Peter Roselle: Stop Normalizing Sin... Go and Sin No More (John 8:11)

It says in Acts 14:22, look at this as… Here’s the spiritual warfare piece right now. And it’s not like they didn’t warn us. It’s not like the writers of the New Testament didn’t warn us. It says, “It’s necessary for us to enter into the realm “of God’s kingdom, because that’s the only way “that we will endure the many trials and persecutions “of being an ambassador for the king.” This is a radical message, that we’re bringing.

00:26 - And could I just comment on America right now? I think a big part of the problem is, that the churches have just been too decaffeinated and just been too ready to just water down the power of the Word and say, well, no, that’s okay, that’s okay, that’s okay. That’s normalizing sin. And God’s not happy about normalizing sin. We were forgiven of our sins, but He told the woman caught in adultery, “Go sin no more.” Oh, she might’ve said, I feel so judged. Well then go ahead and keep sinning and watch what happens. It’s a disaster. I have good news for you, but you need to now be a diligent seeker of the Lord and He will help you.

01:07 - He will empower you so that you won’t give into that sin nature. Last portion I’m in 1st Samuel now. And you guys probably remember this, if you studied the life of David at all, 1st Samuel 12 is before David comes on the scene, but it’s the beginning of King Saul’s reign and that did not go well, right? You all know that we could look at King Saul in the Old Testament as the master of our flesh. He didn’t pray, when he wasn’t sure what to do. He went and visited a witch. And this is after being told that he was the anointed of God. Was he the anointed of God? Yes. Did he act like it? No, but God has a big long set of patience with us. He really wants it to work.

01:49 - He didn’t really want them to have a king though, but He still made a way out. And that’s how you could look at family members or other people who aren’t Christians, it should break our hearts, that they don’t know the Lord, because they’re missing out on the best thing. And that one decision to get saved, would change so many decisions that they make in their lives, right? And it’s easy to forget what it was like, if you’ve been saved a long time. So this is what it says in verse 14 of 1st Samuel 12, “If you fear the Lord and serve Him and obey His voice “and if you don’t rebel against the command of the Lord” all right? This is after they decided that they wanted a king. We wanna be like the other nations. We want a king. He says, all right, listen, God’s gonna do it.

02:34 - And here’s the condition that you have to fear the Lord and serve Him and obey His voice. And if you do not rebel against the command of the Lord and if both you and the king who reigns over you follow the Lord, then, all will be well. It’s a lot of ifs. If you’re a computer programmer, you know about the if statements, the if and the then, right? Well, okay. So there’s a narrow road that leads to life here. If you wanna have this king, you can do it.

03:01 - But a term to these conditions, fear the Lord, serve Him, obey His voice. Don’t rebel against Him. If you and your king follow the Lord, then all will be well. But verse 15, “If you disobeyed the Lord and rebel against “His command, then the hand of the Lord will be against you “as it was against your fathers.” Verse 16. “Now, therefore stand and see this great thing “that the Lord will do before your eyes. “Is that not the wheat harvest today?” Now they’re in an agricultural culture, right? So the wheat harvest is something they’ve been waiting for.

03:32 - They put a lot of work into, putting those seeds in the ground and waiting for it to grow and keeping the pests away. And now it says, yeah, “I will call on the Lord “to send thunder and rain, so that you’ll know and see “what a great evil you’ve committed in the sight of the Lord “by asking for a king.” All right, so this is Samuel now. And you might say, well, God’s not angry anymore. No, He’s not. But when you disobey Him, you take yourself out from underneath the protection of the blessing, ‘cause the blessing comes in obedience. And that’s why we can’t water down the truth of the gospel and say, well, you know, if you love each other it’s no big deal.

04:07 - Oh no, you better make a commitment and you better make a covenant commitment. It’s a really big deal. (exhaling) I could go off on that tangent and I won’t, but they would understand the analogy here, because when the law was given, there was thunder and lightning on that mountain and they didn’t wanna touch that mountain, back at Exodus, right? Chapter 19, they heard the sound trumpets blowing, thunder lightning. Like they knew, they were too afraid. They said, Moses, you go for us. ‘Cause we can’t, we’ll die, if we go there. And now the same thing happens here. He calls on the Lord. So verse 18, Samuel called on the Lord. And on that day, the Lord sent thunder and rain. And as a result of people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel.

04:50 - And they pleaded with him, pray to the Lord, your God for your servants so that we will not die. We need to pray for America, that we won’t be judged by God for abortion. We can just stop right there. Nevermind the many, many other ways that we have violated the covenant that God said, if you wanna be blessed, you need to be obedient to me. And look, it says it, read in the dollar bill, “In God we trust.” And we just have to watch the spiritual warfare that would start to drift us away from those things.

05:24 - And you could find it pretty easily if you’re looking for it, that God would say, yeah there is a difference a biological difference between a man and woman, that should be evident to anybody with two eyes. You should see that there’s a biological difference, right? So when the very foundations of family and structure is being attacked, you know that’s a spiritual attack, is if you can confuse people about their identity then you can rule them much more easily. That’s understanding of spiritual warfare. They don’t know who they are, so that we will not die for you have added to all the sins, the evil… They were saying, we’ve added to all the other sins the evil of asking for a king because we didn’t trust you to be our king.

06:14 - And then Samuel says this great thing, which is what we as the church should be saying. Don’t be afraid, even though you’ve committed all this evil don’t turn aside from following the Lord. You can say that to people. It’s true. We all make bad decisions. There’s forgiveness. There’s redemption. You’ve turned aside for following the Lord, but don’t do that now, serve the Lord with part of your heart? Yeah, it’s good that you can see that, “Thou shall love the Lord, your God with all your heart, “soul, mind and strength” not so easy, is it? Cindy Jacobs said, the problem with living sacrifices is they keep crawling off the alter. I wanna sacrifice everything to you Lord but, lemme go do this first. And then forgive me, when I come back and repent. 21.

07:09 - This is real powerful, 1st Samuel 12:21, “Don’t turn aside after worthless things, that cannot profit “you or deliver you for they are empty.” Can you think of anything, video games? Do you think I’m talking to kids, but I see adults, when I used to ride the Subway all the way back in February since I’ve been in New York city but, I mean, people were just rude. They would ignore everything around them. They were so lost in the video game. These are adults, like it’s really addictive, isn’t it? Oh, I don’t know, maybe I’m stepping on somebody’s toes. I better back off. Sports? Think guys can become addicted to sports? Oh, you’re reading the sports page more than the Bible. And you’re saying, Jesus is your king? How far should I go on this examples? Not too far.

08:02 - You get the point? There’s never been a day when there’s been more things competing for your attention, that are right in your pocket in this super computer called the phone. But what does He reward? The diligence seeker after Him. I’m gonna love Him with all my heart, soul, mind and strength. And then verse 23. Oh, I guess I didn’t read 22 yet. “Indeed, for the sake of His great name, the Lord will not “abandon his people.” That’s where it’s saying again, isn’t it? “For the sake of his great name, “the Lord will not abandon his people” because He’s pleased to make you His own. Even if you’ve made mistakes, it’s okay. There’s mercy. “As for me…

” I love this, this is so convicting though, 08:46 - “Far be it for me that I should sin against “the Lord by ceasing to pray for you.” Say amen or ouch. - [Congregation] Amen. - Nobody said ouch? I said ouch. Ooh, it’s a sin not to pray? Yup. There it is. The prayer of sinlessness is spelled out right there and look, here’s the thing. I was one of those people and I’ve said it enough times you know that my wife modeled something very different from me about a prayer life that I found very appealing, because it was a relationship with the Lord. It wasn’t a list of things in my logical brain. That’s how everything worked okay. I gotta pray first, 10 minutes.

09:25 - I don’t know, can I afford 10 minutes? That’s a bad idea. When you understand God is a loving Father. He’s in relationship with you. You bring Him into every situation throughout the day. This is why it says in the Bible. “Pray at all times” it’s not excluding other things. It’s just keeping Him in the conversation, in everything you do and not thinking anything you do, doesn’t matter to Him. It all matters to Him and He’s big enough to sort us all out. And then He said in verse 23 “And I will continue to teach you the good way “and the right way.” This is what the church is here for, all right? Now, we don’t have all the best qualifications, but we have Jesus and we have Holy Spirit and we have the Word of God. And part of the thing that the world loves about Christians that are authentic, is that even though they’re not perfect, they keep trying to follow the Lord. We’re not having to have perfect performance, in order for people to say, whatever it is you have. I don’t know what it is, but I want it.

10:21 - That’s the greatest witness, isn’t it? And it’s not because you’re perfect, it’s great to memorize scripture, you know, but don’t become a legalist. .