December 26, 2024 3:00 am
Parents observe that there often seems to be an extra child living in the home called, “Not Me.” “Who spilled cereal all over the floor?” “Not me.” “Who left the water running in the bathroom sink?” “Not me.” Never seen that kid named Not Me but he sure gets around. No, kids learn early on that denial may just work! Today on A NEW BEGINNING, Pastor Greg Laurie points out that the Lord knows our actions, and if we’ll come to Him in repentance, God will forgive our sins.
Invest in evangelism in 2025!
Listen on harvest.org
---
Learn more and subscribe to Harvest updates at harvest.org
A New Beginning is the daily half-hour program hosted by Greg Laurie, pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Southern California. For over 30 years, Pastor Greg and Harvest Ministries have endeavored to know God and make Him known through media and large-scale evangelism. This podcast is supported by the generosity of our Harvest Partners.
Support the show: https://harvest.org/support
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
COVERED TOPICS / TAGS (Click to Search)
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
The Truth Pulpit
Don Green
The Truth Pulpit
Don Green
The Truth Pulpit
Don Green
The Truth Pulpit
Don Green
The Truth Pulpit
Don Green
The Truth Pulpit
Don Green
This new year I want to invite you to be a part of what God is doing here at Harvest. We have some great plans in store and I want to encourage you to invest in what we are doing. And by the way, whatever you give will be doubled thanks to our year-end match fund. So help us continue to reach unexpected people in unexpected places with an unexpected message. The message of the gospel through our evangelistic events and radio, television, online media, Harvest Plus, and the list goes on. We want to seek to fulfill the great commission and we can do it together.
So thanks for whatever you can do. David said, I've sinned against the Lord. And if you want to be free from sin, you have to admit you're dealing with sin. Take responsibility. I have sinned. I am wrong.
I have done this. But all too often people try to deny their wrongdoing. Today Pastor Greg Laurie points out how David showed us how to own our failures and ask for the Lord's forgiveness.
God gave second chances to David and God gives second chances to us as well. Parents observe that there often seems to be an extra child living in the home called Not Me. Who spilled cereal all over the floor? Not Me. Who left water running in the bathroom sink? Not Me.
Never seen that kid named Not Me, but he sure gets around. Now kids learn early on that denial may just work. Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie points out that the Lord knows our actions and if we come to Him in repentance, God will forgive our sins. Let's turn in our Bibles to two passages, 2 Samuel 11 and Psalm 32. The title of my message is The God of Second Chances, 2 Samuel chapter 11. I read verses one through five from the New Living Translation.
Read along with me if you would. The following spring, the time of the year when kings go to war, David sent Joab, that would be his general, and the Israelite army to destroy the Ammonites and in the process they laid siege to the city of Rabbah. But David stayed behind in Jerusalem. Late one afternoon, David got out of bed. Late one afternoon, sleeping in after taking a nap and went for a stroll on the roof of the palace and he looked out over the city and he noticed a woman of unusual beauty taking a bath. He sent someone to find out who she was and he was told she's Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite. Then David sent for her and when she came to the palace, he slept with her. Then she returned home and when Bathsheba discovered she was pregnant, she sent a message to inform David. And now the repercussions are going to come as a result.
But instead of confessing his sin, David tried to hide his sin. He comes up with this idea, okay let's see. Okay what's her husband's name again? Uriah. Where is he? He's serving you in your army. He's out fighting for you right now.
Oh interesting. Okay well hey, tell him to come to the palace. So here's Uriah. He doesn't know David. He's just a soldier in the king's army. And he gets a message, David the king wants to see you in the palace immediately. What must he have thought?
What? He wants to see me? The man after God's own heart? The sweet psalmist of Israel? The giant killer David wants to see me? Yes he wants to see you in his palace.
So Uriah appears before the king. King has a little small talk with him. How's it going? What's up? Okay now hey man you've been out there fighting for our kingdom. Appreciate that. Why don't you go home and have a nice evening with your wife?
Nod nod wink wink. Well Uriah thought I can't do that while all of my fellow soldiers are out there risking their lives. So he literally slept outside of his house at night. See David's idea was if Uriah slept with his wife then he would think that that was his child. And so David hears about this and this time he gets Uriah drunk, sends him home. Again Uriah will not sleep with his wife.
So David comes up with this idea. I'm going to have Uriah killed and then I'll marry his wife. So he sends a letter to Joab and has Uriah deliver it to him. Here's Uriah walking around with this death sentence and a sealed message from the king. He gives it to Joab. Dear Joab I need Uriah to die.
He didn't say that plainly but in so many words. So get him in the battle there. Have the other guys back off and this is what I need to happen.
I need him to be gone. That's exactly what happened. So a message came back to David from Joab.
Oh yeah we had this military encounter and a number of soldiers died including Uriah the Hittite. Ah pulled it off. And he married Bathsheba.
Awesome. Covered up his sin. But here's the problem. The Bible says what he did displeased the Lord.
And here's the thing. Your sin will find you out. And now David's sin is going to be exposed as well. And why did the Lord want to confront David?
Because God loved David and he could not let this happen as it happened. Now Psalm 32 is what I want you to look at next. It's something he wrote after he confessed his sin to God. He also wrote Psalm 51.
Psalm 32 describes the futility and misery of sin when it's unconfessed. I mean this is a man who walked and talked with God from his childhood. He had known the power and blessing of God in his life in an extraordinary way. But for 12 months he had fought the conviction of the Holy Spirit.
He was not experiencing God's presence as he had before. So now he writes Psalm 32 after he is confronted by the prophet. Oh what joy he writes. For those whose rebellion is forgiven whose sin is put out of sight.
Yes what joy. For those who record the Lord has cleared them of sin whose lives are lived in complete honesty. When I refused to confess my sin I was weak and miserable and I groaned all day long. For day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me and my strength evaporated like water in the summer heat. And then you might have the word selah or the word interlude in your Bible depending on what translation you have.
I'll comment on that in a moment. David continues finally I confess my sins to you and I stopped trying to hide them. I said to myself I will confess my rebellion to the Lord and you forgave me. All my guilt is gone.
Stop there. So David says that his strength evaporated like water in the summer heat selah or interlude. What that means is many of these Psalms were songs and so there would be a musical break.
They would sing certain lyrics and then there would be a break. And the idea of the interlude or selah was to pause and think about it. So we just said these things I want you to think about what we have said. So David is basically saying hey man when I had not confessed my sin I was miserable. Think about that.
Think about how hard that is. And God disciplines those that he loves. The reason this discipline came into the life of David was because he was a child of God. A disobedient one for sure.
A wayward one no question about it. But he was still God's child. And as Hebrews 12 says if God doesn't discipline you as he does all of his children it means you are illegitimate and you are really not his children after all.
Listen. If you cross a line. If you sin against God and you feel guilt. Praise God. Your conscience is working. You want your conscience to work. We used to have a smoke alarm that was hypersensitive.
I mean Kathy would cook an egg. Smoke alarm is going off. Nothing is happening. Fire engine is showing up. Not really. But you know it was a hypersensitive smoke alarm.
I had to disable it and replace it. And sometimes you can have a hypersensitive conscience. The Bible says if your heart condemns you God is greater than your heart. One of the problems is that we can have a conscience that works and we confess our sin to God. But after we have confessed it we still feel guilty.
And that is not right. Once God has forgiven you you need to accept his forgiveness. David was able to do that.
Can you do that? See when Jesus died on the cross he paid for all of your sin. And once you have confessed your sin as the Bible tells you to you are forgiven of your sin.
First John 1.8. If we will confess our sin he is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Not some unrighteousness.
All unrighteousness. So if God has forgiven your sin and if God has forgotten your sin why are you dragging it up still? We should not choose to remember what God has chosen to forget. Our God is a big eraser. He has forgiven it. He has forgotten it. Now when the Bible says God forgets a sin it doesn't mean like he's having a lapse of memory. Well where did that sin go? Where are my car keys?
Where did I park the car? No it's not like that. He's saying I choose to not remember that sin. I choose to not hold that sin against you any longer. As far as the east is from the west is as far as I have put your sin from you.
So accept that forgiveness. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. Hey everyone I want you to know about our app called Harvest Plus. Think of it as a harvest version of Netflix.
We have all of our resources in one place. We have our movies like Steve McQueen The Salvation of an American Icon, Johnny Cash The Redemption of an American Icon, A Rush of Hope, and much more. Then we have our television program, daily devotions, and much more.
So go and download the Harvest Plus app. Well Pastor Greg continues now with his study called The God of Second Chances. Let's listen. So David had covered up his sinners so he thought. But the Bible says in Proverbs 28 13 he that covers his sin will not prosper. But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.
So now pretty much a year has passed. David is sitting on his throne and the Lord sends Nathan the prophet. Second Samuel 12 1. Then the Lord sent Nathan to David. When did the Lord send Nathan the prophet to David? Right after his sin with Bathsheba. No. Right after Bathsheba found out she was pregnant. Again no. Right after David had Uriah the husband of Bathsheba killed.
No. After a year had effectively passed and David could hardly live with himself Nathan comes in to the palace of David. King I have a situation.
I want to run by you. I want to get your input. Yes David says sitting on his regal throne.
Okay so there is this guy. And they are not very wealthy. They have one little lamb. In fact the lamb is like a family pet. It eats at the table with them. They push the lamb around in a stroller.
Not really but it is like that. That I did. You know the lamb is like a member of his family. He loves the little lamb. Anyway this guy has a neighbor who has many sheep and the neighbor had a friend come from out of town for dinner and he decided he wanted to serve him a leg of lamb.
And so instead of killing one of his many sheep he goes to this neighbor who has one little baby lamb that is like a member of his family and he kills the baby lamb and serves it to the visitor. What should be done to a man that would do that? David grabbed the arms of his throne. His blood began to boil. He was seen red. And he says this man should restore four times what he has taken and then he should be put to death. Wait put to death?
Restoring fourfold yeah that makes sense. But put him to death and then Nathan points his long bony prophet finger in David's face. He says you the man. You are the man.
Get it? Oh yeah. I'm like that guy that has all these wives and I went to Uriah the Hittite and I took his only wife. That's me.
You're the man. So judgment came upon David because of his sin and truly he did face the repercussions of it for the rest of his life. But in David's defense he repented. 2 Samuel 12 13 David said to Nathan I've sinned against the Lord. I've sinned. Now this is in contrast to King Saul. When the prophet Samuel went to King Saul and kind of confronted him over his sin he made excuses. It's not my fault.
You don't understand. He began to shift the blame everywhere he could. If you want to be free from sin you have to admit you're dealing with sin. Stop blaming everybody else. Take responsibility. I have sinned. I am wrong.
I have done this. In Psalm 51 which he also wrote in the aftermath of being confronted by the prophet Nathan David wrote against thee and the only have I committed this sin. That's so important. He owned what he had done and he did repent and this is why. This is why he was a man after God's own heart. Not because he was a perfect man. Not because he was a flawless man. But because he was a man that ultimately knew where to turn when he was going the wrong direction in life.
And this is a great thing that he did. Now despite his sin David was given a second chance in life. Despite his sin he was given a second chance. That's why I called this message the God of the Second Chance.
God gives second chances and third chances and fourth chances. And David saw that. Did you know that this story actually connects to the Christmas story?
How? Well where was Jesus born? Bethlehem. Why was Jesus born in Bethlehem? Because he was connected to the family of David. His bloodline traced back to David through both Mary and Joseph. That's when the decree was given by Caesar that everyone should be taxed and go to their hometown. They went to Bethlehem.
So here's the amazing thing. When you look at the bloodline of Jesus or the family tree of Jesus there's some pretty unsavory characters that made their way in it. Including Bathsheba. She is in the messianic line.
If that isn't a second chance I don't know what is. Also Rehab and Tamar, two other immoral women, made it into the family tree of Jesus. Now you know people love to go back and trace their family roots because we all hope we're related to some famous historical figure or a royal person or someone significant. Then we find out we have creeps in our family tree.
Right? Hey how about the family tree of Jesus? But here's the message of it all. God gave second chances to David and to Bathsheba and to these other women that are mentioned. And God gives second chances to us as well.
This was David's secret. Is he always nowhere to turn? Do you? Now maybe I'm talking to someone in closing who has sinned against God. And in fact you don't even know why you're here at church. You're thinking I don't think I should be here. I'm such a hypocrite.
Hey I'm so glad you're here. Because as I often said the church is not a museum for saints. It's a hospital for sinners. This is a place to get right with God.
Right? So this is a place to recommit your life to the Lord. I want to just tell you something. If you are a true child of God you will never be happy living in sin. You're always going to know what's true. You're always going to know what's right. You may do everything you can to try to fit in with the crowd. But deep down inside you know where you belong. You belong with God's people as a part of the family of God in the church worshiping the Lord. This is your home.
Not this culture outside. And if your conscience is working thank God for that. God does not convict you of your sin to drive you away in despair or to condemn you.
He convicts you of your sin so you will come to your senses and turn to Him. That's the whole point of it. And that's what David did.
And that's what we need to do. Or maybe I'm talking to someone here who has never asked Jesus Christ to come into their life. Of course the very mission of Jesus was to be born in Bethlehem. Then to live a perfect life and then to die a perfect death. He came to die for the sin of the world. He came to die for your sin of mine. And if I'll turn from my sin and put my faith in Him He will forgive me. Do you need a second chance or a third chance or a fourth chance by talking to somebody that's been plotting some sinful course? Consider this your wake up call from the Lord today.
He's saying don't do that because I love you and I don't want you to ruin your life. But let's just say you've done it. Stop doing that and repent as Jesus said to the woman caught in the act of adultery.
Repent and sin no more. Reminds me of a guy who got a job to paint a church. And they said yeah paint the whole church and we'll pay you this much money. So the guy sized it up and thought well I was going to buy this many cans of paint.
And you know I think I could actually make a little more profit if I thinned the paint out. And didn't use all that paint but actually put some thinner in it. So he got his cans of paint and he got some thinner and was really putting a very thin coat of paint on the church and was almost done. He was at the very steeple putting the last strokes on and a bolt of lightning struck him in his scaffolding. And he's hanging by one arm and God spoke to him from heaven and said repaint and thin no more.
But that's a message. Repent and sin no more. God will forgive you but you must ask for his forgiveness. We're going to pray now and I'm going to give you an opportunity to get right with God. Let's all pray. Father thank you for your love for us. Thank you that you never give up on us. Thank you that even when we go astray like wayward sheep you use your staff and when necessary you use your rod to comfort us. To reassure us that we're loved by you. And I pray for any person here.
Any person watching and listening wherever they are. If they need to get right with you now let them do it we pray. Now while our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed and we're praying. If you've never asked Jesus to come into your life or if you know the Lord but you're living a double life and doing things you shouldn't be doing and you need to get right with God why don't you get right with them right now and pray this prayer after me. Lord Jesus I know that I've sinned against you. I'm sorry for that sin. I repent of that sin. I turn from this sin and I receive your forgiveness that you purchased for me at the cross of Calvary where you shed your blood and died in my place. Lord thank you for your forgiveness.
Refresh me with your presence and I choose to follow you from this moment forward. Thank you for hearing this prayer and answering this prayer. In Jesus name I pray.
Amen. Pastor Greg Laurie with an important prayer today here on A New Beginning. And if you're taking advantage of God's second chance and you've just prayed that prayer with Pastor Greg we want to offer some great help in beginning to walk each day with the Lord. We'd like to send you Pastor Greg's New Believer's Bible. It's a special edition of the Bible that has an easy translation to understand along with scores of helps that new believers find invaluable.
It'll answer many of your questions and get you on your way in living for the Lord. We'll send the New Believer's Bible free of charge. So call us at 1-800-821-3300. That's 1-800-821-3300.
Or write A New Beginning Box 4000, Riverside, California 92514. Or just go online to harvest.org and click Know God. You know Pastor Greg we hear from people all the time who tell us how these daily studies have impacted their lives. So many have found the Lord and been encouraged through this teaching. That's right. And we hope our listeners might pray about making an investment so these studies can continue.
Yeah it's really true Dave. You know and even a little bit helps. You know people need to hear the Gospel so badly. They need to hear the teaching of the Word of God. It changes everything because it changes us. And I'm so passionate about it and I'm called to do it and I'm thankful for it.
But I can't do it alone. So I'm going to ask folks that are listening if you think more people need to hear the Gospel. If you believe more people need to hear the teaching of the Word of God then perfectly consider investing in Harvest Ministries and maybe even become a Harvest Partner. Which means you're someone who stands with us every month in your faithful giving and that opens up a lot of new opportunities for us. So thanks for that.
Yeah that's right and we really are thankful for your partnership. You can reach us anytime day or night at 1-800-821-3300. That's 1-800-821-3300. Or write A New Beginning Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514.
Or just go online to harvest.org. Well next time Pastor Greg begins a series of the most requested studies of the past year. We get started with a message called The Holy Spirit and You. Join us here on A New Beginning with pastor and Bible teacher, Greg Laurie.
Whisper: medium.en / 2024-12-26 05:07:31 / 2024-12-26 05:16:37 / 9