News and Updates

by Steve DuPlessie

King Saul was new at the job. He was less than a week in office as the new king, the first king the children of Israel ever had. And it was all over in that first week. How did that happen?

The children of Israel were really, really tired of getting bullied by the surrounding pagan tribes — Amalakites, Hitties, Jebusites, Moabites, Philistines — all nasty actors. For 400 years they had been terrorized by their neighbors and they were sick of it. So they pressured Samuel, the old priest and the last “judge” of Israel, to appoint a king to rule over them and help them defend themselves.

Samuel tried to talk them out of it (read the details here) but the people insisted. God told Samuel to give them what they wanted. And God led Samuel to a guy named Saul. He was young, tall, handsome — very king-looking.

Inaguration day…
So Samuel annointed Saul (annointing = pour fragrant oil over the head as a sign of divine selection; sort of like our modern-day swearing-in ceremony for public officials) as Israel’s first king. To launch this new administration, Samuel told Saul to meet him a week later in Gilgal where Samuel would offer sacrifices to God; they would begin this new reign with humble worship together before God.

Saul agreed to this plan. But things quickly went downhill. First, some Ammonite raiders attacked the Israeli city of Jabesh-Giliad. King Saul rounded up some troops, and fought off the raiders in a fantastic victory! And while they were celebrating the new king’s first battlefield victory, the Philistines attacked with an army that included 3,000 chariots! This time King Saul’s army disintegrated, deserted, ran for the hills.

Meanwhile, Samuel, the old priest, was late for the planned meet-up in Gilgal for the sacrifice. And king Saul was impatient. He needed to rebuild his army and drive off the Philistines the same way he had defeated the Ammonites. So rather than waiting for Samuel to arrive, king Saul went ahead and offered the sacrifices himself, without Samuel.

Pretty bad timing…
And that’s just the moment that Samuel arrived…

Meanwhile, Saul stayed at Gilgal, and his men were trembling with fear.⁸ Saul waited there seven days for Samuel, as Samuel had instructed him earlier, but Samuel still didn’t come. Saul realized that his troops were rapidly slipping away. ⁹ So he demanded, “Bring me the burnt offering and the peace offerings!” And Saul sacrificed the burnt offering himself.

¹⁰ Just as Saul was finishing with the burnt offering, Samuel arrived. Saul went out to meet and welcome him,¹¹ but Samuel said, “What is this you have done?”

Saul replied, “I saw my men scattering from me, and you didn’t arrive when you said you would, and the Philistines are at Micmash ready for battle. ¹² So I said, ‘The Philistines are ready to march against us at Gilgal, and I haven’t even asked for the Lord’s help!’ So I felt compelled to offer the burnt offering myself before you came.”

¹³ “How foolish!” Samuel exclaimed. “You have not kept the command the Lord your God gave you. Had you kept it, the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. ¹⁴ But now your kingdom must end, for the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart. The Lord has already appointed him to be the leader of his people, because you have not kept the Lord’s command.”

In only one week, Saul’s authority (and God’s divine protection and blessing) as king was over. While it would actually be many years before David, the new king — “a man after God’s own heart — would take the throne, the Spirit of God left Saul, and he was on his own.

Samuel said, “Obedience is better than sacrifice” [Ps 40:6-8; 51:16; Pr 21:3; Isa 1:11-15; Jer 7:22; Hos 6:6; Am 5:25; Mic 6:6-8; S Mk 12:33].

Making excuses – missing out…
Saul made excuses. He decided that it was okay to disobey this time because… And so Saul missed out on God’s divine protection and blessing because he decided that he knew better than God.

There’s a lesson for me (and you) in king Saul’s fatal failure. I can submit and obey — even when I don’t understand the “Why” — and stay within His divine protection and blessing, or I can tell God that I know better than He does (and forfeit his protection and blessing). Jesus said, “If you love me, you will obey my commands.” Shouldn’t be a difficult decision…

 

 

 

 

by Steve DuPlessie

We talked this past Sunday from the Old Testament books of Numbers and Deuteronomy about the children of Israel on their wilderness road trip from Mount Sinai to the Promised Land (Listen again here). They sent 12 spies to scout out the land of Canaan that God had promised them. But after hearing there were giants in the land, they refused to move forward and instead turned back into the wilderness where they wandered around for 40 years — 40 years before finally entering the Promised Land with God’s help.

It’s possible, if you’re anything like me, that you’ve made some “wrong turns” in your life in the past, and missed out on what God has designed and prepared for you. Maybe you’re still “wandering in the wilderness” in your life because of bad choices, unwise decisions, and rebellion against what God has told you to do. So what if I made a wrong turn?

Well, there’s bad news and good news. Bad news first. Sin has consequences. And sometimes the consequences of sin cannot be undone. A child born out of wedlock. (There are no illegitimate children; but there are illegitimate parents!) Or fired from a job for bad behavior. Or a fatality on your conscience from a DUI driving accident. An abortion in your past. Sadly, some things cannot ever be “fixed” and the weight of those “wrong turn” decisions can be heavy.

The good news…
Here’s the good news! Jesus died for broken, fallen sinners like me and you! Here’s some powerful truths from the Bible. Read them over, let them soak deeply into your mind and your soul…

“The blood of Jesus (poured out when he died on the cross to pay the penalty required by a holy God for your sin) cleanses us from ALL sin.” –  John 1:7

“If we confess our sins, He (God) is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from ALL unrighteousness.” – 1 John 1:9.

Forgiveness from God is not only possible, it’s a gift ready and waiting for any and all who come humbly to God, confessing their sin and asking Him for His forgiveness.

All? Really?
Did you notice the word ALL in both of those Bible promises? Every sin — small and large and huge — Jesus died to pay the price for ALL your sin. So you can be forgiven by God (who’s holiness was offended by your sin), and “cleansed, washed, purified from all your unrighteousness.”

Beyond that forgiveness from God, a careful inventory of our failures should also lead us to confess our responsibility to all who have been hurt — except when that confession might make the problem worse, not better — and ask for their forgiveness. Humble confession, without excuses or blaming,  helps the soul.

You can’t control the other person, so they might be gracious and forgive you — then again, maybe not. But you have done the right thing to own it, apologize, and ask for forgiveness. [Forgiveness = Giving up the right to hold something against you any longer.] And if they give you the gift of their forgiveness, you can move forward in that previously broken relationship, while understanding that regaining trust takes time.

It might be that it was not a particular person that was wounded by your sin, but still, you need to “make things right.” Volunteering at a soup kitchen to serve the homeless, becoming a foster parent,  donating generously to a non-profit that addresses the issue (a battered women’s shelter, MADD-Mother’s Against Drunk Driving, a crisis pregnancy resource center, etc.) can all help to “atone” for your failure and support what is good and right and just.

Again?
Then there’s the question, How can I keep from doing stuff like that again? Ahh, the million dollar question. The book of Proverbs in the middle of Hebrew Bible is 31 chapters of simple, practical, advice aimed at young people (but really, really useful for all of us).

The book identifies two kinds of people: those who are wise, and those who are fools. The wise person learns from their mistakes, asks for and learns from wise counsel, and willingly learns from correction. The fool on the other hand keeps on doing the same stupid stuff over and over because they ignore wise counsel, refuse to learn lessons from their past and change their attitudes and behaviors.

I’ve observed that most “fools” are fools not because they’re dumb — frequently they’re pretty bright! — but because they refuse to listen to and follow good counsel. They always seem to think they are smarter than the average person, and they “know better.” “I’ve got street smarts” says the one who’s continually in trouble with the law. “I can handle it, I don’t need help,” says the habitual drunkard/addict. “Just bad luck” says the person who’s always behind financially because of repeated foolish and wasteful financial decisions. Their independent refusal to submit to normal, conventional, proven wisdom becomes their undoing time after time after time. They say “I know, I know…” but they, by refusing to follow good counsel, are in fact fools.

Redemption?
Is there redemption after failure? Yes. There can be redemption in relationships when humble confession is offered and forgiveness is sought. There can be redemption in a life broken by foolish decisions when the fool submits willingly to wise counsel, and pursues what is right, good and just. And there can be redemption before God because Jesus died as your substitute, bearing on himself your sin and shame, and offering you the grace-filled gift of his goodness and righteousness in exchange!

 

 

 

By Steve DuPlessie

So, will you value the presence of God in your life? Will you say to him, “My Father, I don’t want to go anywhere without you. Dear God, I can’t face this cancer without you; be with me. Dear God, I can’t face the loss of my spouse without you right by my side. Dear God, I can’t stay clean this week without your power and presence in my life. Dear God, go with me to work tomorrow, I need your favor in that meeting. Dear God, I’m pretty lost and don’t know where to go; show me my next steps to take.”

I offer you the prayer of Moses, the Prophet, who had the audacity to pray,  “Dear God, show me your glory, send down your presence, I want to see your face.” God says, “You can’t actually handle that, Moses. But I tell you what I’ll do, because I’m so pleased with you. I’m going to brush by you as you stand inside a large crack over here in this mountainside. As I go by, I’ll put my hand over the gap of the rock so you can’t actually see my face, but as I pass by, I’ll take my hand away so you will see the back of me.” Moses nestled back into the cleft of the rock, and the presence of God passed by him.

This needs to be our prayer. “Our Father in heaven, please show me your glory. Send down your presence. I want to see your face…”

by Steve DuPlessie*

The story of how God delivered the Hebrews slaves, after 400 years of slavery in Egypt, is old, its powerful, and its very personal. Do you remember the story?

God told Moses to instruct every family to take a healthy, perfect, unblemished lamb, to kill it and paint some of that blood on the door posts of the family home. Let me read it to you, I’m in Exodus chapter 12, verse 12: God said, “On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over (that’s where we get the name for the annual Jewish feast, Passover) When I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.”

What a strange command; what an eerie night. The Hebrews who lived in the neighborhood of Egypt called Goshen where the roads were muddy and the houses were small, the Hebrews slaughtered the lambs, and the leader of each house, took the bowl full of blood and a brush and dipped that brush into the blood and streaked that blood in a slash of bright red on the sides and the top of front doorway.

And then at midnight, at the dark of midnight—about 80 years after the Egyptians had slaughtered all the firstborn Hebrew boys—that night, the firstborn sons all over Egypt — where there was no splash of blood painted around the door — that’s when the Egyptian firstborns took their final breath as the angel of God’s judgment flew over the land. Fathers heard their firstborn sons gasp. Wives heard their husbands, if they were a firstborn, gasp their last breath. What an eerie, bone chilling night of tragic and deep sorrow in every home. Only the blood-covered homes were spared.

Why exactly were the Hebrews spared?
So why were the Hebrew people spared? Why? The ones the angel of death passed over? Why were they spared? Was it because they were Hebrews? Was it because they knew Moses? No. It had nothing to do with who they were. It had nothing to do with who they knew. It had everything to do with where they were. They were … underneath the blood of the lamb. They had taken shelter, refuge, positioned themselves under the blood of the lamb.

A question: if you were there, if you were one of those Hebrew families, would you have obeyed that command? Would you have sacrificed an innocent lamb, taken the blood and painted it around your front door. Would you have done it? Or would you have said, “That’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard!” See, no one had ever done anything like that before. As far as I can see, it’s the first time, and the last time, that command was ever given in Scripture. Would you have done it?

It’s more than a rhetorical question. See, you and I have the same problem that those Hebrews had in Egypt. We’re slaves; we’re slaves. Not to Pharaoh, but to sin. We do the very things we keep saying we don’t want to do (Romans 7:18-25). And the things we know we should do, we can’t do. We try to run our world ourselves. We keep climbing up on the throne, telling God to get lost. Maybe not with our words, but certainly with our independent actions and our rebellious thoughts. We’re slaves to sin, in our habits, our hang-ups, our heart.

We don’t just need somebody to help us. We need someone to deliver us. Somebody to lead us out of slavery. We need somebody to redeem us, buy our freedom. So, as far back as even the story of Moses we see God’s grand plan for redeeming us.  It involves the shedding of blood, and the arrival of a lamb.

Do you remember what John the Baptist said when he saw Jesus Christ. He said, “Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). Do you remember how the apostle Paul described the role of Jesus Christ? He called Jesus Christ “our Passover Lamb who has been sacrificed” (1 Corinthians 5:7; 1 Peter 1:18, 19).

See, you and I need exactly what the Hebrew slaves needed. We need someone to rescue us, deliver us. And so God gives us a perfect lamb, Jesus Christ. And we take shelter, we position ourselves, not under a blood covered doorway of a house in Egypt but under the blood covered cross of Jesus in Jerusalem. And we stand there. And we trust in the ability of the Yeh-weh, I AM, God, to save us, to rescue us, to deliver us out of slavery.

A long Red Thread…
Isn’t it amazing how the story of the good news of the gospel is appearing all the way back in the days of Abraham with Isaac on Mt Moriah, and Joseph graciously forgiving and providing for his brothers, and now Moses and the Passover Lamb, and that long red thread of redemption that begins in the Garden of Eden — when God provided Eve and Adam with the skins of animals (Gen 3:21) to cover their shame — is running all the way through the bible from Genesis to Revelation. Every story works together to tell us that we need somebody to deliver us. We don’t need a Moses, but we need a Jesus.

So the question is more than rhetorical so I’ll ask you again.

If you were invited to position yourself under the blood of the lamb chosen by God, would you do it? Have you already done it? The vast majority of the people in this world think that’s the most ridiculous thing they ever heard. They say “I don’t need somebody to die for my sin because I’m not really all that bad. I’m a pretty good person. I’ve got a degree. I don’t rob banks. I’m not as bad as some…” But when Jesus Christ came onto the planet as the only perfect person who ever lived, we all realize that compared to him, we all fall short.

Have I ever told you how my mother used to tell me to clean up my room. And I’d always point to my sister’s room and say “But look at Nomie’s room!” And she’d say, “It’s not her room. Come and look at my room.” She’d point to her room – everything was picked up, a place for everything and everything in its place. Not a single wrinkle on the bedspread. She said, “This is what I call neat!”

When the King of kings sent his Son to live the perfect life on earth, gone forever is the excuse that says “Compared to him, compared to her, I think I’m pretty good!” God points at Jesus Christ, the perfect Lamb, and says “Now this is what I call perfection!” And wise is the person who says “Then I need help. I need deliverance.”

You know, as far as we know, every Hebrew family accepted God’s offer for deliverance. As far as we know. And they allowed God to lead them out, lead them through the Red Sea out of Egypt to freedom.

Will you?
So the question for you as you read this post today is, will you let God redeem you? Let him forgive you? Will you stand under the blood stained cross of Jesus who died for you and accept his free offer of forgiveness for all your sin?

Max Lucado tells the story of the night he was out to dinner with his wife, Denalyn, at a nice restaurant. They were almost done with their meal and the waiter brought their check and put it on the table. A few minutes later a man came over to say hello, a member of Oak Hills Church in San Antonio, Texas where Max is the lead pastor. They chatted for a few moments, and as he turned back to his table, the man picked up the check and he stuck it in his pocket. He said, “I’ll take that.”

So you know what Lucado did when the man took his dinner check? He ordered more dessert! He didn’t argue. He let the man take the check. He let him take it. So when the waiter came by a few minutes later to take the check with the credit card, Lucado said, “He took it,” pointing across the dining room to the man who waved his hand.

You know the bible says that one day we’re all going to stand before the judgment throne of Jesus and we’re going to give an account for the way we used our lives. Every thought, every deed, every word. We’re going to have to answer for all of it. And there is eternity at stake on that judgment day, eternity in one of two places, a very real heaven or a very real hell.

Now if it weren’t for Jesus Christ, that thought would terrify me.  If you knew my thoughts, my words, my deeds, you’d never let me preach, you wouldn’t, because my heart is desperately wicked. You wouldn’t and I wouldn’t blame you. But, because of Jesus Christ, I have absolutely, absolutely no fear of that moment standing before Jesus.

In fact, I can’t wait for that moment. Because when they read the list of all my sins, you know what I’m going to say? I’m going to point at Jesus and say “He took it!” Because he is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Have you let him take your sin? Have you asked Jesus to take your sins and give you all his goodness and righteousness in exchange? That’s the good news of the gospel. Forgiveness, redemption is possible! “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

Now here’s the thing about the gospel. While the gospel is free it is never forced. While it’s free, it’s never forced. What the gospel requires from you is the same thing required of the Hebrew people. They could have said No to God…

“No, I’m not going to position myself under the blood of the lamb.” They could have. But they didn’t. They didn’t. So they were delivered. May you make the same decision they did. While it’s free, deliverance is never forced. May you put yourself under the blood of the Lamb today and be delivered from the slavery and the sentence of sin. “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

 

* The text of this blog is a portion taken from the sermon I preached on September 23, 2018 at GNBC. The text of that sermon is largely — with some few edits, liberties, and personal notes added by me — taken verbatim from a sermon preached by Max Lucado at Oak Hills Church, San Antonio, Texas, October 1-2, 2016. Lucado gets the credit. May God get the glory.