Want to open with the scripture from Isaiah chapter 55 talking
about David? It says, incline your ear and
come to me here and your soul shall live.
I will make an everlasting covenant with you, the sure
mercies of David. Indeed, I've given him as a
witness to the people, a leader and commander for the people.
Surely you should call a nation you do not know and nations who
do not know you shall run to you because of the Lord your God,
the Holy One of Israel, for He has glorified you.
This scripture is very important because it's telling us
something that we all need to do in this hour as never before,
and that is incline your hear to hear.
Jesus said, My sheep know my voice.
Another they will not follow. John the Apostle in his
revelation said, let him who hath an ear to hear, let him
hear what the Spirit is speaking to the church.
It's very important that we would understand how important
it is that we would incline our ear to hear what it is that God
is speaking. When we are born again, we have
both the natural side and a spiritual side.
Our first impulses are typically natural, but after that, we have
to make sure that we're tuning into the spiritual in order to
correct ourselves, if you would. So then it's necessary for us to
incline our ear, just like in the story I just read to you,
Nathan the prophet went to David.
He said something to him and Nathan the prophet said of that
song's great. But then that night the word of
the Lord came to Nathan and said, no, that's not so great.
Go back and talk to David. So this is what he did.
And that's so important for us to understand that all of us
need to take time to incline our ear to hear what the Spirit is
speaking to the church. When you come to church on
Sunday morning, it shouldn't be just about learning something
from the message, but it's inclining your ear so you can
hear. Faith comes by hearing, hearing
by the word of God. How, you know, we need to be
people of faith, Amen. And this talks about the witness
of David, which is such a powerful witness for us to have.
We've been talking about people of the Old Testament, talking
about Joseph, talking about Joshua, talking about Jacob,
talking about different ones and recalling their life stories.
Because the Bible tells us that we can look back and look at
those stories and we can learn. Those Scriptures are for our
admonition, also for our exhortation.
A lot of times people say, well, experiences are the best
teacher. Well, that's only if you want to
make mistakes and in those mistakes have some kind of a
mark on your life that makes you remember it.
Well, that's not the best teacher.
The best teacher is to learn by example.
And that's why the Bible was getting to us, so we can learn
by examples. And so many of the people,
especially in the Old Testament, have some good things we can
learn, but also some things that we should look at and say, I'm
going to avoid that. And that's really the way it is
with David. As we talk about him today,
we're going to learn about what he had that we surely should
want, but also be careful to understand that in his life
there is a lesson. Lesson also that we want to
avoid certain things that he ended up doing.
But truly the Bible tells us that there is a witness here and
it talks about the sure mercies of David.
And just like it was with Joshua being the Jesus of the Old
Testament, if you would, bringing the children of Israel
out of the bondage of the world to the promised land, so we have
a New Testament, Joshua, Jesus Christ.
It's also important for us to see in the story of David
something very beautiful that speaks to us about the Christ.
And also of course, I respond to the Lord in the process.
Luke chapter 20, Jesus is speaking here and he says to the
people, how can you say that the Christ is the Son of David?
Now David himself said in the book of Psalms, the Lord said to
my Lord, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your
footstool. Therefore David calls him Lord.
How's it that He is his Son? And Jesus as the Son of David is
very important for us to understand.
Now, when Jesus Christ came as the fulfillment of the
Scriptures, He was the Messiah. But the people who were in the
positions of authority as far as religious leaders in the country
of Israel, they could not receive His witness nor His
testimony. Why?
Because they only had a natural interpretation of the
Scriptures. Again, from the story I read to
you today, God speaks about David having a son and how that
son would have a very special place.
We know that one of those things that was referencing is Solomon,
but the Jews also believed that there would be of the lineage of
David another son who would be the Messiah.
That's why when we read the Gospels and talk about the
Christmas story, we have this lineage that you can go through
to prove that he was indeed of the seed of David because the
Messiah had to be of the seed of David.
But they thought he would be like David in the sense that he
would be a commander as a military leader and how we know
Jesus just wasn't that. And so they had a natural
interpretation and were unable to receive the spiritual
interpretation. That's where the Scripture comes
in, because he just is challenging everybody and he's
quoting from Psalm 110, a scripture that says the Lord
said to my Lord, sit while I make your enemies your
footstool. And Jesus was saying to the
people who have the natural interpretation, Well, do you
understand that? The psalmist himself was David
and he gave a prophecy and he said that the Son would be the
Son of God. And so the Lord, which was their
name for God, said that the Lord sit here while I make your
enemies your footstool. So he's like, don't you
understand? He's not just a man Jesus
claimed himself to be, not just the Messiah, not just a
deliverer, but he came as God manifested in the flesh and that
they couldn't receive. Again, it was in their
scripture, but because they only could interpret it naturally and
not inclining their ear to hear, they could not receive what God
had for them. How many want to receive what
God has for you? Church say Amen to that.
Amen. We want to be a people that
follow God, and that's an especially important admonition.
God spoke to us as a people. As he said many years ago, go
the way of Spirit and you'll possess things that others have
not possessed before. And that means we got to tune in
our ear to hear what it is that God is speaking.
Now I want to go to the Scripture in First Samuel
chapter 16, because this tells us about when David was called
to be the king. And it was when they came that
he Speaking of the prophet Samuel, who had been sent there
by God to the House of David to anoint king.
He looked at Eliab who was the oldest brother, and said, surely
the Lord's anointed is before him.
But the Lord said to Samuel, do not look at the appearance of
his physical stature, because I have refused him.
For the Lord is not see as man does, For man looks at the
outward appearance, but what the Lord looks at the heart.
So he sent and brought him David in.
Now he was ready with bright eyes and good looking.
And the Lord said, arise, anoint him, for he is the one.
Now this is a very important thing because again, here's a
prophet. He goes into the House of David,
just excuse me, the House of Jesse, and he's going to pick
out a king. And he looks at somebody from a
natural perspective and says, surely this is God's anointed
Eliah. His name is from 2 words in the
Hebrew language as you speak about God as a father, or the
name L, which is one of the names of God.
So he had the name and when he looked at him, he had the look
of it because Sami had also anointed the very first king of
Israel and his name was Saul. And King Saul, the Bible says
that when he was first seen by the prophet to stand in a group
of people and everybody in the crowd only came up to Saul's
shoulder. So he was this big, tall, I'm
assuming charismatic person because everybody was flocking
around him. And that's whom the prophet
assumed, hey, God's wanting another king.
This is what he's going to look like.
How many know You can't just assume God's going to do the
same old thing, Church. As a matter of fact, I found out
that when we walk with God, he's oftentimes doing something
totally different because he wants to know, are they going to
hear the voice of the Spirit or are they just going to go by
their natural inclinations? So he had all the factors or all
the qualifications that would naturally be a leader, but then
he has David. And why is he picked David?
Because he was a man after God's own heart.
You wouldn't have known that just talking to the family,
because when the Lord had sent the prophet there, he said to
Jesse, bring all your sons here. They didn't even bring David in.
They're kind of like, of course, he couldn't be talking about
David. He was just the young boy out in
the fields keeping the sheep. And so he didn't seem to have
the attributes to be a king. That wasn't that he didn't have
attributes. He was, as the scripture said,
good looking. He was obviously a musician, a
singer, a songwriter, if you would.
He had a lot of great things going for him, just not the kind
that you would think would qualify him to be the king.
I'm assuming that his age has something to do with it.
I remember when I graduate from ministry training, I had what
was called the laying on hands with prophecy and Sister Bill
prophesied over me who was the founder of the church I was
trained in. She said this is just like when
the Lord called David, you're not a king nor are you a King's
son, but you were one that God has chosen.
And so David's life has always been very special to me based on
that prophecy. And the chapter I read to you
today is probably the most important of all the things I've
learned. So that's I'm actually excited
to share this today because as I've been walking with God by
faith, I've seen that as I walk with him, he always takes us to
a new dimension if we let him. And so I'm like, I've
experienced this before and I can say I experience it again,
but I'm going to experience it all over again because the judge
shall live by faith. Amen.
Church And the Bible says that we go from faith to faith.
So the thing about it was is David had the right heart and
that's what God is looking for. Now this is important for us to
understand. 2 concerning Jesus Jesus Christ, because when he
came to the earth, he said, repent, for the Kingdom of
heaven is at hand, and if you want to be a part of this
Kingdom and you want to see it, you have to be born again.
He's at another place. The Kingdom of God does not come
with observation, but it arises in the hearts of men.
So again, if we're going to be a Kingdom oriented people, and I
believe that's something that God wants us to recognize today
as never before, then we've got to understand we've got to be
willing to look at the heart and we have to be willing to open up
our heart to God. Amen.
Church, we need to open up our hearts today as never before
because God's doing something that he hasn't done before and
we just so happened to be alive and get to be a part of it.
Amen. So this is an exciting time in
the camp, the plans and purposes of God and each and every one of
us must make ourselves available to this.
Now in First Samuel chapter 17, this is the story about Goliath.
I'm going to read this little part and then we'll review this
story. It says you're has killed both
line and bear and this uncircumcised Philistine will be
like one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the living
God. Moreover, David said, the Lord
who delivered me from the Paul the line and from the Paul the
bear, he will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.
And Saul said to David, Go, and the Lord be with you.
Then all his assembly shall know that the Lord does not save with
sword and spear, for the battle is the Lord's, and he will give
it into your hands. Now, I think that of all the
stories about David, the Goliath story is the most well known,
not just for people in church, but it's one of those stories
that is out in secular culture as well, part of Western
civilization is at least, because it's such an amazing
story. So the children of Israel in a
battle with the Philistines, which are an enemy that just
keeps coming back, they defeat him and they come back, and now
they're back again. So this man by the name of
Goliath comes out and he says, basically, I'm a champion for
the Philistines. There's no sense in us having a
war and everybody get engaged in this war and so many people
dying, I'm going to fight for my side.
You pick out somebody from your side and the two of us will
fight it out. Whoever wins, be the winner of
the war. Well, the children of Israel,
I'm sure at first we think, well, this is a pretty good idea
because we don't all want to risk our lives in this thing.
The problem is Goliath was a monster of a person.
When you read Bible commentaries, there will be
pinions different different ideas about him and some say he
was like 7 foot tall, some will say he's as high as 9 foot 9
inches. We just know this.
He was a giant of a person. Just picture this.
His armor that he wore they said weighed 125 lbs.
I mean, you know, you'd have to be a pretty good big guy to
carry that all around. And he had, and it describes his
helmet that it was of bronze and the things that were covering
his feet were of bronze. And it talked about his weapons
that he had the javelin, the sword and all these things.
Plus he just seemed like 1 mean person.
And so when he said who's going to fight against me?
All the children visitor like, oh, I don't know.
Who do you think it'll be? Well, along comes David because
he's actually just bringing food to his brothers as a part of
their contribution to the war. He's taking the food to them.
He's not a part of the war and he knows what's going on or sees
what's going on. Then he asks for the details.
Well, King Saul had said whoever can defeat this guy, I'm going
to give my daughter as a wife. But that's not going to do you
any good if you're dead. So that's why there were no
takers on this offer. But Dave, it's kind of like,
I'll fight, I'll go. And his brother basically said,
why don't you just shut up? You're just a little brother's
always wanting attention. And Davis, like, no, you guys
don't understand something. I was out there as a shepherd.
You thought I was just out keeping the sheep as if it's a
small menial job. But one day a lion came and
another day a bear came. Guess what I did?
I defended the sheep and God give me the power to kill a
lion, to kill a bear. And that's when he said you got
to understand something that same God is able to help me
right now in this present distress.
Now, again, most people, when they tell the story of David and
Goliath, they're going to talk about David's courage, his
willingness to face a giant when nobody else would.
And people will take a story like that and be very encouraged
by the thought. That's the human perspective of
the story. But the spiritual perspective at
this point is one that David is telling people.
He's not saying I can go and kill Goliath.
He said I'll be a part of this thing.
But I found out if God can kill a bear and God can kill a lion,
he can surely help me kill this giant as well.
That's why I put up here. Give him a praise on that.
That's good. That's why I put it there first
the human perspective and then God's perspective.
So when you think about this for a minute, if God's looking at
the story, how many you know from God's perspective?
David didn't kill a bear, and David didn't kill a lion.
God did. And that was the same confession
that David had here. If God can help me take down a
bear and also a lion, how many know he can also help me take
this giant down? And everybody will know that
it's not through human weapons that the war has won, but it's
by the power of the living God. And so David had God's
perspective, which is this is what I can do Now, church, this
is so powerful because from the very beginning of time, God has
wanted mankind to take a place in his creation.
Who is man, that you were mindful of him or the Son of
man? You visited him, you created him
lower than the angels, and yet you have crowned him with glory,
honor, and life, and that you have put all the works of your
hands under him. That's what the psalmist said.
And David was that psalmist and going back into Genesis chapter
1, God said, let us make man in our image and in our likeness.
Let them be fruitful, multiply, fill up their take dominion as
well. Now God's plan is we would be
his partners in this partnership.
God's going to have the power. We just have to be the vessel.
And we have to remember that so that when we're going through
life, it's not what you can do, it's what God can do.
It's not by might, it's nor by power, but it's by my spirit
says the Lord. Can you give the Lord a praise
on that? Amen.
So at this point, David has God's perspective, which is I'm
the one that's going to kill the giant.
I'm just wondering if anybody can be a part of this plan.
Amen. Now in First Timothy chapter 1,
it says something very important.
Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure
heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith, from
which some having straight have turned aside to I'll talk,
desiring to be teachers of law, understanding neither what they
say nor the things which they affirm.
Now this is the Apostle Paul writing to Timothy about the New
Testament and in the New Covenant.
He wants them to understand, just like God said, it starts in
the heart. So we have to open up our heart
to God. Now where is that going to go?
Well, it needs to go to a place of faith.
How do we get to that place of faith?
Well, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
But I wanted to point out this word conscience here because God
has given us a conscience. The literal translation of that
word in the Scriptures is a Co perception.
So we have this natural mind that we have that thinks and
plans and has purposes, whatever, but then God has given
us his human spirit, his God breath inside of us.
And from that we also have a conscience.
And the conscience is a Co perception because our mind
might be telling us one thing, but if we're sensitive enough,
how many know? We can say to ourselves, well,
that sounds good, but it's really not good.
When we go real deep with that. We'll call it intuition.
And they say women have an intuition because of how they
are called as mothers to minister to their children.
But we have to understand that being sensitive is a very
important part of the walk of faith and the heart relationship
we have with God. When we have that sensitivity,
we can walk in the fullness of God, caring about other people
and certainly caring to the voice of God.
So it's very important that we have a heart that's available to
God, a heart that we let God deal with, because then we can
move into the faith realm. But when we give Him our heart,
we got to make sure that we keep that sensitive side going
because it's through that sensitivity that we have to God
that we can tap into the Word that He has for each and every
one of us. Christianity is not just a
religion of the head church. It's a religion of the heart,
and if it's a religion of the heart, it has to do with our
conscience, our human spirit being connected to the divine
Spirit of God in order that we can know well, what is it that
God is actually saying here? So I'm not just operating in my
natural mind, but I'm operating in the spirit.
Now here's another story here in First Chronicles chapter 17 that
I read to you today. Now it came to pass when David
was dwelling in his house that David said to Nathan the
prophet, see now I dwell in a House of cedar, but the ark of
the continent of the Lord is under 10 curtains.
Then Nathan said to David, do all that is in your heart, for
God is with you. Now again, the prophet assumed
that sounded good, and so it must be good, sounded right, so
it must be right. And God said, no, there's
something wrong here. See, what happened is David had
become very successful, literally the children of Israel
who had, like in the story of Goliath, been under constant
threat of the enemies wronged about them.
David had actually secured all the borders of the country.
The country was finally at peace.
They began to prosper. And so there was all kinds of
things there, the people who were able to enjoy like they
hadn't before. And David, of course, as the
king, was one of them. And so he's kind of like, hey,
I'm going to build myself a palace.
And he built something awesome, you can imagine, because he had
the money, he had the time, and everybody was contributing.
So he's sitting in his palace and he's thinking, wait a
minute, I'm in a palace. But the Ark of the coming of the
Lord, it's in a tent. Now, the reason it was in a tent
is because David had a heart after God and after his
presence. And one day the ark of the
covenant was in a foreign place. So he sent for it, had it
brought, they set up a tent and they had all kinds of choirs and
music and worship and praise. It was a beautiful place of
experiencing God. But now David has this idea.
Well, based on the fact that I have a palace, God should have a
palace. But I want you to note something
here. It seems subtle, but David no
longer is thinking about what God can do through him.
How do you know he's taken the initiative?
He's saying, wait a second, this is what I'm going to do for God.
And basically the message of this story is, David, I didn't
ask you to do that, so I don't want you to do it.
But he was doing something that seemed right, but it did not
fulfill the purposes of God. And that's why it's so important
that we have our heart open to God because it isn't about our
good intentions. It's about our desire to be
pleasing to God. Can I hear an Amen to that?
It's not about just doing something for God.
It's about doing what God has asked us to do, and God's
looking for people because the Bible says that about David.
He had a heart after God because he did his will.
And so the heart is this connection that's so very
important. And it's in that heart that God
has an opportunity for us to just truly walk in the power of
his Kingdom. Now I want to share this because
I really believe this is something God spoke to me in
prayer yesterday is because he said, you know, when my people
come to me, they have to remember.
And of course I quote this often, we didn't choose Jesus
Christ. How do you know he chose you?
Aren't you glad about that today?
The Bible actually says he called us in him before the
foundation of the world. That's amazing church and it
should make you feel like the luckiest person in the world.
You know, some people don't like the word lucky in church because
it's not that spiritual, but I want to use a natural word
because it describes a feeling that somebody to have when
they're going through like say wow, things are going good for
me. How do you know if God chose you
out of all the people on planet earth and said that's going to
be 1 of mines? How do you know that that within
itself should have you walking around like wow, just think I'm
a child of the most high God, the God who is eternal, the God
who is omnipresent. You look at the telescopes and
you see the Alexis and how vast they are.
We can't even begin to imagine it.
The God who's present everywhere has singled out you and said, I
want that one for me. And that's what we have to
always remember. It wasn't us, it was him.
And it is something that we should always respond to from a
heart that says, wow, I'm being called of God.
God has a plan for my life. God has something for me to do.
That's the way David looked at at church now.
David rose to his feet and said, hear me, my brother and my
people. I had it in my heart to build a
House of rest for the ark of the covenant of the Lord and for the
footstool of our God, and had made preparations to build it.
But God said to me, you shall not build a house for my name,
because you have been a man of war and have what shed blood.
So the story that made him most famous is the kind of stories
that disqualified him from fulfilling his heart's desire.
Now God's purpose is Davis's heart was certainly fulfilled,
and you could see that in one sense he was a man of that time
and God had another time. I wanted to throw that in
because I believe this, this is a new time church, and you're
appointed for this time. Amen.
But it also reflects on the idea that although he was a man who
was willing to fight Goliath, there came a time in his life
when he forgot about the fact that you got to do it with the
Lord's help. And so know what he did instead?
Well, he did what was common for kings in those days.
He appointed somebody to work for him.
And this was a man by the name of Joab and he made him the
captain of his army. Army.
And so David just had to make the decisions of what to do.
And Johab was the one who did it.
Well, Joab actually was the man of war who did wicked things.
One time David had a son who was in rebellion and Davis heart
was, hey, that's my son, don't hurt him.
He killed him. There was another man who was
kind of like one of David's enemies, but he made peace with
him. Joab didn't trust him.
He killed him, and Joab was just that kind of person.
He had deceptive ideas and plans that were nothing about God.
So in that sense, it wasn't the sin of Commission for him.
It was the sin of omission, if you would, because he didn't
make sure that this process was working out the way it was
supposed to. So now David had become a man of
war and now he wasn't able to fulfill the purposes that God
had for him. Now as the story goes forward in
chapter 22, it says, behold, a son shall be born who shall be a
man of rest, and I will give him rest from all of his enemies all
around. His name shall be Solomon, for I
will give peace and quiet to Israel in his days.
He should build a house for my name.
He shall be my son and I will be his father, and I will establish
His throne and His Kingdom over Israel forever.
Now, this was God's promise. And this is something important
to understand because This is why I said this scripture has
been so, so important to me. Because one of the things the
Lord spoke to me from the very beginning is I'm going to use a
man of rest to build my house in these latter days of time.
Back then I preached about it, about Solomon and different ones
that God would raise up in this day.
I believe with all my heart, this is the day that God had
told me about so long ago. Like I said, I've experienced it
to certain dimensions, but now it's time for me to lead a whole
army of people of arrest to go in and take possession of the
promised land if you would. Now this is talking first of all
about Solomon, whose name means peace and rest and he was the
son that God would raise up. But it also speaks about Jesus
Christ because in the Psalm that was quoted earlier from Psalm
110 when he said the Lord said to my Lord, sit, why I make your
enemies your footstool. Basically, when Jesus Christ was
obedient unto death, how many know that secured his victory?
And that's what God says to us. When our obedience has been made
complete, he will avenge all disobedience.
So the man of rest is the person who does what the will of God is
and knows that well, God's going to take care of all the rest.
And what I like this is I will establish because that's God
saying you do your part. I will do my part, says the
Lord. And that's why we can say I can
do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
Because just like with David, if we're willing to stand up
against Goliath, God's going to give us the victory.
I believe that we're living in a time when God needs a people who
will rise up and say, I'm going to stand up against Goliath.
Can I hear an Amen in the church today?
The God of this world, the spirit of this age, is standing
up and blasphemy in the name of God and his people.
And God says, I'm going to raise up a remnant in the earth who
are going to be my witnesses like David.
And they're going to stand and they're going to have confidence
in the Lord and know that no weapon that's formed against
them can prosper, says the mighty God.
Because God says I will establish.
Amen. Again, back to the chapter it
says. Furthermore, I tell you that the
Lord will build you a house, and it shall be when your days are
fulfilled, when you must go to be with your Father's, that I
will set up your seat after you, who will be your sons, and I
will establish His Kingdom. He shall build me a house, and I
will establish His throne forever.
I will be his father, He should be my son, and I will not take
my mercy away from him as I took it from him who was before you.
And I will establish in him, him and in my house and in my
Kingdom forever and his throne shall be established forever.
Now this is important to understand the furthermore,
because God says, not only are you not going to do that, the
furthermore's I'm going to do something for you, David.
And this is what we call the sure mercies of David.
That goes back to the very first scripture I read because in the
sure mercy to David, God says to David, I'm going to raise up
after you a son. And when I raise him up, it
doesn't matter what he does. He's not going to lose his place
as the king of Israel. It's not going to be like it was
with the first king because Saul was disobedient and God took the
Kingdom away from him and gave it to David.
But God says to David, your son's Kingdom is not going to be
taken away from him. The sure mercies of David is
doesn't matter what your son does, I'm going to be merciful
to him. I believe that as Christians, we
are in this covenant of the sure mercies of David.
That's why when we pray for our children, we should understand,
just like with David, Hey, the sure mercies of David are going
to cover God's going to do a work, Amen, Church.
That's why we should know that God's plan for his people to do
awesome things in the earth today, it's going to be
accomplished because that's the sure mercies of David.
And that's of course fulfilled primarily in the person of Jesus
Christ who established his church and also established his
Kingdom. And his further more word is
also a forever more word. Now this is important to
understand because when we're born again, how do you know
we're living in an eternal Kingdom?
Some people think, oh, I've been born again, so I'm going to go
to heaven when I die. When I enter into eternity
Church, when you're born again, you have already entered into
eternity. How many out there know you're
an eternal being right now? Your physical body, it will run
its course. But God says you're going to
live forever. Death has no power over you.
But he also said you have to understand as a citizen of an
eternal Kingdom, you've got to understand how important it is
to sow eternal things. And that's what this message is,
is there's eternal things and there's temporal things.
There's a scripture in the book of Ecclesiastes that says God
puts eternity in our hearts. So there's something within all
of us that we want our life, our legacy or whatever we are to
continue forever, whatever, because God put that in us for a
purpose. And that's why in the book of
Psalms, it says sometimes people build buildings and put their
name on it or build organizations with their name on
it. We can see that in the church
history because there's a lot of churches that have somebody's
name on it. Amen.
That's something we try to do within ourselves.
We try to build buildings to preserve our legacy.
I was in a Henry Ford Hospital this week to minister to
somebody. And of course, I love history.
So I know all about Henry Ford's life.
And I I know that he he built the assembly system, the
assembly line, he built the Model T, which made it possible
for average Americans to get a car.
And he had an amazing impact. But for most people who walk
under the Henry Ford sign, how we know they don't remember his
history? How many out there really like
history? I wouldn't even ask you to
respond because most people actually don't.
That's why I often times when I tell history, I say, now let me
tell a little history, please. All those things are temporary.
I remember my mom, I was in charge of their affairs when
they got older. And my mom said, now, you know,
your daddy's going out and he's buying him a headstone for our
grave sites over there in Ottawa Park.
And he, you know he's doing that because he expects you to visit
him, right? Well, you promise you'll visit
him? Yeah, Mom, I'll go to the
gravestone. I like better the picture I have
of them that sits next to my computer in the morning because
I can't say, hey, Mama Jean and Papa Bill, you know, reminds me
of them. So the the monuments and
memorials that we do, people soon forget about those things,
don't they? But when we're involved in the
Kingdom of God, you know, when you tell somebody about Jesus
Christ and if they're born again, how do you know you've,
you've sown an eternal seed? And you know, when you tell
somebody about the Lord, they might not respond now, they
might respond later, or they might even tell your story to
somebody else. But churches, you got to
understand something. When we sow into the Kingdom of
God, we're sowing eternal seeds. And we have to understand that
that there's two things we do. We live our natural life and
that we're going to do. We're going to have natural
motivations. There's a certain things bad,
but not everything's bad. We can enjoy the natural life
and do what we undo, but we got to remember something.
Just as we have an eternal life that we're living now, we need
to understand how important it is for us to sow eternal hint
things. Can I hear an Amen on that?
That's so important. That's why in closing, I read
this Scripture to you, because again, he designates a certain
day, saying in David today, after such a long time, as it
has been said today, if you will hear his voice, do not harden
your hearts. Or if Joshua had given them
rest, then he would not afterward have spoken of another
day. There remains there for a rest
for the people of God. For he who has entered his rest
has himself also ceased from his works, as God did from his.
Now I'm going to ask everyone want to bow your heads and close
your eyes because you need to know something.
We're living in a world of turmoil, but our testimony is
going to be we're going to be a people of rest.
We're going to walk in the peace that passes all understanding
the world wants you in turmoil. They promote turmoil, get you on
their side, but we got to understand we're on God's side.
And when you're on God's side, you don't have to push, You
don't have to shove. You just have to walk in his
power knowing that he is able to bring it to pass, that he is
able to do whatever he said he's going to do.
And so this is a time when we need to enter into that rest
that can only come when we say, well, David said today, if
you'll hear his voice and do not harden your heart, but keep your
heart open. God, what, what, what can I do
to open my heart? Be sensitive, listen to the
voice. Let me give you faith, says the
mighty God. Father, I just thank you for
that word today and let it come to each and every one of us that
we would have hearts fully walking in faith with you.
Ask it in Jesus name, Amen. This is Pastor Lauren Coverbius
from Mount Zion Church. We thank you for joining us
today and invite you to connect with our church family by
visiting mountzion.org and following us on social media.
God bless you.