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2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
Mike Slaughter  |
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Authenticity vs. Duplicity  Psalms 51 is a prayer
of honesty. It's easy to fool people but you can't fool
God. I want to be the real deal. Life is short. Last week
I stated that if you are 18-years-old you have a life
expectancy left of about 55 years. That statement scares
me because I'm 46. So, I want to have, in this short
life, an authentic relationship with God. It is so easy
to kind of hang out at the surface and be superficial.
You go through all of the motions but you never really
connect with God.Have
any of you ever been there? You go through the motions
but you never really connect. And it gets dangerous
because you live that way for so long you forget who you
are and you forget whose you are. And like David, king of
Israel-about 970 B.C., you get into something ugly that
you never dreamed you'd get into. He had an affair with a
woman named Bathsheba and it got so ugly that he
ultimately had her husband killed.I. Trust God's Love |
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| II Samuel 11:27 27: After the time of mourning was over, David had her brought to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing David had done displeased the Lord. |
 And
then he got what I call "Spirit Stupid." After
what he thought was the appropriate time, he married the
lady and brought her into the palace, thinking something
like 'no one is ever going to know.' We'll look like we
did this God's way.' He overlooked one thing, here it is.
Here is what the Bible says, "The Lord was very
displeased with what David had done." We forget that
sometimes. You can never know the fullness of life
outside of God's pleasure. So, David was miserable
because there was a wedge between David and what David
needed the most - a relationship with God. Finally David
gets honest. |
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| Psalm 51:3-4 3: For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. 4: Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge. |
 That's
what this Psalm is all about. Look at verses 3 and 4 with
me. I love it. He says, "I recognize my shameful
deeds." MY! You know it is so easy for us to
rationalize that a lot of times we have a lot of good
excuses for the things we do. Well, I haven't loved my
wife for a long time. Or, my wife didn't really give me
what I needed. You know all kinds of reasons as to why we
blame someone else. Getting honest means you use the word
'mine.' I recognize my shameful deeds.And
then notice what he says next: He says, "My sin is
ever before me." Now 'sin' is not a popular word.
Call it what it is. You know what sin is? It's either God
and God's perfect will for your life or it is no good.
There is no in-between. So, anything that is not God and
God's perfect will is sin and David says, "My sin is
ever before me." Do you know what the key is to
getting below the surface in your relationship with God?
It begins with getting honest. It begins with saying,
"God I am not where I should be." Friends, I
urge you to move out of your comfort zone. The reason
it's the same old-same old, is because you're on the
surface. It begins with saying, "Oh Lord, I'm not
satisfied with where I am. I want to go beyond I want to
get deep I want to go to the bottom of where I am
supposed to be with you." Now, David could risk
getting honest. Honest hurts. David could risk getting
honest because he trusted God's love. |
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