, we don’t have to be good enough because salvation isn’t about who we are or what we do, it’s about what Jesus did for us on the cross and through His resurrection. So when Satan comes with his allegations, or the world tries to beat you up because you have sinned, just remember the glorious promises of God to those He has saved. We are no longer condemned Romans 8:1 tell us and we are more than conquerors through Him who loves us Romans 8:37 tells us. Praise the Lord for His grace, mercy, forgiveness, and love

By His grace and for His glory,

Pastor Justin

Have you ever been hurt by someone or feel betrayed by them? In your hurt that was masquerading as anger, did you want to get back at them? These are normal human emotions. The problem is, they are also sinful. Jesus would say in the Gospel of Matthew that it points to the fact that we have hate in our heart. That is a “you” problem, not a “them” problem. Maybe they did do something to hurt you, or treat you despicably. We want to feel justified in our reactions and desires to get event, but no amount of rationalization or justification will add up to us being justified in getting even. David knew this, and this is why he didn’t listen to his men while they were in the cave. Today’s text is a conversation between David and Saul, after David had an opportunity to take Saul out, but refused to do so. Both Saul and David were in the same cave, David saw Saul, but Saul didn’t see David. To David’s men, God had given David the opportunity to take Saul out. David’s men even thought that David would have been justified in doing so. Yet, David resisted them and probably his own urge to take care of the one who was seeking to take his life. In doing this, David showed godly restraint and patience. David knew that one day he was going to be king of Israel, but he also knew this wasn’t the way it was supposed to happen. This is why we see David say to Saul, “Let the Lord judge between you and me, and let the Lord avenge me on you. But my hand shall not be against you” (1 Sam. 24:12). David made a choice to trust in God’s timing, not his own.

What about you and I? How often do we want to get back at someone who hurts us? Sometimes, we have been hurt so much and not allowed God to heal us, that we start to have the attitude that we are going to get others before they can get us. One of the scariest parts of bitterness in our heart is how fast it can take hold, and just what it will allow us to rationalize and justify doing to someone. This is why Paul told us in 2 Corinthians 10:5 to “bring every thought captive to Christ.” Paul instead tells us in Romans 12:19-21, “Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord. Therefore, if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” The idea of “heaping coals of fire on their head” is that when they realize they have hurt you, they will expect you to retaliate; then when you don’t, it takes the potential guilt you would have felt for getting even, and it is thrown on them, because they realize what they did was wrong. Unresolved hurt leads to anger which leads to bitterness which leads to wrath. You can’t control how others will treat you or what they will say about you, but you can control how you react, and how you treat them. So, what can you do if you have unresolved hurt or it has progressed to anger, bitterness, or wrath?

First, you need to acknowledge that you are hurt or you are bitter. The worse thing we can do is to try and pretend that what happened, didn’t actually happen. Second, you need to pray and confess it. Stop trying to justify your anger or your reaction, there is no excuse for it. In your prayer, you also need to ask God for help in forgiving the person, loving them, and serve them. This is not within our human capabilities. To forgive, love, and serve them requires a holy, gracious, forgiving, and loving God to work in us and through us. Next, you need to lay the burden of hurt, anger, and bitterness down. This goes hand in hand with praying. In most cases, it won’t be a one time prayer of laying the burden down. You will have to lay it down multiple times, maybe multiple times in the same day. Finally, you need to go do what the Lord has told you to do. Go love them, serve them, and give them the benefit of the doubt. It won’t be easy, but it will be a powerful example to them, to your family, and to those around you of the power of God. The world is looking desperately for something different than what it already has and is experiencing. So, in Jesus’ name and in His power, let’s show them something different.

By His grace and for His glory,

Pastor Justin