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The Blameless Way by Wes Morris  Transcribed by TurboScribe. Welcome to True Hope with Ten9 with Wes Morris. Today, Wes continues in the book of Psalms with Psalm 101 of David. Today's message is called The Blameless Way. Somebody today, here or watching, listening somewhere, you might know the Lord, but there are things in your house, secrets and spaces in your life that need to be repented of. God's talking to you about it. David said, Lord, help me heed the blameless way. Will you heed that way today? Later in the broadcast, we will tell you how you can get a free Bible. Now, here's Wes. Turn your Bibles, if you would please, to Psalm 101. The man David ruling the kingdom, the city, the palace. He wanted it to be honorable to God. He called it the blameless way. I want to talk to you today about the blameless way. Your life, your heart, the people around you, the condition of your soul. Psalm 101, verse 1. I will sing of loving kindness and justice. To you, O Lord, I will sing praises. I will give heed to the blameless way. When will you come to me? I will walk within my house in the integrity of my heart. I will set no worthless thing before my eyes. I hate the work of those who fall away. It shall not fasten its grip on me. A perverse heart shall depart from me. I will know no evil. The Bible says of those that follow and know Jesus, I don't know if you know Jesus today. You might know of him. You might be considering him. Some here today, you know him. You've come to the place in your heart and your life where you have settled it with the Lord. Some may not. But the ones who know him, the Bible places a call upon our lives. It says in Philippians, to prove yourselves blameless in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. That's what we're called to be. David said, I want to give heed to the blameless way. I want to consider it and I want to follow it. And he said, I will do it first and foremost within my house. Verse two, I will walk within my house in the integrity of my heart. The blameless way of your house. Some people are a saint in public, but they're a devil at home. You know, the Bible says the words of Jesus, the gospel of Luke, there is nothing covered up that will not be revealed. Nothing hidden that will not be known. Whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light. I live around a lot of farm country, a lot of farm fields. In the springtime, all the fields look the same, flat dirt. They've been cultivated and packed down in such a way that they're prepared for planting. I drive around, I see the big tractors with the gigantic planters hooked up to the back. And all the fields are being planted, different farmers, different crops. When they're first planted, you can't tell what the crop is going to be. You don't know. It could be soybeans, corn, alfalfa. You don't know. It's under the ground, it's hidden. A few weeks later, all the fields start to turn green. A little while longer, the plants that were planted start to take shape. And you start to predict, oh, I know what this crop is going to be. This is clearly going to be corn or something else. You know, you don't know necessarily at first who people really are, what seeds they're planting. But I'll tell you what, the seeds that you plant in secret, the fruit will be born before all. Might take a while, might take weeks, might take years, might be after you die. But the fruit that you planted will grow and it will manifest and all will know what was true. Most of all, God. You know, the Bible says of the Lord, there is no creature hidden from his sight, but all things are open and laid bare before the eyes of him with whom we have to do. You can hide from your family a while. You can hide from friends, the church, the law. But the Bible says there's no creature hidden from the Lord's sight. David, he said, I want it to start in my house, the blameless way. I want to examine the integrity of my house. Is what I want out there true in here? How's your house? Is it blameless, your money? Bible says in Proverbs, better is the poor who walks in his integrity than he who is crooked, though he be rich. Better to have a little clean money than a lot that's dirty. Is it blameless, your eyes? Said in verse three, I will set no worthless thing before my eyes. How about yours? Bible says the apostle Paul in the book of Acts, he said, I do my best to maintain a blameless conscience, both before God and before men. If you don't have a blameless conscience and you really know the Lord and you're indwelled with his spirit, those are the times you come before the Lord. You come before his word or time of prayer, and you can't really pray because the Lord keeps bringing that thing of conviction before your face. You want to pray about this thing, but the Lord keeps reminding you, what about this unresolved matter here? This idolatry, this sin you cling to here. Paul said, I want to maintain a blameless conscience before God and man. I want to go to the Lord and I want to be clean before God and people. When I look them in the eye, when I shake their hand, when I say words, that there's no hidden motive, there's no word of deception, the blameless way of your house, how is it? Verse five, whoever secretly slanders his neighbor, him I will destroy. No one who has a haughty or proud look and an arrogant heart will I endure. My eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land that they may dwell with me. He who walks in a blameless way is the one who will minister to me. He who practices deceit shall not dwell within my house. He who speaks falsehood shall not maintain his position before me, David said. The blameless way of your inner circle. The Bible says that blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly. Who has a voice in your life, who gets to talk, advise, and counsel you. Because here's the thing, you can find somebody to tell you anything's okay. If you want to find a yes man, a yes woman, you can find them. Nice old lady called me years ago, said, I want to get your advice on something. All right. She said she was mad at her family. I said, okay. They had a family event coming up and she said, I don't want to go and protest. I want them to know that I'm not there and I want them to know why I'm not there. Look, I'm not telling you have to be everywhere your family ever invites you. It's not the point. She told me her story. I said, well, why not? She told me the story and she was just mad, holding onto a grudge and offense. So what do you think? I said, well, in a nice way. I said, I don't think you're right at all. I think you're harboring unforgiveness. I think you're holding grudges and you claim to know the Lord and this is completely and utterly wrong. And she said, I made a big mistake today. I called a pastor and I should have called the devil. That's what she said to me. At least she's telling the truth. What is she saying? I just wanted you to validate my rage. I wanted you to tell me my grudge, my vengeance was okay. You can find anybody to tell you it's okay to ruin your life. You want to find someone you look hard enough. You won't have to look very hard. Somebody will say that sinful direction, that nasty thing you're thinking about doing. It's a great idea. You want to ruin your family. The Bible says in Proverbs, he walks with wise men will be wise. But the Bible says in first Corinthians, bad company corrupts good morals. Who you're with gets on you. It gets on you. What they say, who they are, the character of their heart, the advice that they give the time spent your ears, listen, and it eventually gets in your heart. You want to hang with bad company. It'll corrupt your heart. You'll start justifying things you never could have imagined. You're listening to true hope with 10, nine with Wes Morris. Our name comes from Romans chapter 10, verse nine, which says, if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead. You will be saved. If you'd like to be sent a free Bible text, true hope to 97,000 again, text true hope to 97,000. Now, once again, here's Wes. First Kings chapter 12, be back to the left in your Bible. About three eighths of an inch worth of pages. We'll come back to Psalm 101. There was a guy in the Bible. He's a King. He is known as the wisest man who ever lived King Solomon. He sat on the throne and through his reign, the kingdom expanded. Enemies were put to flight. The borders grew. Prosperity ran high and far blessing and peace. Godliness wasn't perfect, but a lot of things that the hand of God happened through Solomon's reign built enormous majestic structures and he died. His son, Rehoboam is appointed to take over the throne. So he becomes King in Solomon's place upon his death. Rehoboam has never been a King. He doesn't know quite what to do. He's observed it, but he's never lived it. So he wants to get some advice. He's like, I don't really know what I'm doing here. That's good. Bible says there's safety in a multitude of counselors. He just wanted her to be the godly kind. Look what he says. First Kings 12 verse six, King Rehoboam consulted with the elders who had served his father Solomon while he was still alive saying, how do you counsel me to answer this people, the people of the nation? Then they spoke to him saying, if you will be a servant to this people today and we'll serve them and grant them their petition and speak good words to them, then they will be your servants forever. You want good morale. You want loyalty. This is how you ought to do it. Verse eight, but he forsook the counsel of the elders, which they had given him and consulted with the young men who grew up with him and served him. So he said to them, what counsel do you give that we may answer this people who have spoken to me saying, lighten the yoke, which your father put on us. Verse 10,

The Lord Reigns A message by Wes Morris • True Hope with Ten9 • Psalm 97 Broadcast Introduction Welcome to True Hope with Ten9 and Wes Morris. God has revealed Himself to every person, and He reigns over all creation, every idol, and every soul. Today, Wes asks how God can reign in your heart and in your life. “This is the only way, the only truth, and the only life, and nobody comes to the Father except through Jesus. He reigns over all false gods, and our commission, our call, our eternal responsibility to the world is to tell the nations that the Lord reigns.” Now, here’s Wes. The Lord Reigns Over All the Earth Good morning, everybody. If you have a Bible today, turn with me, if you would, please, to Psalm 97. I want to tell you today: the Lord reigns. There is no place that is out of His sight, no circumstance out of His reach, and no person He does not know—including you. The Bible tells us that the Lord reigns over all the earth. Psalm 97, verse 1: “The Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice; let the many islands be glad. Clouds and thick darkness surround Him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne. Fire goes before Him and burns up His adversaries round about. His lightnings lit up the world; the earth saw and trembled. The mountains melted like wax at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth. The heavens declare His righteousness, and all the peoples have seen His glory.” Psalm 97:1–6, as read in the message The Lord reigns, and the Bible says all people have seen His glory. The book of Acts says He permitted all the nations to go their own ways, and yet He did not leave Himself without witness. Everybody—regardless of where they live, how they were raised, or what knowledge or technology they have access to—has some impression upon their heart in the course of their life that there is a God. He does not leave Himself without witness. For everyone, at a basic level, it is the creation of God: the creation of the world, the beauty, the complexity, the unique nature of God’s design. It speaks. For others, it is the soul. We all, the Bible says, have eternity written in our hearts. We all have a sense that there is something beyond this life. Tribes in faraway places have all developed some custom, some ritual, some religiously flavored idea of what happens to the soul when people die. They may be wrong. It may be a corrupted, blinded view, but there is something in their hearts. We all sense there is more than what we see, that existence extends beyond our present lives. He has written eternity in our hearts. That’s a witness. The Bible says our conscience bears witness. The book of Romans says that people who don’t even believe in God instinctively do the things of the law of God. It says they show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness. There’s a certain baseline code of morality stamped on the soul and heart of every person. One day you just realize, without necessarily being taught, what is right and what is wrong, what is and is not proper treatment of another person. People know this. It doesn’t matter whether you had a good government or a bad one, whether your parents taught you well or not, or whether you had parents at all. People know what’s wrong, and they know what’s right. They see wrong, and something happens in their hearts to recognize it. There is a natural outrage in the human spirit toward that which is evil. This is the witness of God in the conscience. It can be corrupted. The Bible says it can be seared as with a branding iron, until you can’t feel it anymore. You can numb it, dull it, and destroy your good conscience, but we are all given that witness. Justice and righteousness are the foundation of His throne, and there are places waiting for it. People may not even know from whom justice will come, but there is something in their hearts asking for it. The hungry, the destitute, the exploited, those who have been enslaved—there is something in their hearts crying, “Somebody come and fix this. Set it right.” The Bible says all people have seen His glory. The book of Nahum says, “He knows those who take refuge in Him.” He knows those who have been convicted and have responded to the conviction of the Holy Spirit, turned from sin, believed, and now belong to Him. The Bible says the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the earth, beholding the evil and the good. He knows those who belong to Him. From every tribe, tongue, people, language, skin color, and culture, He knows those who have called on Him, surrendered, and come to Him by faith. They belong to Him. For others, it says, “Because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of the righteous judgment of God.” Stubborn of heart! There are some who have seen His witness, seen creation, and felt the eternal longing in their souls to know the God who breathed into them the breath of life, who imprinted consciousness on their souls, and yet they have calloused themselves to all of it. They have become stubborn, refusing to repent even though convicted, refusing to come even though drawn. The Lord reigns, and all people have seen His glory. The Lord Reigns Above All Gods Verse 7: “Let all those be ashamed who serve graven images, who boast themselves of idols. Worship Him, all you gods.” Zion, the assembly of the righteous, heard this and was glad, and the daughters of Judah rejoiced because of Your judgments, O Lord. “For You are the Lord Most High over all the earth; You are exalted far above all gods.” The Lord reigns above all gods. Because we have an innate sense that there is a God who made us and the world around us, we have a natural desire to worship. Everybody here is worshiping something in some way, somehow. Whether it is the true God who reigns over the earth, I do not know. But when it is not, we manufacture other gods in His place. Our hearts and souls will do it. Some will be imagined, conjured up in our own minds; some may be material possessions. Somebody here may have a god that is not real in any spiritual sense, yet you have set it up as an idol—a car, a possession, a house, an ambition. Others will install false gods for themselves that are not imaginary. They are real spiritual powers; they are demonic, but they are not the true God of the whole earth. This has been going on for a long time. The Bible tells many stories like this. In the Old Testament, people often struggled with the worship of Baal. They would set up altars to idols that had no power, could not see, hear, speak, or save. But behind those idols, perhaps there was a real power. I happen to believe there was—a power of darkness, a power of evil, deceiving the masses, blinding their minds, and luring them into validating the sinful desires of their flesh. Broadcast Break You’re listening to True Hope with Ten9 and Wes Morris. Our name comes from Romans 10:9, which says, “If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” If you would like to receive a free Bible, text TRUEHOPE to 97000. Again, text TRUEHOPE to 97000. Now, once again, here’s Wes. The prophet Elijah came one day to people who were deceived by Baal and his false prophets. There was a debate, and he said, “Why don’t we find out who the true God is? Why don’t we find out today? Let’s build two altars. You build one to Baal, and I’ll build one to God. The God who answers by fire—He’s real.” How about that? They foolishly said, “This sounds like a good idea.” That’s what they said. And Elijah said, “Well, you go first.” They built an altar meticulously—with wood, stone, and an animal sacrifice—and they called on Baal: “Answer us! Answer us, O Baal!” But he didn’t answer. Elijah came and mocked them: “Maybe he’s asleep. Yell louder!” They yelled louder, but he still didn’t answer. They cut themselves, bled, danced, and jumped on the altar, making themselves the sacrifice. “Please answer us, Baal! Answer us!” I wonder what you’ve been pleading with to give you peace. What altar do you dance on? People’s approval never seems to be enough. You plead for promotions, work yourself to death to ascend, accomplish, accumulate, and consume. For what? You still don’t have joy. You still don’t have this happiness; it’s a mirage in the desert you cannot grasp. You bleed out on the altar of one failed relationship after another, drunkenness, and highs of every kind, and yet you’re still in the basement of loneliness and despair. The Bible says they danced, jumped, cut themselves, and bled all day. Yet there was no voice. No one answered. No one paid attention. The prophet Elijah came and said, “Stop this nonsense. That’s enough. Stop.” He built an altar, placed an animal on it, and said, “You know what we’re going to do here? We’re going to dig a ditch around it and soak this altar with water, just so you know for sure.” Then he knelt and prayed to God, and a pillar of fire fell from heaven and consumed the altar, vaporizing the water, the stone, the wood, and the animal. The Lord reigns over all gods. The Bible says in the book of Deuteronomy that they sacrificed to demons who were not God. They sacrificed to demons. Somebody here may be seeking happiness, pleading with demons, sacrificing your life, your resources, your mind, and your energy to demons that have deceived and blinded you. So many religions have different names, but they sacrifice to demons. I’ve sat in a car in foreign lands and watched starving people—children, babies, mothers, and families—hungry and desperate, with no safety net, in the chains of Hinduism and the demonic names of their demon-inspired idols. They walk around a fattened cow lying in the middle o

Psalms: When You Envy the Wicked  Transcribed by TurboScribe and may contain errors. Broadcast is edited for time.   Great to see you today. If you have a Bible, turn with me, if you would, to Psalm 73. I want to talk to you today about when we envy the wicked, those people that seem to live a life of sinful indulgence, rejecting God, His standard of righteousness. Do whatever they want. Take advantage of people. Live a ruthless, selfish life. Nothing seems to happen. And you, on the other hand, may be here today. You happen to know the Lord. And you want to honor God. You want to observe His commandments. You want to live a life that projects glory to Him. And there's all kinds of things wrong with your life. And we look at the wicked and we say, how? Why? There's a man in the Bible, his name is Asaph. He was commissioned by King David to lead the people in worship and to be part of the ceremony of honoring and bringing praise to God. And he observed the same thing that we sometimes observe. And he wrote it down. Psalm 73, 1. Asaph said, surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. But as for me, my feet came close to stumbling and my steps had almost slipped. For I was envious of the arrogant as I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there are no pains in their death. Their body is fat. They are well-fed. They have no need. They are not in trouble as other men, nor are they plagued like mankind. Their pride is their necklace. Their garment of violence covers them. Their eyes bulge from fatness. The imaginations of their heart run riot. They mock and wickedly speak of oppression. They speak from on high. They have set their mouth against the heavens and their tongue parades through the earth. Not only do they do the things that are dishonoring to God, they wear a necklace of pride about it. They boast in their rebellion. Verse 12. Behold, these are the wicked, and always at ease they have increased in wealth. Asaph says, surely in vain or to no end I have kept my heart pure and washed my hands in innocence. For I have been stricken all day long and chastened every morning. Just like Asaph, when you envy, when you are jealous of the wicked, you question the point of righteousness. He says it out loud. Have I in vain kept my heart pure? What was the point? These people go around in pride and violence. They oppress and they mock. Asaph looked over their life. He looked over the landscape of their being. He said, they don't have pain and death. There seems to be no suffering. They have no trouble. And they are not plagued like the rest of mankind. They don't seem to have the problems everybody else has, yet they defy the very one who demands righteousness. Malachi observed the same thing. He said, they test God and escape. They test God and they get away with it. He said, so why? Why am I doing what I'm doing? Why have I kept my heart pure in vain? Why are my hands, why are my hands washed in innocence? Meaning, why do I need to do what is right? It doesn't seem to pay off. Somebody here, you might ask the same question. Why stay honest? Because the people that lie seem to get advanced forward. It seems to benefit them and they test God and get away with it. They lie, they cheat, they steal. Why should I be humble? Lord calls me to be humble. I don't want to be humble. They walk around with a necklace of pride. Why don't I take advantage and brag about getting away with it like they do? Why forgive when I could seek my own revenge? That'd feel good, someone would say. We know God calls us to these verses that if we're being honest can sometimes annoy our flesh. Never seek your own revenge would be an example of that. You say, man, I would like to strike back, but here I got the word of God telling me not to, to trust in the wrath of God, which when I check my watch is taking too long. That's what Asaph is feeling and you look around, why do I wash my hands in innocence? I watch these other people indulge everything they want. They give into the impulses of the flesh. They sleep around and it seems to be going just fine, but here I am in this fight, in this resistance and I got drama. I have storms and their business succeeds. Their health seems fine and their family seems great and I got all this trouble. I think about a kayak on a river with a current. It's like you're paddling against the current sometimes in this life as a Christian. Everybody's just floating by waving at you, doing what they want, easy. You're paddling, you're paddling, you're sweating and your muscles burn and you're tempted to do what right now? Pick the paddle up, just let the current sweep the vessel around and send you down the river and just float in the direction of ease and comfort. When we envy the wicked, we question the point of righteousness. Asaph said, this is troublesome to me. He said, I was troubled by it. I tried to solve it. I tried to place it somewhere where it made sense. I tried to file it on the shelf and go, okay, I get it. Couldn't do it. He said, I was troubled by it. Verse 17, until I came into the sanctuary of God, then I perceived their end, the wicked. Verse 18, surely you have set them in slippery places. You cast them down to destruction. How they are destroyed in a moment. They are utterly swept away by sudden terrors like a dream. When one awakes, O Lord, when aroused, you will despise their form. When my heart was embittered, somebody now, and I was pierced within, then I was senseless and ignorant. I was like a beast before you. I was like an animal that had no sense other than instinct. And my instinct said, they get away with it. Why don't I go their way? I couldn't figure it out until I came into the sanctuary of the Lord. When we envy the wicked, we question the point of righteousness and we also forget their fate. We forget where their life is headed. Again, this is not about riches. This is not about wealth. This is not about good health and your body being bad. What this is about is he looked around and he says, a lot of people are getting those things by evil means. Why don't I commit evil and I could have, I could get, I could consume more. We forget their fate when we envy them. We are envying a raft about to go off a waterfall. And we don't remember. He says, it was troublesome to me, but then I came into the sanctuary of God and I perceived their end. I'd forgotten their end. I forgot in a moment and sudden terror, they will be swept away. Sometimes we get hypnotized by the world, by things that people have and who people are by evil. It can be enchanting to look at beautiful people, fancy lives, and shiny things and feel that because we are faithful to God, we deserve, we are entitled to all of that and more. And it fogs our mind and clouds our heart. That's what happened to Asaph. He said, my foot was slipping as I observed the arrogant and the prosperity of the wicked. You're out there trying to be faithful, trying to be a witness for the Lord. Keep your heart and your hands clean. Then you saw that new car they had, and your car has four engine lights on. And just last week you paid money you didn't have to get them all fixed up. And now you got new ones. Now there's a sound, but you're trying to do right. You're trying to be right. You're trying to be in the word of God. And you look around at wicked people, arrogant people, ruthless men, and they just built a brand new house. And your roof's still leaking, and you can't pay for it because your car with new engine lights took all your money. And they got all this property, and it's nice and quiet, and they can see the Big Dipper at night, and you got your neighbor's dog standing on your head in the middle of the night barking. And you got those party people next door, and you try to open your window on summer nights, and all you can smell is marijuana smoke rolling in your window. And you're like, I wish I had a new house. Look at these people. They lied. They cheat. I know things about them that these other people don't know. Look at what they have. And I honor God, and they don't. Say the rest of it. You feel like you deserve it. Does God owe you? We think, hear about that vacation they went on. You say, I can't do that. We forget their end. Watch out who you envy and why you envy them. Jesus warned, told that parable in the Gospel of Luke. He said, you know, there was this guy. It could be anybody. May it be a warning to you if you don't know the Lord today. May it be a check of your jealous heart if you do know the Lord. But your feet are slipping. There was this guy, and his land was very productive. He was wealthy. He was rich. Again, the story's not about money. The story's not about success. The story's about the heart. And the Bible says that he said, you know what I'll do. I got so much stuff. I'll just tear these barns down. I'll build bigger barns. You see people like that. They go around their property. They look around their life. You know what? I don't like this barn anymore. They call people in, and they just pay them the money they have. They got piles of money. They smash it down and build a better one. I want a different barn. I want it bigger. I got more stuff. I can't fit it. I want a barn. I don't want rain getting on that tractor. I don't like this kitchen anymore. It's already two years old. Bring people in here with sledgehammers and get this all out. I want a different kitchen. I saw on social media, I saw on TikTok, they had a cool kitchen. I want that kitchen. Smash it. Build me a new one. They just pay for it. That guy was like that. He said, I want bigger barns. I want more stuff. And then he said at the end of it, he said, man, I have stored up many goods for many years to come. And he said to his soul, take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry. I'm going to retire early. And you look at people like that, and your eye becomes en

Sin destroys peace, health, and joy. Coming clean before God brings immediate and total forgiveness and relief. Psalms: The Forgiven   Turn with me, if you would, please, to Psalm 32. I want to talk to you about those who have been forgiven. Some people here or watching somewhere have been forgiven. Somebody today might need to be forgiven. Some burden on your heart. Some event in your past. The guy in the Bible, King David of Israel, he knew what forgiveness was. He knew the Lord. He saw the hand and the power of God at work in his life many times. If you know the young David's story when he was in the valley of Elah with a giant warrior named Goliath of Gath, you know God worked in his life. Years later, he was sitting on the throne as the king. He slipped. He wandered. He drifted from the path of righteousness like so many have done. Maybe somebody now came out in the evening time on the roof of the palace, saw somebody else's wife down there, and he did what so many have done. He needed forgiveness. Psalm 32 and verse 1. David wrote, how blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. How blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute or count iniquity, in whose spirit there is no deceit. When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night, your hand was heavy upon me. My vitality, my energy, fervor was drained away as with the fever heat of the summer. Those who have been forgiven, they know the price of sin. Anybody that's ever wandered anywhere, maybe in the likeness of the sin of David, maybe it was money, maybe it was envy, revenge, and you do it. You know what he's talking about when he says, day and night, your hand was heavy upon me. They know the price. They know the crushing weight that sin brings. He wrote about it again. Look at Psalm 38 over a few pages. The Bible says in Proverbs, bread obtained by falsehood is sweet. But afterward, your mouth will be filled with gravel. That's what sin is like. Tastes good for a moment. Bible calls it the passing pleasures of sin. When we indulge the temptation, whatever it may be, when we put our hand to that which God has forbidden, it can be a pleasure in a moment. Bread obtained by falsehood is sweet. It's like a bread cake. It is sweet. It's enjoyable to the surface, to the flesh for a moment, but then unexpectedly, like a shock, the terror in the reality as it turns to cold stones of gravel, breaking your teeth, appear by surprise in your mouth. This is what sin does and what it always becomes. That place you've been going, those words that you say, those lies that you've been telling, the secrets that we keep, it turns to gravel. God was in the car with you when you thought nobody knew. God saw the text messages that you believe are gone. He saw it. David writes again, Psalm 38, your arrows, verse two, have sunk deep into me, deep. Your hand has pressed down on me. Verse four, he said, my iniquities, my sin are going over my head as a heavy burden. They weigh too much for me. Somebody today, you say, I'm in over my head here. It's too much. Verse six, I am bent over and greatly bowed down. I go mourning all day long. Sin will change your actual physical posture. It's so heavy on your heart. You begin to walk and you begin to look the way you feel. He said, I'm bent over. There's no more confidence. There's no more free spirit in David. He's bent over and pushed down by what's on the inside. Verse eight, he said, I am benumbed and badly crushed. I groan because of the agitation of my heart. That's the pit in your stomach that sin brings. Those who've been forgiven, they know the price. Verse 10, he said, my heart throbs. My strength fails me. The light of my eyes, even that is gone from me. That spark. Sin will take it right out. The dull, hollow, thousand-yard stare of a person persisting in sin. David knew it well. Somebody right now, you know it. Verse 14, he said, I'm like a man who does not hear and in whose mouth are no arguments. You say something to somebody crushed by sin, they don't even respond half the time. He said, I'm like a person that can't hear and in whose mouth are no arguments. There are no arguments. They don't. Hey, did you hear what I just said? Huh? They're gone in the trance of the burden. Those who have been forgiven, they know the price. I wonder if David sits here now. Back to Psalm 32. What did he do? What can you do? You say, man, how does this guy, this guy in the Bible, how does he know? Because it's a spiritual truth for all of us. Verse five, when he was crushed in his vitality, his energy was drained away with this regret and shame and the gravel in his mouth. He said, I acknowledged my sin to you, my iniquity I did not hide. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord and you forgave the guilt of my sin. Therefore, he said, verse six, let everyone who is godly pray to you in a time when you may be found. God is beckoning and prodding somebody's heart. Now, will you respond while he may be found? Said surely in a flood of great waters, they will not reach him. The one who calls to the Lord when the torrent bursts. God's grace surrounds you. Said you are my hiding place. You preserve me from trouble. You surround me with songs of deliverance. Those who've been forgiven, they know the price of sin. And anybody who's ever been forgiven, they have come clean. They have come clean to God. He said, I acknowledged it. I knew why this was happening. Somebody today, maybe God is right now revealing. You know why it's happening. You know why the light's gone out. You know why you're slumped over. You know why the spring in your step is gone and you're like a deaf person that can't respond anymore. You know why. He said, I know why this happened. I know what I did. I was on the palace. The spirit of God was with me and I did it anyway. I know why I sit here. I acknowledge my sin to you, my iniquity I did not hide. Those who've been forgiven, they come clean, man. No more hiding. He said, I, my iniquity, I did not hide. He saw it. The eyes of the Lord in every place, beholding the evil and the good. David knew. No blame, no excuses and justification. Well, if this person had no, he was alone on the palace roof that night. His men were off fighting. Well, if I'd have been with them, I didn't go. Maybe he wasn't included. Maybe felt something. Oh, no one to blame. No more. I did it all by myself. The Bible says in Psalm 51, do you desire truth in the innermost being people pretend to tell the truth sometimes on the outside to persuade those in their life that this is the whole story that they know the beginning, middle and end of it. And that all is well. And we've moved past it. They try to convince people, but there's still something left. They didn't say there's still something left that hasn't been revealed and come to the light. And the Bible says the Lord desires truth in the innermost being all of it. Every nasty, dark, humiliating detail. He already knows you desire truth. David, when he came to the Lord, he came to the Lord with all of it. This is what I did. This is who I am. Bible says in prophet Isaiah, you have cast the Lord all my sins behind your back. God will do that. Maybe your family won't do that for you ever. I don't know. Maybe they hold you in unforgiveness. Maybe somebody said they loved you. Won't do that. But the Bible says that God will cast all your sins behind his back. He said, I have wiped out your transgressions like a thick cloud and your sins like a heavy mist. That's what it's like living in sin, like a mist, a cloud. You can't see very far. You don't know which way you're going. You're confused. Feel alone. Look at Luke chapter 15. Far to the right. Those who've ever been forgiven, man, you know, the price for sin. You know what David's talking about. You're very familiar with the heavy hand of God. His arrows pierce me deep. He said, those have been forgiven. They have come clean from their innermost being young man in the Bible. Jesus tells a story. Maybe it's about somebody here. He said, it works like this, our relationship to God tells a story of a young boy, arrogant man. Somebody now goes to his father and he demands his inheritance early. And by saying that he was saying, I really wish you were dead. I can't have the money until you're gone. I wish you were already gone. Can I have it now? So disrespectful, so entitled. The father says, okay. Says a boy takes that inheritance. He goes to a faraway land. That's where sin wants you alone. David on the palace alone. The young boy out there in the wilderness alone in a faraway land. Nobody knew. Nobody saw people. That's where he wants. He wants you alone in another town, in another place, in a hotel room on the business trip alone. That's where the darkness call. Come here. There's great joy out here. There's bread that tastes sweet. And so he went and like sin always does. He had, he had a blast at first big parties. The Bible says he wasted that inheritance with riotous, reckless living rents. The big mansion makes new friends or so he thinks. And so you thought they all come up at the parties. We're raucous, man. I bet the laughter was deafening. I'll bet the wine flowed freely. The drunken debauchery. I'll bet for a minute felt great to the flesh. Then the Bible says he runs out. So will you. It turned to gravel in his mouth. And all the friends were gone. It says no one was giving anything to him. They're all gone. It was all fake. As long as he could pay. As long as it was fun. We'll be with you forever, man. Gone. Everybody's gone. The money's gone. The girls are gone. The friends are gone. The big house is gone. The nice clothes. It's all gone. And he hires himself out as a slave to a pig farmer. And he's starving. And he says, I wish I could eat the husks. The pods that

The Prodigal Son

Come let us reason together. We are stained like scarlet needing the blood of Jesus to save us.

Joshua and Achin

Wes continues his message about Ziklag

How does God support us as witnesses and how do we witness?

Baptized

When In Ziklag (1)

Clouds without water are often found to be the tyrants among the people of God. A tyrant is a terrorist, not a shepherd. They care nothing for the sick, broken, scattered, and lost. Those they do encounter, they seek to dominate with force and severity rather than compassion. Tyrants would rather enslave people to systems of dependency and control than see them set free in Jesus. Tyrants ultimately are seeking to make disciples of themselves rather than Jesus. Like the Pharisees long ago, the modern-day tyrants actually view the grace of Jesus as a threat to their position and power. Are you under the influence of a tyrant? Have you come to the place of walking in the freedom that only the true Savior can give?

The Bible encourages believers to test the spirits of teachers to see if they are of God. They are to be tested by Jesus, as anyone who denies Jesus as coming in the flesh is not of God. They are to be tested by the Holy Spirit in that the Spirit gives power to discern truth and error. They are to be tested by the Word of God. A false teacher cannot accurately proclaim the Word nor can an unredeemed hearer receive its truth. Until a soul is made alive by the Spirit, the Word of God cannot be fully understood. Have you been made alive so as to hunger and thirst for righteousness?

The Bible declares that God works all things together for good to those who love God. The Lord will use trials that we encounter to render the fruit of endurance and strength. God can use evil that is committed against the believer for good. Affliction strips us of ourselves and drives us to the Lord and His word, positioning us where He will use us most. God can use your failure. Like Peter, having thrice denied Jesus, all of your failures can be turned to a testimony of God’s grace and mercy if we will just give it to Him. Have you given all of your life to Jesus, who can make it new?