From Curse to Blessing: The Hope of Forgiveness

1) "And so we began to think through that, and I was like, you know what? We need to talk about that and pray about that as a church. God had me contact Caleb in the middle of the night and say, we're changing some things for tomorrow morning. And basically what it's going to look like is I wanted us to spend some time as God's people praying for these men and women impacted in Florida, in Tennessee and Georgia and the Carolinas, six states have been devastated by a massive hurricane that, you know, so oftentimes people look at it and go, it was the wind. It's not the wind. The flooding that usually causes all the damage. And then seeing mothers who've lost their children and entire families who've lost their lives hurts. And so we need to pray for them, and they need the hope of the gospel." [23:06] (52 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2) "Well, I'm going to tell you, the church is better than FEMA, and we need to be helping up and doing this. And so I hope you'll be a part of that today. Our giving, all of our giving, whether it comes in through online or you put it in the offering plate, 100% of it's going to be designated to go to the survivors there. We are going to put that in the right hands to make sure we're helping these men and women from Florida all the way to the Carolinas. And so I hope you'll give generously to help these people because they're going to need it being no water, I mean, it's pretty bad. So I hope you'll give." [26:14] (32 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3) "We say there are people who build you up and people who tear you down, people who give and people who take. People who are content, people who are nothing. There are people who are I people and some who are we people. There are people who need to be told and people who just figure it out. There are people who we say are greedy rich people and there are arrogant poor people. We also say there are people who are leaders and there are people who are followers." [49:27] (30 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4) "So while reintroducing us to Noah's three sons, I love this. God directs our attention to one son. Does anybody know? Have you read the verses? Who are we being directed to pay attention to in these verses? Take a guess. Really loud. Come on, Ham. Right? Look at verse 18. He's highlighting, actually one of Ham's sons, in particular, a guy by the name of Canaan. In chapter ten, which we'll look at next week, we're given the names of Ham's sons. They're cush, Egypt put and Canaan. Well, here in chapter nine, in these verses, 18 through 29, Ham's son Canaan is mentioned five times. Even if you just have a rudimentary understanding of the Old Testament, you will know why this is important, because you will know who the Canaanites are." [59:56] (51 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5) "I think in an age where racism continues to be a topic we need to understand, there's no room for that. Whether you like it or not, we all descended from one man. We're all one big happy family. These are his three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth. So while reintroducing us to Noah's three sons, I love this. God directs our attention to one son. Does anybody know? Have you read the verses? Who are we being directed to pay attention to in these verses? Take a guess. Really loud. Come on, Ham. Right? Look at verse 18. He's highlighting, actually one of Ham's sons, in particular, a guy by the name of Canaan." [59:09] (47 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


6) "Now, please do not assume that this was an accident or that Noah was innocent here. Do not believe that Noah was unaware of what drinking too much wine would do. The guy was 600 years old. He had lived in the pre flood world. He had every bit of an understanding of what would happen in drinking too much of this. And for whatever reason, I don't know, maybe Noah had a bad day. But that day he decided to drink way too much wine. He got drunk, and it says he lay uncovered in his tent." [01:03:18] (34 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


7) "Now, don't misunderstand Paul. Paul was not saying if a person gets drunk, they cannot ever be saved. He was not saying if a Christian gets drunk, they lose their salvation. Nor am I saying that Noah was not saved because he got drunk one time. Paul says, those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. And he means just that. If this is your life, if sexual immorality or if drunkenness describes your life, or if any of Galatians five describes your life, there's a good chance, though, you think you might be saved. There's a real good chance you're not." [01:07:22] (41 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


8) "This story also teaches us, like Noah, we all need our sins to be covered. Noah's two sons, in a sense, acted like God in this story. They covered the nakedness and shame of their father. Well, in a similar way, we sinners need our sins to be covered. What does that mean? I love that the Bible helps us understand. In psalm 32, one king David wrote this, blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. The apostle Paul repeats those exact same words in Romans chapter four, verse seven. Blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered." [01:20:22] (46 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


9) "I mean, you think about it. If those whose sins are forgiven are blessed, the opposite is equally true. If your sins are not forgiven, you are cursed. We find ourselves in a similar situation to Canaan. He was going to be enslaved to his brothers, right? Well, according to the Bible, we are enslaved to sin. According to God's word, the wrath of God remains on us. John 336. Whoever believes in the Son as eternal life, whoever does not obey the son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. Those who sins have not been covered, they've not been redeemed from the curse." [01:21:19] (45 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


10) "I pray today that if God has worked through the preaching of his word and the work of his spirit in your life and he's drawing you to his son, you'll receive the blessing that can only come through him, the forgiveness of sins. As I close out our time of worship in prayer, I pray that you'll call on the son for salvation. Christians, I pray that you'll rejoice and praise them for your salvation. Father, we thank you. Through the Son, we are blessed. Every spiritual blessing belongs to believers. God, may we rejoice in the blessing. May we live lives that honor you. May we walk faithfully, not return to the very sins you died to save us from." [01:33:30] (61 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)