The Devil's Playbook | Week 6 | Pat McCalla

We're gonna look at a story today of a guy, that's what his life was like. He's a teenager and he's going into communities and this is what's happening, they're chanting his name. We're also gonna find something from the story, it's really our big idea this weekend that sin makes us stupid. Sin makes us stupid.

It's a big idea for this weekend. Now, I'm telling you right now this is gonna be an uncomfortable message for you, it's an uncomfortable message for us, for me. If you're not uncomfortable during this message, if there's not some discomfort, you don't know yourself very well. You should be uncomfortable because with

this idea of sin makes us Disintegrate. That includes you. And me. And me. So let me show you what I mean. Second Samuel

chapter 11, you can open your Bibles there. Second Samuel chapter 11, as you're opening let me give you a little background. This is the story of a guy who by the time he's in his teenage years is hearing his name chanted. He was a guy named David. His earlier life, some of you know his story, he was a shepherd boy, he had killed a lion, he had killed a bear.

He goes out to a battlefield one day where his brothers are fighting, and there's this big giant Goliath of the Philistines that was coming out and mocking the army of the Israelites,

and David's like, why is no one out fighting him? We got God on our side. So David goes out and fights Goliath and defeats this giant, and he starts climbing the ranks. Even Saul, the king at that time, King Saul, even Saul looks at him and sees something and he's climbing the ranks, so now David, he's barely a teenager

or late teenage years and everywhere he goes, he hears, do it for him now. David, David. This is what he would hear. Imagine. He's going into communities and towns with Saul, the king at the time, and he'd hear people shout out, Saul's killed his hundreds, but David is thousands.

Which shouldn't go over well for Saul by the way, but that's a story for another time. But then David becomes king. By the time we get to two Samuel chapter 11, David has been king for almost twenty years.

He was a hero. He was a war hero. He was an author. He wrote music. He was a worship pastor. He was a leader of leaders. Three thousand years later we still talk about this guy named King David who was a great leader. He was a man known to be after God's own heart. But we are going to see that sin makes you. You.

Watch this story. Second Samuel chapter 11. We are going to pick it up in verse one. Watch the progression of mistakes

in this story. Watch the progression of mistakes. Remember who we're talking about. A guy that's been leading as king for twenty years.

He's a man after God's own heart. He's an author. He's a worship pastor. Watch this. In the spring of the year, underline this next part, when kings normally go to war, when kings are out fighting with their men, when the kings are with their men in the battlefield, when kings normally go to war, what does David do?

David sent Joab, that's his general as you're gonna see, and the Israelite army to fight the Ammonites. He doesn't go with them. They destroyed the Ammonite army, laid siege to that city, however David stayed behind in Jerusalem.

Mistake number one, David's not where he's supposed to be, he's not doing what he's supposed to be doing. Mistake number one, David's not where he's supposed to be, he's not doing what he's supposed to be doing.

And I don't know what happened to David, I don't know what his thinking was, I can imagine because I'm a human, you're human, you know how we think this way. I imagine that maybe David started going, you know,

I've been leading this for twenty years. I've been going to the battlefield with my men, I deserve a break. You ever been there, right? This is what we do as humans. I deserve this, I've earned this.

So David's not where he's supposed to be, he's not doing what he's supposed to be doing. It's the traveling business person who's traveling with no accountability. It's the person who has the smart device and a code on it that no one else knows, So they can look at things or watch things that no one else knows.

You're not doing what you're supposed to be doing.

You're not doing the responsibilities you're supposed to have. Mistake number one, David's not where he's supposed to be. He's not doing what he's supposed to be doing. Sin makes you I told you this was gonna get uncomfortable, it gets worse, I'm sorry to say. Verse two, watch this. Late one afternoon

after his midday rest, so remember he's supposed to be out fighting with his men, but his nap time, he's a little blankie nap time. Late that one afternoon, after his midday rest, David got out of bed, was walking on the roof of the palace, as he looked out over the city, he noticed a woman of unusual beauty taking a bath.

Mistake number two, is clicking through porn. Now I say it that way because I get that sometimes we do this as humans again, we read a story like this and we're like, well that's not really me, I mean I don't have a palace overlooking other people's homes with bathing women, so I don't struggle with that.

No, in modern terms we can say that he's actually up there, he's got his laptop open and he's working and some porn sites start popping up. And instead of closing it, instead of clicking out of it, instead of calling someone for accountability,

he clicks to the next one and the next one and the next one. Mistake number two, mistake number two. He's clicking through the porn sites. Sin makes you Sin. Okay, it gets worse. I'm sorry, this gets more uncomfortable. Watch this. Verse three, he sent someone to find out who she was. What? What?

He sent someone to find out who she was and he was told she's Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.

Hold on to that name. I'm gonna come back to that a little bit later. You may have heard, some of you have heard this story before, but if you don't know who Uriah the Hittite is, you're gonna be even more angry about what happens in the story once you find out who this is, okay? It's Bathsheba,

wife of Uriah the Hittite, but look at mistake number three, the beginning of that verse. He sent someone to find out who she was. Mistake number three, curiosity killed a cat.

I heard that phrase sometimes when I was growing up. Maybe some of you have heard it. I'm like, what does that even mean? I looked it up. It was a proverb that was first used like four hundred years ago. And it doesn't mean that curiosity for curiosity's sake is bad, we actually learn and discover a lot of things because we're curious. But curiosity without contentment.

Curiosity about things that should be left alone, like other people's spouses. That's where you can get in trouble. So mistake number three. He's curious about something that he shouldn't be curious about. Sin makes you stupid. Look, verse four. Then David sent messengers to get her and when she came to the palace,

he slept with her. Mistake number four, the thought has now become the deed. The thought has now become the deed.

Now I

do this almost every time I speak. If you watch me speak or if you heard me speak before, you probably heard me somewhere in some message, I almost always bring it back to here and I need to do it again. I need to give us a warning right here. Because what we end up doing sometimes is we start thinking is God is this like overbearing boss that has a whole bunch of rules for us. And that's how I lived a lot of my life thinking that was God. But you might wanna take a picture of this quote, it's gonna go up on the screen in a second. Young people, you're gonna be mad because your parents are gonna be quoting this quote to you, I guarantee you. Look at this, if God is good, then God's no might be one of his greatest expressions of love for us.

Okay, we'll try that again, because I was thinking we'd get something out of that. If God is good, then God's know might be one of his greatest expressions of love for us. Do you believe that? Do you believe that? See,

if God is really good, and he is, he is the good, good Father, if God is really good, then every time God says no to something, it might be one of his greatest expressions of love for us. It's not like he's some overbearing boss trying to make our lives boring and miserable.

When he says don't do this, it's because it will hurt us. And at this point in the story, we have to understand that because David's already been crossing lines. He wasn't where he was supposed to be. He starts getting curious about something he shouldn't be curious about. Now he's taken the thought and put it into a deed. All of those were things that God said don't do this. Is it because he's a miserable, overbearing boss type God? No, it's because they were expressions of love to say, David, this is gonna hurt you. And if you know the end of the story, you know it does hurt. In fact, he'll spend the rest of his life and his family will spend the rest of his life paying for this. Keep reading though, look at verse five. Later when Bathsheba discovered that she was pregnant, she sent David a message saying, I'm pregnant. Uh-oh.

Uh-oh. Sin makes you stupid. Look at verse six. Then David sent word to Joab, remember that's his general,

send me, I told you to remember this name, send me Uriah the Hittite. That's her husband. So Joab sent him to David. Why would David wanna talk to Uriah the Hittite? He just got this woman pregnant, why does he wanna talk to the husband? What's he doing? Verse seven, keep reading. Sin makes you stupid. When

Uriah arrived, David asked him how Joab and the army were getting along and how the war was progressing. Mistake number five, he's covering up rather than repenting. This would have been a very uncomfortable time to just come clean,

it but wouldn't have been an appropriate time to come clean. I mean at this point he's made some big mistakes but this would have been the time to say, hey, I have to confess something. I sinned against you and God. But he doesn't.

Instead he's gonna cover it. I told you to remember who this Uriah the Hittite was to hang on to that name. Because I heard this story a lot growing up. The story about David and Bathsheba but I didn't hear this side of the story.

Second Samuel chapter 23, and you can read it later, but growing up, I sometimes thought that, you know, like a lot of young people, I was like the bible seems kinda boring, and then I remember finding chapters like Second Samuel chapter 23, and I'm like, this is in the bible, this is so cool. And two Samuel 23 actually lists David's mighty men. They were like the elite fighting force for David. They were the Navy SEALs of his day. I mean they were the elite, elite fighting force. There was only about three dozen of them. And in two Samuel 23 it starts listing the exploits of these guys. I mean it was so cool, as a young man I'm reading that going, I can't believe, like these were warriors, they were fighting for Israel, this is in the Bible. One of them, one of them, one of David's mighty men, he's

running away with the army, the Philistines are chasing them, they're retreating, running in retreat, and all of a sudden he just gets sick of running and he stops in the middle of the field and he's like, I ain't running anymore. The rest of them keep running, he turns around and he takes on the Philistines by himself,

and he killed 300 Philistines with a spear all by himself. That was one of David's mighty men. I mean, that's a bad dude. Another guy, he's chasing a lion one day and the lion falls into a snowy pit, in the pit on a snowy day, and he jumps in the pit and kills the lion. I mean I would weave that story into every

conversation I had the rest of my life if that was me, wouldn't you? Did I tell you about the day that I killed the lion on a snowy day?

I mean is, these have to be another one of David's mighty men. You can read this in second Samuel 23 later. Another guy, he goes up against this massive Egyptian warrior who has his spear and this guy has a little club. He manages to rip the spear out of the Egyptian's hands and he kills the Egyptian. These aren't David's mighty men.

Go down the list and read, then it names them at the end of the chapter. Second Samuel chapter 23, it'll say and there was this guy and there was this guy and there was this guy. Get down to the last name and it's gonna be Uriah the Hittite. You know what that means?

That means for over twenty years now, David has been fighting shoulder to shoulder with Uriah. For over twenty years, Uriah has shed his blood on the battlefield for David. For twenty years, this was the elite warrior of warriors. This is a band of brothers, that's who this guy is. David just went and got his wife pregnant.

And now, and now if you read, if you kept reading in two Samuel chapter 11, he brings Uriah back, instead of coming clean, he's gonna keep covering up. So he's like, what do I do? So

Uriah, I got an idea. Remember how David got himself in this mess, David wasn't where he was supposed to be, David started thinking I deserve this. Now he's trying to get Uriah to think the same way. Uriah, listen, you just go home and you enjoy some wine and some dinner and some fellowship, some companionship with your wife. Nine months later baby's born, he's like, oh, I guess that's my baby, that's what David's hoping. But Uriah is such a devout soldier, he's not thinking like David was, he's like going, my men are out in the battlefield, I'm not gonna do that. So he sleeps out in the courtyard and David's like, come on. So he's thinking plan B, what do I do, what do I do? I'll get him drunk. So he invites Uriah back to the palace. He said, have another glass of wine, have another glass of wine, have another glass of wine. And now Uriah's a little tipsy, he's like, Uriah, you know what, you deserve this. You know what you should do? You should go home and enjoy some food and wine and sleep with your wife, and he still doesn't, which I find interesting at this point in the story, Uriah as a drunk has more integrity than David as a sober man.

Sin makes you Sin. Remember who we're talking about. This is David, a leader of leaders, a worship leader, a guy who's been leading his country for twenty years, a man after God's own heart and he's acting stupid.

So skip down to verse 14 and look what David does. Plan A didn't work, plan B didn't work. So the next morning David wrote a letter to Joab, that's a general, and gave it to? He hands, now if you know what's in the letter, this should make you go, what?

Because I'm skipping ahead in the story, it's Uriah's death sentence is in this letter. He's sending a message to Joab the general saying, I want you to send Uriah out there to die on the battlefield, kill him on the battlefield.

Send him out, withdraw the troops, have him killed on the battlefield. That's what's in this letter. So then he hands that to Uriah, why does he do that? Because he knows, he knows Uriah. He's been fighting shoulder to shoulder with him for twenty years.

He knows he's a man of integrity. Uriah just proved he was a man of integrity. So now David hands Uriah his death sentence and says go give this to Joab. Sin makes you stupid. Verse 15, look what's in the letter. So the letter instructed Joab,

station Uriah on the front lines where the battle is fiercest and then pull back so that he will be killed. I wonder what Joab was thinking when he read this.

I don't know what the military did back then, maybe you know Uriah comes and he hands him the things and then he gives him a salute and Joab opens it up, breaks the king's seal and opens it up. Maybe if Uriah is still standing there, he's reading this going,

thinking to himself, looking up and going, what did you do Uriah? I mean you're one of the mighty warriors, you're the Navy Seal of our day, you're the twenty years you've been fighting, what did you do? Or maybe he's reading this going, David, what are you thinking? This is one of your mighty men, what are you thinking?

Well, whatever the case, he does it. And I have a vivid imagination, I always think in like movie scenes, movie reels, that's how I picture things. So I almost picture Uriah's

end, maybe he's coming and he's been attacking, he's been a mighty warrior, he's been doing this for twenty some years and he's attacking the fiercest part of the city wall and all a sudden he glances back and he sees his military

retreating back and all of a sudden an arrow pierces him in the thigh and maybe one in the shoulder and he goes down and he's glancing back and the arrows start raining down and the blood starts flowing out of his body and I wonder if in the last moments of his life he realizes that he's been betrayed. A warrior.

The elite, he's been betrayed. But watch what happens. This is what makes me so angry with David. Skip down to verse 25, word gets back to David now that the deed has been done, and look at David's response. Remember, sin makes you stupid. Watch this, look what David says.

Well tell Joab, he gets word that Uriah is dead. Well tell Joab not to be discouraged, David said. The sword devours this one today and that one tomorrow. Fight harder next time and conquer the city. Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? This is a guy you shot, you fought shoulder to shoulder with.

This guy's been shedding his blood for you and risking his life for you for twenty years. He's a band of brothers. I want to get in a time machine and just travel back in time and go up to Dave and just throat punch him. I want to stand over and be like, what are you thinking? You killed that warrior, that friend, that

What are you thinking? Sin makes you Sin makes you stupid. I told you this was gonna get uncomfortable for us today because listen, listen, maybe you go, well, you know, I don't struggle with that, you know, the lust and adultery and murder, I haven't killed anybody,

guess what, greed makes you stupid, unforgiveness makes you stupid, Coveting makes you stupid. Lust makes you stupid. Sin makes us stupid.

There's three things about sin that we really see in the story and it applies to any of our sins, okay. All of us in here, we have certain sins we struggle with. There's three things, you'll see it up on the screen, okay? Sin is never honest. Sin is always progressive,

sin always affects others. Sin is never honest. It's always progressive and it always affects others. It's never honest. This story reminds us of that. Sin will never tip its hand and tell us where this is gonna go. When David decided to sin and not be where he was supposed to be, not doing what he was supposed to be doing, sin didn't tip its hat and say, oh, and by the way, you're gonna end up sleeping with someone else's wife, getting her pregnant, murdering one of your close friends, one of your command, you're gonna do all of that because you started by not, sin doesn't do that.

Sin never tells the person who chooses to not forgive. You've been wounded, someone wounded you. They were wrong, they hurt you, they said something, they did something to you, and God says you need to forgive them. It's not saying that they're right in what they did, it's just saying give that to me. You don't need to carry that. Choose to forgive them, I'll carry that for you, but when you choose to sin and carry that, it doesn't tip its hat and say guess what, ten years from now you're gonna be turning into an old bitter person,

mad at the world.

Sin doesn't do that. It's never honest with us. It never tells us where it's gonna take us. Sin is always progressive. It's always moving forward. It's this little sin, that little white lie, another little white lie, another little white lie, another lie, another lie, another lie and all of a sudden we're going, how did I get here?

It's always progressive. It never stays the same. Sin never ever stays the same. It always takes us another step down, another step down, another step down.

You've probably seen, you'll see a picture on the screen of a sinkhole. Know, you've probably been watching the news at some point and a news story will come up, there was a sinkhole and like swallowed a building or cars

or a house or something like that, and then they'll interview the neighbors, right, and this is what you almost always hear, some neighbor would be like, yeah, you know, was standing there and I heard a rumbling and everything and I looked over and it happened so fast, like this whole building went down. It didn't happen fast,

It didn't happen fast. It looked like it happened fast, but what actually happened is below the surface,

day after day, week after week, month after month, that soil was being eroded and all of a sudden, that sinkhole happens and we all go, wow, that happened fast. No, it didn't. And it's the same with sin in our life. You've all read reports of like this great leader, sometimes even a great church leader who suddenly falls and everybody's going, wow, that happened fast, I can't believe it, it didn't happen fast.

You could back up if you could see it and you'd see a little sin turned into another little sin turned into another little sin turned into another little sin and pretty soon sinkhole,

how did we get here? And we all know that because we've seen it in our lives, we've had sinkholes in our lives before where we're like, how did I get here? This is why the bible tells us don't ignore sin.

I told you this was getting uncomfortable today, I told you, but stick with me, there's good news at the end, stick with me, okay? Okay, sin, it's never on us, it's always progressive, it always affects others.

It's another lie of sin, it's another lie of the devil that we think like oh, I'm just looking at some images on the computer, it's not gonna affect anybody else. Yes it will, it will eventually. Eventually it will bleed out and hurt others and usually those that are closest to us.

Sin is never honest, it's always progressive, it always affects others. But here's what we do as human beings when it comes to sin in our life is we go to one of two extremes.

We go to one of two extremes. We either minimize sin or we minimize Jesus. This is so important for you to get. This is the two extremes. This is what the devil loves to do with us. We're gonna minimize sin or we're gonna minimize Jesus.

See, what we do when we minimize sin is we start to say, not that big of a deal, it's a little lie, like it was a little white lie, it was a mistake. I'm a mistake or I'm not a sinner. The Bible does not call us mistakers, it calls us sinners.

See, mistakers can deal with our mistakes. I can fix my mistakes, you can fix your mistakes. I can't fix my sin, you can't fix your sin. If we were mistakers, we wouldn't need a savior. But the Bible doesn't call us mistakers, it calls us sinners, we are sinners and we needed a savior, we couldn't do anything about it. Romans three twenty three, for all have sinned, not all have made mistakes, for all have sinned. Romans six twenty three, for the wages of sin is death.

There was nothing that we could do about our sin as human beings, we could not cure that, and so we needed a Savior.

See there's a big difference between being a mistaker and a sinner, and this is why in the Bible, one John one:nine, it gives us this great promise. If we confess our sins, not our mistakes, we're not mistakers, we're sinners. If we confess our sins, he is faithful

and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. See, when we come to the point where we're not minimizing sin and saying, that's not that big of a deal, and we just admit it is a big deal, it's sin, and we confess that, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sin.

What is confession, what does that mean? You remember the game Clue, some of you older people, right, raise your hand. You remember the game Clue, you see a picture of it on the right, some of you remember that game? Young people, you're like, I don't know that, you missed out young people.

Because this game, you'll see a picture of the board, the game was, see there's different rooms, like there's the conservatory and the billiard room and the library and the kitchen. So there were nine rooms, six suspects and six weapons.

And the whole point of the game is you would use deductive reasoning, remember this, older people remember, and at some point in the game you go, I think I know who it is, I think it was Professor Plum with the candlestick in the billiard room, right? Right, that was the whole game. Or I think it was Mrs. White, it always was Mrs. White, Mrs. White, there was something about Mrs. White. Yeah,

and so it was Mrs. White with the knife in the kitchen. You know that was what you do. This is what confession is. Confession is saying it was me with my words when that person cut me off. It was me with my words when my wife made me upset. I'm not blaming it on her, I'm owning it, it was me. That's what this confession

is kind of like playing the game of clue and just saying, it was me with this here, that's what it is. It's saying it wasn't a mistake, it was sin. And listen my friend, if you're here

and you've never put your faith and trust in Jesus as your savior, I wanna remind you, you're not a mistake or you're a sinner. I didn't say that, God did. I wasn't a mistake, I was a sinner. We're sinners not mistakers. We need a savior.

You can't do anything about your sin. That's why two thousand years ago Jesus did it for you. He took it for you. He took that penalty for you. And so if you've never put your faith and trust in Jesus, I'm begging you, don't leave this room without doing that. There's gonna be prayer partners up here at the end of service, prayer partners over in that room, I'll be down here. Don't leave this room without coming up. Today's the day.

You're a sinner, let your savior take that. Two extremes, we minimize sin or we minimize Jesus. See this is the other thing we do when we sin, is we start minimizing Jesus.

I'm gonna give you a quote here in a moment, it's gonna make some of you a little frustrated, little angry, in fact some of you are probably gonna wanna write emails and so you can address those emails to Bill Bush at Rock Point, okay.

But here's why this is maybe gonna offend some of you a little bit, here's my quote, sin is a big deal, but it's not a big deal.

Sin is a big deal, but it's not a big deal. Now some of you are going, you are contradicting yourself, you just got done convincing us that sin is a big deal, that it cost Jesus' life. It is, it is. Don't minimize sin. It's a big deal. You're not a mistake or you're a sinner. It's a big deal. It cost Jesus' life. Someone had to shed blood for that. It's a big deal. But it's not a big deal in the sense that it's been taken care of now. It's done. It's gone. If you put your faith and trust in Jesus, all of your sins, past, present, and future are forgiven. Here's why I say that's important to understand, because when you start minimizing the power of Jesus over sin, you start taking on the condemnation of sin, which you don't need to take on anymore because of what Jesus did. And I spent a lot of my early years as a Christian doing this. I became a Jesus follower when I was like six or seven years old. When I was a freshman in high school was the day where I said, okay, this isn't my mom and dad's faith, this is mine, I'm all in. But all those years I would do that thing that I vowed I wouldn't do again, remember, you've all been there before, you know, you're overwhelmed with the guilt of sin, you're like, I'm never going to do that again, Jesus, and the next day you do it again,

and then you know what I would do? I'd spend the next two weeks avoiding God. I can't pray to God. I'm not going to go worship God. I can't go to church. I mean look at what did. And I just minimized Jesus. And see what radically changed was when I began to understand the truth of Romans eight:one.

You should memorize this verse, Romans eight:one, so now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. If you're in Christ Jesus and the shame of sin comes on you, you need to say that's not from Jesus,

that's not from God, he's not giving that to me because Jesus took that sin two thousand years ago and died for it. Listen, if you put your faith and trust in Jesus, every sin, past, present and future is forgiven.

And sometimes people don't like when we preach that because they're like, well, you're gonna just tell people they can go do whatever and it's forgiven. Well, that is the gospel.

I mean, don't wanna live that way if you're truly a follower of Jesus, you wanna But listen, all your sins, past, present and future, they're all forgiven forever for all time, that's why there's no condemnation anymore. Every time I preach grace,

someone will catch me out in the lobby or send me an email saying, yeah, but That's how I know I just really preached grace. That's

how I know I preached grace because we can't stand as human beings to believe the truth that I can't do anything about sin, Jesus did it all, he did it all, he paid it all for me, it's done, it's taken care of, boom.

And see, when I understood that, 21 years old, it was a life transforming moment for me. Because as I just said, up until that moment in my Christian life, I would feel the condemnation and the shame of sin.

Said I wouldn't say that and I did, I said it again and then I would avoid Jesus. And at 21 years old, couldn't sleep one night, I went out my living room, a friend of mine said when you can't sleep, pray, maybe God wants to talk to you. I went out my living room that night, I started to pray and ended up just worshiping God. I ended up on my knees praying, pretty soon my hands were up and I was just worshiping God in prayer and all of a sudden the truth,

the truth my friends, the truth so overwhelmed me that Jesus loved me as much in that moment when I was praying and worshiping him as he did in that moment that I committed the worst most disgusting sin in my life. He loved me just as much in most of those. And that overwhelmed me so much so that I ended up on my face weeping and that changed my, it transformed my Christian life.

Because you see after that, when I sin, not mistake, I'm not a mistake or I'm a sinner, after that moment when I would sin, instead of avoiding Jesus, avoiding God, avoiding the feeling like I'm not worthy to come I realized that Jesus wants nothing more than for me to run to his open arms because he had already dealt with that sin two thousand years ago on the cross.

See, when it comes to our sin, we go two extremes, we either start minimizing sin and saying, I'm a mistaker, I'm not a sinner, no, you're a sinner, don't minimize sin. Or we go to this extreme and we minimize Jesus, the power of Jesus and what he did.

So flip over to Revelation 19, I wanna finish with this, Revelation chapter 19. Here's what we're gonna do for the next few minutes as I finish with this, I wanna just brag about who our Jesus is, this is why we cannot minimize Jesus, okay? But we're gonna get our church on in here, okay? Because

again, this is one of those churches where you kinda, yeah, yeah, this, you know, couple people are like, hey man, hang out. Okay, but we're gonna get church on now, because I'm bragging about Jesus here, just let it loose, all right? Whenever you want, you cheer,

you point up into the sky, you clap, because we are bragging about who this Jesus is and what he did and why it's wrong for us to minimize sin. Because what we're gonna see in Revelation chapter 19 is Jesus wins. That's how this whole thing ends, is he wins. And in Revelation 19,

John, the guy two thousand years ago, one of the followers of Jesus, he's allowed to see a vision of the future. And so in Revelation 19, he's seen this vision of when this Jesus comes back.

Okay, now let's get our church on, you guys ready? All right, watch this, watch this. This is why we can't minimize Jesus. Listen to this, then I saw heaven opened and a white horse was standing there, its rider was named faithful and true for he judges fairly and wages a righteous

war. Notice what John sees, he doesn't see when the heavens open, he doesn't see something, he sees someone and that someone

is a warrior king, not a little baby Jesus in the manger, but a warrior king, and he's riding a white horse. In the first century when a king got on a horse, it means they were going to war, they were coming back from war. And look what it says at the end, it says that Jesus was waging

a righteous war. What's this righteous war? He's waging a righteous war against divorce and sexual abuse and greed and unforgiveness and poverty and hunger and racial injustices. That's the war he's waging against, and when he comes back someday, that's gone forever. Jesus wins because of who he is. Keep

reading, look at this, look at verse 12, Jesus wins because of who he is. His eyes were like flames of fire, and on his head were many crowns. A name was written on him that no one understood except himself.

Jesus wins because of who he is. Jesus wins because his eyes were like flames of fire. He sees all things, he knows all things. Jesus wins because he doesn't just wear a crown, he wears many crowns. Jesus, yes. Jesus wins because he has a name written on him that no one can understand except himself.

Here's what's interesting, you open up a commentary about Revelation chapter 19, and a lot of commentators, and I've heard preachers do the same thing, they're

gonna read this part and they're gonna say, a name was written on Jesus that no one understood except himself. And then they're gonna try to explain to you what that name is, but I actually think it means that no one can understand it except himself.

Jesus wins because there's parts and aspects of God that we will never fully understand.

We will never graduate from Jesus school. For those of you that are followers of Jesus, you will spend eternity in the new heavens and the new earth. A million years from now, you will not graduate from Jesus school. A billion years from now, you will not graduate from Jesus school. Jesus wins because there's parts of Jesus that we'll never fully grasp or understand. He's God, we're not.

Look at this, keep reading, keep reading, verse 13, oh, love this one. He wore a robe dipped in blood and his title was the word of God. Jesus wins because his robe is dipped in blood. Whose blood? His.

It's the great mystery of history that two thousand years ago, the God of this universe compressed himself into a human embryo and then spent thirty years in an obscure village called Nazareth, then began to publicly proclaim himself as the Messiah, and then at about 33 years old, he let them, don't miss that, he let them, he let them nail him to a cross. His blood was shed for the forgiveness of our sins, and three days later he proved that he had power over sin and death and he came out of the grave. Jesus wins,

yes, Jesus wins because his robe is dipped in blood, his blood. Jesus wins, look at the end of that verse, because his title was the word of God. He is the revelation of God, he is the final word of God. You know, a great fight name, I've always thought this, if I was a fighter, the name I would choose is the finisher.

Wouldn't that be a great fight name? The finisher. And in the blue corner, weighing one hundred and eighty five pounds, I took a few pounds off myself there, weighing one hundred and eighty five pounds is Patrick the finisher McCalla.

And then I come out, yeah, I mean that's a great fight name, except that every fighter will eventually lose,

right, right, like every fighter eventually loses, and some of you in here are going well, no, so and so finished undefeated, they retired undefeated, well, we all know if they didn't retire, they would have eventually got beaten because they would have gotten old and slow enough that they would have lost.

Every fighter eventually loses, every fighter eventually loses. That's why the finisher doesn't, I mean, know it would sound like a good fight name for me, but I would eventually lose. There's only one

who deserves that name and it's the one that two thousand years ago as he hung on the cross moments before he died, he said it is finished.

Why, because he's the finisher. Jesus wins because he's the finisher. Isn't that good news? It's done, battle's won, it's done. Look at verse 14, the armies of heaven dressed in the finest of pure white linen followed him on white horses.

I used to love this because I was like, oh, you know, if Jesus comes back after I die, maybe I'm gonna be one of those in white linen coming back, I'm in a fight with him. No, I'm not, because all those following Jesus, they're not gonna get their white robes dirty, no grass stains, no mud, no blood, why? Because two thousand years ago Jesus said it is finished.

The battle's already been won, it's finished, it's done. Jesus wins because he's the finisher. Look at verse 15, from his mouth came a sharp sword to strike down the nations. He will rule them with an iron rod, he will release the fierce wrath of God the Almighty like juice flowing from a winepress.

Jesus wins because the Jesus that comes back someday on a white horse isn't a little baby in a manger, it's a warrior king Jesus. That's why he wins.

Look at this last one, I'm gonna finish with this. On his robe, oh I love verse 16, on his robe at his thigh was written, was tattooed this title, king of all kings and lord of all lords.

See Jesus wins because he's not just a king, he's not just a lord, he's king of all kings and lord of all lords. Jesus' victory is not assumed, it's guaranteed. Jesus' victory is not assumed, it's guaranteed. Don't minimize Jesus

when it comes to your sin. Oh, first of all, don't minimize sin, you're a sinner not a mistaker, you needed a savior. But you have a savior, so don't minimize Jesus and give the power of sin in your life over Jesus. Jesus defeated it two thousand years ago, it's done. Don't heap the shame on yourself that he said there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, he took care of your sin, gone, done.

See the struggle for us with Jesus as human beings is we like to create the little, I call them Jesus boxes. So we have our little

gracious Jesus box and our merciful Jesus box and our holy Jesus box and our justice Jesus box and our holy wrath Jesus box, but the truth is Jesus is all of those all of the time, all at once. And we have a hard time wrapping our mind around that. Maybe what will help it is to understand that Jesus is all of these things

and sometimes wherever you're at in life, especially with this struggle with sin, maybe there's this different, not a different Jesus, but a different part of Jesus that you connect with, and so artists have drawn some pictures of Jesus

which I've grown to love and so maybe sometime you'll see this first one, maybe sometimes you need the laughing Jesus. This picture became important in my life because for a lot of my life, I thought Jesus was like this.

This is how Jesus looked at me all the time, that's how I thought he looked at me, just stern face, you screwed up again, didn't you?

And then I remember when I saw that picture and I just, ah, sometimes we need a laughing Jesus, don't we? Sometimes we need to know that Jesus loves us, he loves life, he created humor, sometimes he's even laughing at my stupidity, we need the laughing Jesus sometimes. Sometimes we need the good shepherd Jesus.

In John 10, Jesus said, I am the good shepherd. The Jesus that like a shepherd with his flock is gonna protect us, is gonna guide us, sometimes we need that Jesus.

Sometimes we need the Jesus who at one point said, let the children come to me, so look at this next picture with the little child, Sometimes we need that Jesus. And by the way, that's you. That's you. You need to know that. Like Jesus sometimes takes me and he's like, this is my son. This is my daughter.

Sometimes Jesus pulls out his wallet

and goes, angels, come here, and he pulls out the picture and he goes, let me show you a picture of my son Pat, oh I love him. Oh, you know how dads or granddads and they can't help but pray, just bragging about like they weave it into everything, let me show you a picture of my grandson or my son, that's you.

Sometimes that's the Jesus you need to remember. Sometimes you need the suffering Jesus. Sometimes you need to go to the foot of the cross and just look up at his beaten battered body and recognize that he loved you so much that he paid for every one of your sins before you even committed them.

And sometimes you need the suffering Jesus. But listen my friend, when you're overwhelmed with anxiety and depression and you're cutting and porn addiction and alcohol addiction and drug addiction and greed addiction and lust addiction and unforgiveness addiction,

when you have suicidal thoughts, when you're at the end of yourself, when you're in the dark night of your soul and you're beaten and you're battered and you're laying on the battlefield and you feel like you can't make it one more moment and your enemy is standing over you ready to destroy you, this is the Jesus you need.

Then I saw heaven open. A white horse is standing there, and its rider was named faithful and true, for he judges fairly and wages a righteous war. His eyes were like flames of fire, and on his head were many crowns. A name was written on him that no one understood except himself. He wore a robe dipped in blood,

and his title was the word of God. The armies of heaven dressed in the finest of pure white linen followed him on white horses. And from his mouth came a sharp sword to strike mighty Jesus.

Name

was written this title, king of all kings And and lord of all lords. Ladies and gentlemen, we're not fighting against flesh and blood enemies, but against evil rules of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark place, and against evil spirits in the heavenly realms. There is a battle going on, and it's over you.

It's time to acknowledge the war, and it's time to see that this is the Jesus you need.

We're not afraid. There is a night and there was that fly by day. 10,000 may fall, but we we will remain.

Wow. Can you say thank you? Hey. Because of this warrior king Jesus, you're not fighting from a place of defeat. You're fighting from a place

midst pandemic. The We're with us on rockpoint.io for prayer this and everything happening We're here at Rock Point.