#Nofilter - David

Have you ever stumbled trying to run after Jesus?

In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem.
2 Samuel 11:1

Sometimes we stumble when we are not where God wants us to be.

So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
Galatians 5:16

One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful,
2 Samuel 11:2

Our eyes must turn from alluring objects that come into sight.

One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, “She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (Now she was purifying herself from her monthly uncleanness.) Then she went back home.
2 Samuel 11:2-4

Sin cost us more than we ever budgeted for.

So David sent this word to Joab: “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent him to David. When Uriah came to him, David asked him how Joab was, how the soldiers were and how the war was going. Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.” So Uriah left the palace, and a gift from the king was sent after him. But Uriah slept at the entrance to the palace with all his master’s servants and did not go down to his house. David was told, “Uriah did not go home.” So he asked Uriah, “Haven’t you just come from a military campaign? Why didn’t you go home?” Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in tents, and my commander Joab and my lord’s men are camped in the open country. How could I go to my house to eat and drink and make love to my wife? As surely as you live, I will not do such a thing!”
2 Samuel 11: 6-11

Stumbling is a gradual process.

You have two options when you fall.
Option 1: Stay Down
Option 2: Get Back Up

Why?

Why should you get up?

It doesn’t matter what you have been through or what has happened. What matters now is what you do after you have fallen.

Hold on to the father’s hand as he picks you, dusts you off and restores you.

When God restores you, he doesn’t restore you to the way you were before you fell. God’s restoration process makes you better than before.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
2 Corinthians 5:17

#Nofilter - Esther

Chapter 1
XERXES IS HAVING A MASSIVE PARTY:

Then Memukan replied in the presence of the king and the nobles, “Queen Vashti has done wrong, not only against the king but also against all the nobles and the peoples of all the provinces of King Xerxes. For the queen’s conduct will become known to all the women, and so they will despise their husbands and say, ‘King Xerxes commanded Queen Vashti to be brought before him, but she would not come.’ This very day the Persian and Median women of the nobility who have heard about the queen’s conduct will respond to all the king’s nobles in the same way. There will be no end of disrespect and discord.
Esther 1:16-18

Chapter #2
NOW WE HAVE A BACHELOR KING LONELY:

Then let the young woman who pleases the king be queen instead of Vashti.” This advice appealed to the king, and he followed it.
Esther 2:4

Chapter #3
AND THE PLOT THICKENS:

Chapter #4
ESTHER GETS WORD FROM MORDECAI ABOUT WHAT IS HAPPENING:
For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”
Esther 4:14

Chapter #5
ESTHER HAS A PLAN:

Chapter #6
CRAZY IRONY:
His attendants answered, “Haman is standing in the court.” “Bring him in,” the king ordered. When Haman entered, the king asked him, “What should be done for the man the king delights to honor?” Now Haman thought to himself, “Who is there that the king would rather honor than me?”
Esther 6:5-6

So he answered the king, “For the man the king delights to honor, have them bring a royal robe the king has worn and a horse the king has ridden, one with a royal crest placed on its head. Then let the robe and horse be entrusted to one of the king’s most noble princes. Let them robe the man the king delights to honor, and lead him on the horse through the city streets, proclaiming before him, ‘This is what is done for the man the king delights to honor!’”
Esther 6:7-9

“Go at once,” the king commanded Haman. “Get the robe and the horse and do just as you have suggested for Mordecai the Jew, who sits at the king’s gate. Do not neglect anything you have recommended.”
Esther 6:10

Chapter #7
ESTHER’S REQUEST:

Then Queen Esther answered, “If I have found favor with you, Your Majesty, and if it pleases you, grant me my life—this is my petition. And spare my people—this is my request. For I and my people have been sold to be destroyed, killed and annihilated. If we had merely been sold as male and female slaves, I would have kept quiet, because no such distress would justify disturbing the king.
Esther 7:3-4

King Xerxes asked Queen Esther, “Who is he? Where is he—the man who has dared to do such a thing?”
Esther 7:5

Esther said, “An adversary and enemy! This vile Haman!” Then Haman was terrified before the king and queen. The king got up in a rage, left his wine and went out into the palace garden. But Haman, realizing that the king had already decided his fate, stayed behind to beg Queen Esther for his life. Just as the king returned from the palace garden to the banquet hall, Haman was falling on the couch where Esther was reclining. The king exclaimed, “Will he even molest the queen while she is with me in the house?” As soon as the word left the king’s mouth, they covered Haman’s face.
Esther 7:6-8

Then Harbona, one of the eunuchs attending the king, said, “A gallows reaching to a height of 75 feet stands by Haman’s house. He had it set up for Mordecai, who spoke up to help the king.” The king said, “Impale him on it!” So they impaled Haman on the pole he had set up for Mordecai. Then the king’s fury subsided.
Esther 7:9-10

THE QUESTION FOR US:
How can we leverage our current circumstances for God’s purpose?

Opportunity and Influence

“… Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky 16 as you hold firmly to the word of life.”
Philippians 2:14-16

No Ragrets - Personal Guardrails

• Remember

• Recall

• Repent

“Godly grief produces a repentance…
2 Corinthians 7:10

• Refocus

“Forget about what’s happened; don’t keep going over old history. Be alert, be present. I’m about to do something brand-new.”
Isaiah 43:18-19

“Great is His faithfulness; His mercies are new each morning.”
Lamentations 3:23

“We all sin and we all fall short of the Glory of God.”
Romans 3:23

“The prudent see danger and take refuge. But the simple keep going and suffer for it.”
Proverbs 27:12

The simple keep going and drive off the cliff.

Where do you need guardrails?

Career?
Marriage?
Finances?
Personal Integrity?

Many of our greatest regrets in life probably could have been avoided IF we had put personal guardrails in place…!

• Personal guardrails are standards of behavior that HAVE TO become matters of conscience!

• You can wreck your finances without spending unethically.

• You can ruin a relationship without doing anything sinful.

• Guardrails aren’t just meant to keep you on the safe side of right vs. wrong.

• In light of my past experiences, my current circumstances, and my future hopes and dreams, what’s the wise thing to do?

What’s the wise thing to do?

If you’re living too close to the edge, it may be time to set a guardrail.

Eventually our behavior (on the outside) will mirror what’s going on-on the inside.

• Guilt
• Anger
• Greed
• Jealousy

Guilt says, “I owe you.”

“Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.’’ And you forgave the guilt of my sin.”
Psalm 32:5

“I am about to die, and I cannot forget my pain. I confess my guilt; I am troubled by my sin.
Psalm 38:17-18

Anger says, “You owe me.”

“For a man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.”
James 1:20

“In your anger, do not sin; Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry and do not give the devil a foothold.”
Ephesians 4:26-27

“Fools give vent to their rage, but the wise bring calm in the end.”
Proverbs 29:11

Greed says, “I owe me.”

“A greedy man stirs up strife, but the one who trusts in the Lord will be enriched.”
Proverbs 28:25

“Whoever is greedy for unjust gain troubles his own household, but he who hates bribes will live.”
Proverbs 15:27

Jealousy says, “Life owes me.”

“But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual and demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.”
James 3:14-16

“So get rid of all evil behavior. Be done with all deceit, hypocrisy, jealousy and unkind speech.”
1 Peter 2:1

Ignore the warning and regret will be waiting on the other side.

“Though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again.”
Proverbs 24:16

No Ragrets - From Our Regrets to His Glory

Regret
   /rəˈɡret/
    noun
a feeling of sadness, repentance or disappointment over something that has happened or been done.

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.“
Romans 8:28

“Great is His faithfulness; His mercies are new each morning.”
Lamentations 3:23

“Forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 3:13-14

Bitterness
• the belief that God got it wrong.

Anxiety
• the belief that God’s not going to get it right.

Regret
• the belief that the mistakes I made are so bad that God can’t make it beautiful again.

“Christ died for a million regrets.”

“Today, you will be with me in paradise.”
Luke 23:43

“If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?”
Psalm 130:3

“Remember regrets to a point.”

“A life without regrets is a life built on a mirage.”

“Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”
Ephesians 2:12-13

“This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” -and I am the worst of them all.”
1 Timothy 1:15-16

“Press on in faith.”

“Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. That is, I haven’t become perfect. I haven’t arrived yet. But one thing I do: Forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 3:13-14

“For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death..”
2 Corinthians 7:10

“Come and I will give you rest.”
Matthew 11:28

The Hammer & Sword - Part 2

Picking up where we left off

“So we built the wall. And all the wall was joined together to half its height, for the people had a mind to work.”
Nehemiah 4:6

“And they all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to cause confusion in it.”
Nehemiah 4:8

Speculation is the Opposite of Revelation

They prayed

And I looked and arose and said to the nobles and to the officials and to the rest of the people, “Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes.”
Nehemiah 4:14

Our Family is Worth Fighting For

We fight for our family

If we run from conflict, that’s what will chase us.

…Those who carried burdens were loaded in such a way that each labored on the work with one hand and held his weapon with the other. And each of the builders had his sword strapped at his side while he built…
Nehemiah 4:17b, 18a

Are you prepared to fight today?

When we fight for what God has called us to, there is no way to know how God will use it.

We have no idea how much God will use our obedience.

The Hammer & Sword - Part 1

Now it happened in the month of Chislev, in the twentieth year, as I was in Susa the citadel, that Hanani, one of my brothers, came with certain men from Judah. And I asked them concerning the Jews who escaped, who had survived the exile, and concerning Jerusalem. And they said to me, “The remnant there in the province who had survived the exile is in great trouble and shame. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are destroyed by fire.”
Nehemiah 1:1-3

Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples, but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will gather them and bring them to the place that I have chosen, to make my name dwell there.’
Nehemiah 1:8-9

I said to the king, “Let the king live forever! Why should not my face be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers’ graves, lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?” Then the king said to me, “What are you requesting?” So I prayed to the God of heaven.
Nehemiah 2:3-4

• Permission to leave his position for a time and rebuild Jerusalem
• Letters of safe passage
• Timber from the king’s forest

God prepares us to act boldly in obedience.

Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in, how Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned. Come, let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer suffer derision.” And I told them of the hand of my God that had been upon me for good, and also of the words that the king had spoken to me. And they said, “Let us rise up and build.” So they strengthened their hands for the good work. But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite servant and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they jeered at us and despised us and said, “What is this thing that you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?” Then I replied to them, “The God of heaven will make us prosper, and we his servants will arise and build, but you have no portion or right or claim in Jerusalem.”
Nehemiah 2:17-20

Haters gonna hate

And next to them

• UNITY
• RESPONSIBILITY
• ACCOUNTABILITY

You don’t have to carry your burdens alone.

When we help carry each other’s burdens, everyone carries less.

Christianity cannot be an occasional additive to our lives.

There were plenty of people that didn’t help Israel rebuild.

Not everyone present is willing to participate.

If we are not willing to serve, how can we ever lead?

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
Hebrews 10:24-25

I want to build beside you.

When church is only something that happens on Sunday, we are all missing the benefits of community.

God uses the burdens on our hearts to shape us.

God calls us to step out boldly when He presents us with opportunity.

God calls us to unite and work beside one another to build and defend.