Sunday Morning Worship Service by Michael Maupin December 19, 2021 ยท First Apostolic Church of Knoxville (Knoxville, TN) Kind: sermon Scripture: 2 Samuel 11:26-27, 2 Samuel 11:1, 1 Samuel 15:13, 1 Samuel 15:22-23, 2 Samuel 12:13-16, 2 Samuel 12:18-20, 2 Samuel 12:24 Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/michael-maupin--sunday-morning-worship-service-173 Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page. Free to copy and share with attribution. ------------------------------------------------------------ let's give that to the lord today he is worthy he's worthy of our praise he's worthy of our worship hallelujah hallelujah thank you jesus aren't you thankful to be in the house of the lord today no other place i'd rather be than right here at home in god's house with god's people enjoying god's presence and i give tremendous honor today to the mccools and whitley's and bishop mccool braxton my youngest boy and myself a few months ago were driving and we passed uh the brother holmes church in little rock and he said dad look at that big church and i said yeah i said bishop mccool was there preaching when god called him to knoxville to start the church in christian school and braxton sat there for a minute and he said so if it wasn't for that church we wouldn't be here today and there's a lot of truth to that because if it wasn't for this church and this christian school i can promise you i wouldn't be here today so i owe uh my life to jesus number one my parents my parents my family and to this great church and the mccool family thank you so much uh for your leadership and all that you have done over the years i'm thankful to have my wife and uh kids here with me today and for the very first time my son-in-law hunter i'm glad to have him here with us today and my mother my grandmother and thankful for them my grandmother when my mom and dad couldn't because of work bring us to christian school my grandmother would bring us and pick us up and so she's got some investment in us also and i'm thankful for my brother and his wife and boys also if you have your bibles turned with me to the book of second samuel the 11th chapter sister ashley braxton on the way here said i still want to sing in the choir at aidan and drew's church it's one of my goals in life he said so thankful for the choir today they blessed us i wanted to preach a christmas themed message this morning but i kept coming back to this i just feel like the lord has this message for somebody here today second samuel the 11th chapter we'll read verses 26 and 27 says and when the wife of uriah heard that uriah her husband was dead she mourned for her husband and when the morning was passed david sent and fetched her to his house and she became his wife and bear him a son but the thing that david did or had done displeased the lord [Music] every recorded birth in the bible the baby is given a name except for this baby the baby born out of david and bathsheba's adulterous affair was never given a name and so i want to preach to you on this sunday morning this thought the nameless child if you'd set your bibles down and lift your hands and hearts to heaven and help me pray right now lord we love you and we thank you for who you are we thank you for your power we thank you for your glory and your majesty god we ask you right now to anoint me god to preach your word anoint my mind and my mouth to speak what you want spoken god anoint everyone that hears your word today god let their minds and their hearts be fertile soil for the seed of your word to fall on today and god i ask you to touch hearts and lives today lord let someone repent of their sins let someone be baptized in your name let someone be filled with a holy ghost let someone be delivered and set free in this house today and we give you praise for who you are and what you're going to do in the mighty matchless name of jesus we pray amen why don't you clap your hands one more time [Applause] and shouting to god with a voice a triumph hallelujah thank you jesus thank you jesus [Applause] thank you you can be seated this morning to find what happened in this scripture we need to back up earlier in that chapter verse number one of second samuel the 11th chapter says it came to pass after the year was expired at the time when kings go forth to battle that david sent joab and his servants with him and all israel and they destroyed the children of ammon and they besieged rabba but notice the last part of that scripture but david carried steel at jerusalem the bible is very clear this was a time when kings were supposed to be out fighting with their armies and david made a horrible mistake that night he carried steel at jerusalem if he wouldn't have been terrying there in jerusalem he would have never went on the rooftop that night if he would have never went on the rooftop he wouldn't have saw a woman taking a bath who ironically her name was bathsheba he wouldn't have lusted after her he wouldn't have called for her they wouldn't have had their affair and we wouldn't have had this story in the bible and according to this scripture david david's men won some very strategic and important battles during this time but david lost the most important battle because he wasn't fighting with his men david's winning percentage if you study the life of david out his winning percentage when he fought was 100 he was undefeated every time he fought a battle he won the only battle david ever lost was the one that he didn't fight in and that one mistake caused a snowball of sin and a family history littered with problems david if you would have been with your men fighting instead of tearing steel you wouldn't have been on that rooftop on that dreaded fateful fatal night and i want to tell somebody here today that a lot of the mistakes and failures that we make could be avoided by being where you're supposed to be instead of where you're not supposed to be fighting instead of standing still god never called the church just to come and sit on a pew but he filled you with the holy ghost so that you could fight the good fight today and after david learns that bathsheba is pregnant with his child he calls for uriah to come home david's plan was for uriah to think that he fathered the child from their affair but instead uriah shows his character his integrity and his loyalty to the king things that the king obviously re lacked in his life because uriah refused to go home to his wife so david panics and he devises a diabolical plan to cover his sin he sends uriah back to the army with a death warrant by his own hand to joab the captain of the army this letter this message of death reads put uriah in the heat of the battle and then retreat with the rest of the army and leave him alone to die the evil murderous and heinous plan works uriah is killed on the battlefield david marries uriah's pregnant widow david is considered a hero by his public actions of trying to hide his secret sins the giant slayer thinks that he has dodged a giant stone of sin until god sends the prophet nathan to with to david with a story that he knows will strum the heartstrings of this psalmist just like david used to strum the harpstrings of praise a story about a poor man with one lamb and a rich man with an abundance of lambs and instead of taking from his abundance he takes the man's lowly lamb to eat god knew how david would react the story infuriates this sheep-loving former shepherd boy and david prophetically speaks his own punishment by declaring the man to repay the poor man with four lambs because david beginning with this nameless child would ultimately lose four of his sons and sen nathan the prophet looks at david and he takes that prophetic pointer of his and he puts it in the nose of the red-faced guilty king and he says thou art the man but before we look at david's response to being called out for his sin let's look at his predecessor king saul's response to being called out for sin because there are lessons today for us to learn in both accounts we know backing up to first samuel 15 samuel the prophet tells saul i want you to go down to the amalekites and i want you to fight against them and i want you to completely wipe them off the face of the planet i want you to kill man woman boy girl every animal i don't want anything left of the amalekites for how they've treated my people and so saul goes down to the amalekites and he fights against them and he keeps the king alive and he keeps the best of the animals alive and we pick up the story in first samuel 15 samuel comes to saul and saul looks at him in verse 13 and he said blessed be thou of the lord i have performed the commandment of the lord in other words he said look what i did look how awesome i am and samuel looks at him and he says well if you did what i told you to do then why do i hear sheep why do i hear oxen and then notice saul he flips the script he says well the people brought them from the amalekites they spared the best of the sheep and the oxen to sacrifice to the lord thy god and the rest we have utterly destroyed so he went from look at what i did to look what they did because that's human nature when it's somebody clapping it's look at what i did when it's somebody trying to get onto me it's look what they did and and saul does something that is as old as time that we still do today he plays the blame game because it started in the beginning of time when adam and eve fell god confronted adam about his sin and adam said well that woman you gave me i didn't even want her god you gave her to me she's the one that tricked me into eating the fruit and then eve says well it's the serpent's fault and it started a generation throughout generation again called i'm going to blame everybody else's for my mistake and we still do it today i'm not an alcoholic because of myself it's my mama's fault she was an alcoholic i'm not a drug addict because of me it's my daddy's fault he was a drug addict the generational curses that are in my family are why i'm in the shape that i'm in right now to show you the ludicrous of this this this blaming everyone else i've probably told this story here before but i'm going to say it again several years ago i heard a story of a serial killer up in the new new england area and he had killed many people and when he went to court he pleaded uh insanity he said that hostess put some sort of chemical in twinkies that caused a chemical imbalance in his mind when he ate twinkies and turned him into a killer now i could blame twinkies for some of my problems in life but killing people ain't one of them but it shows you the nature of humanity no one wants to take ownership for their mistakes they want to blame everybody else it's pastor's fault and it's my spouse's fault it's my parents fault and it's my children's fault we want to play the blame game today so saul did the same thing and samuel looks at him and he says hath the lord as great delight and burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the lord behold to obey is better than sacrifice and to hearken or to listen than the fat of rams samuel says there's something better than sacrifice i'm thankful for sacrifice but there's something better than sacrifice and that's not falling in the first place i'm thankful for the blood of jesus i'm thankful that i can come to an altar and repent of my sins but you know what's even greater than that is me getting to a spiritual maturity level where i don't have to come and be catered to every service and have to come and pray through every service but i can come and say god i'm coming with pure hands and a pure heart and a pure mind and i want to be in touch with you today god and samuel looks at him and he says for rebellion is as the sin the literal translation says rebellion is witchcraft and stubbornness is an iniquity and adultery because thou hast rejected the word of the lord he has also rejected thee from being king see you need to understand something in this place today when you rebel against the word of god when you rebel against the man of god when you rebel against scripture when you rebel children young people when you rebel against your parents rebellion opens you up to witchcraft and divination it opens you up to a spirit realm that you are not qualified and capable of fighting against i've come to come against that spirit of rebellion today we need to line up to the word we need to line up to the teaching we need to say yes pastor yes mom and dad i'm going to do what i'm told because i don't want to deal with that spirit realm today so saul is an epic example of what not to do when confronted with your sin but i want you to notice david's response he even wrote a psalm about it it's a beautiful psalm it's a beautiful prayer i don't have time to read it all but i do want to hit a couple points to show you the difference of saul saying it's their fault and notice what david does psalm 51 have mercy upon me oh god according to thy lovingkindness according to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin for i acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is ever before me against thee the only have i sinned and done this evil on thy side purge me with hyssop and i shall be clean wash me and i shall be whiter than snow make me to hear joy and gladness hide thy face from my sins and blot out my iniquities create in me a clean heart o god and renew the right spirit within me cast me not away from my presence and take not thy holy spirit from me restore unto me the joy of thy salvation and uphold me with our free spirit do you see the difference between saul and david saul said it's the people's fault and david said it's the man in the mirror's fault it's all about me it's my mistake it's my failure god have mercy on me and if we could ever understand our greatest enemy is not the person beside us our greatest enemy is not some a devil with horns and a pitchfork our greatest enemy is not a threat in this world our greatest enemy is the person that we look at in the mirror every day i'm the one that made the mistake i'm the one that fell god and i've got to own up to it today and second samuel back to our story nathan takes his finger and puts it in the face of the king which could have cost him his life and he says thou art to man and david says to nathan i have sinned once again it's not your fault it's not bathsheba's fault it's my fault i have sinned against the lord and nathan said and today the lord also has put away thy sin thou shalt not die howbeit because the this deed has given great occasion to the enemies of the lord to blaspheme see that's what we need to understand today my sin doesn't just affect me it affects my testimony at work it affects my testimony at school it affects my neighbors it affects everybody because they see me trying to teach and preach to them about god and then when i make a mistake it causes a blaspheme against the name of the lord he said the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die that's the word from the lord i'm sorry but the child that you have conceived will die and nathan departed into his house and the lord struck the child that uriah's wife barron to david and it was very sick david therefore besought god for the child and david fasted and went in and lay all night upon the earth and the elders of his house arose and went to him to raise him up from the earth but he would not neither did he eat bread with them so nathan says god's forgiven you david but there's a price to pay bishop mccool i'll never forget one of the wisest things you've ever taught me is just because you're through with sin doesn't mean sin is through with you david there's still a price to be paid and the child is going to die but david does like any of us would do he goes and he lays on the ground and he starts fasting he starts praying he refuses people's comfort he refuses their bread and he begins praying and fasting for this child now we need to understand about this child today this nameless child was a product of an ungodly relationship the nameless child was the icon of david's past and his greatest mistake in failure in his life there's no name given in scripture to the child leaving the description wide open as a representation of any type of past if he had been named we would spend time looking up the meaning in greek and hebrew of the child we would be trying to do our best to get some angle on its definition and what it means but since he was nameless the nameless child covered it all and notice david's response he fasted and he prayed for the nameless child something god said would die now please understand today i'm a father and any father any mother in this house today if your child was laying there on their deathbed you would fast and you would pray with everything that's in you so please don't thank me heartless this morning with what i'm getting ready to say and illustrate but i'm going to attempt to make a spiritual point out of the horrific event and story in the bible but notice david was fasting and praying over something that god said had to die and i wonder how many of us today have spent our entire lives praying and fasting for things that god said needed to die in our life how many times do we hang on to old habits addictions and past relationships hoping and praying that god will bless what he's already cursed and said must die in our life because here's the real truth this morning we aren't supposed to condone the flesh we're supposed to crucify it we aren't supposed to please the flesh we're supposed to prevent the flesh we are supposed to forget the flesh we're supposed to forbid the flesh we aren't supposed to keep the flesh we're supposed to kill the flesh we aren't supposed to satisfy the flesh we're supposed to sacrifice the flesh we are supposed to excuse the flesh we're supposed to execute the flesh we are supposed to disregard the flesh we're supposed to destroy the flesh we aren't supposed to pardon the flesh we're supposed to put away the flesh we aren't supposed to overlook our flesh we're supposed to overcome our flesh we aren't supposed to coddle the flesh we're supposed to condemn the flesh we need to stop trying to breathe life into something that is supposed to die inside of us so that god can do what he wants to do in our life today [Applause] david didn't name the baby the product of his greatest mistake in failure and we don't i know a few years ago for new year's i preached what would you name the baby but today i'm preaching don't name the baby go for it name your future but don't name your past don't put a name on your past don't put a name on your mistakes don't name your failures don't name your addictions because you know what when you name something you put ownership on it you claim it it belongs to you that's why we get baptized not in titles we get baptized in the name of jesus because when i take on his name in water baptism he puts his name on me and he puts his claim on me so we need to stop giving our name a name to our pastor we need to stop putting ownership on our past we need to stop naming and claiming it today and we need to walk in a future and victory in this house today because you don't own your past anymore jesus purchases on calvary's cruel cross and you don't have a right to name something that doesn't belong to you today now back for the conclusion of our story second samuel 12 and 18 says and it came to pass on the seventh day that the child died david passed it and prayed but it didn't work the child dies and the servants of david feared to tell him that the child was dead for they said behold while the child was yet alive we spake unto him and he would not hearken into her voice how will he then vex himself if we tell him that the child is dead but when david saw that his servants whispered david perceived that the child was dead therefore david said to his servants is the child dead and they said he is dead and notice david's act reaction and actions here david arose from the earth and he washed and anointed himself and he changed his apparel and he came into the house of the lord and he worshiped then he came to his own house and when he required they set bread before him and he did eat so not only were david's actions when he was confronted by the prophet an epic example for you and i here this morning but so were his actions after the death of the nameless child because notice what he did he arose from the earth he washed himself he anointed himself he changed his clothing he came into the house of the lord he worshiped and then he went to his own house and he ate bread he was working on his earthly relationships in proper order getting things right with and connecting with god and then connecting with his family and i think there's a lesson in what david did today that you and i can take with us today because i call it the seven ups not the drink but the seven ups cause we need to do those seven ups today cause the first thing was he got up somebody needs to get up today you need to get up out of your mistake you need to get up out of your failure you need to get up out of your depression you need to get up out of the things that are keeping you bound you need to get up and rise up out of the the maori clay and out of the pit that you've been living in and the next thing he did was he washed up you need to be baptized in the the name of jesus the only name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved and you need to be washed in his blood and then you need to be oiled up you need to get the holy ghost this morning and you need to get anointed because the anointing is not just for the preacher it's not just for the singer it's not just for the musician everybody needs to get the anointing on their life today and you need to be anointed you need to get dressed up you need to change your clothes you need to put on a garment of praise you need to put on a robe of righteousness and then he went up you need to get to the house of the lord and then he sent up you need to send up worship today it's time for somebody to praise him in this house it's time for somebody to worship him in this house and then he got filled up you need to get filled with the holy ghost today you need to get filled with the holy word of god i wish somebody would practice those steps right now i wish somebody would get up i wish somebody would send up praise i wish somebody would say i want to be washed in his blood i want to be filled with his spirit today just remain standing and notice what happened next verse 24 and david comforted bathsheba his wife and he went into her and he lay with her and she bear a son and he called his name solomon and the lord loved him if the nameless child wouldn't have died david wouldn't have comforted bathsheba his wife and if he wouldn't have kept comforted her he wouldn't have went in to her and lay with her and if he wouldn't have went into her and lay with her she wouldn't have had a son named solomon and if solomon wouldn't have been born the future would have drastically turned wouldn't have turned out like it did because if you study it out solomon would become the wisest and wealthiest and greatest king to ever rule and reign solomon would be one of the many co-authors of the bible solomon would go on to build the glorious temple of the lord and solomon's genealogy would bring about the messiah jesus christ so if the nameless child wouldn't have died solomon wouldn't have been born and there's one greater than solomon here this morning he's our comforter and he wants to comfort you and take away your pain and take away your past he wants to come into this place and meet you at this altar he wants you to lay everything at his feet your past your hurt your pain your mistakes your failures your hang ups and if you're willing to lay it all at his feet today something can and something will be born in you today don't name your past don't put ownership on it let it die and let it be buried today we ought to have a funeral service in this house today the old man don't take this nameless child home with you today as a matter of fact we're less than two weeks away from a brand new year the year 2022 and we do not need to take the nameless child with us into this next year it needs to die so that god can do what he wants to do because there's a solomon waiting to be born there's greatness waiting to be birthed in you there's a temple waiting to be built because the bible says your body is the temple of the holy ghost there's a messiah waiting to come jesus is wanting to step into this place and step into your life the nameless child has to pass in order for your future to be fulfilled so as every head is bowed every eyes closed all across this place today if you're here this morning and you have never repented of your sins you have never been baptized in jesus name you have never been filled with a gift of the holy ghost i can't think of a better day and a better moment than right now for you to step out of your pew and make your way down to an altar and lay yourself at the feet of jesus and say god i want my life to be changed here's this nameless child here's this past here's this hurt here's this regret take it away from me god because i want greatness to be birthed in me today or maybe you've done that but you've still got a nameless child in your life things that are haunting you things that are trying to pull you into your past things that are trying to keep you from becoming who god wants you to become i wish somebody would step out of their pew and meet us at this altar and say the nameless child i'm leaving it here today jesus because there's something waiting to be born in me that can't be born until the nameless child dies in my life so as they get ready to sing this altar is open to somebody that wants to come and say jesus i don't want to walk out of here the same way i walked in today i don't want to carry the same weight i don't want to carry the same sins the same addictions into my new year that i've carried all this year i want to be changed in this house i want to be rearranged in this place i want freedom in this house i want liberty in this place i want to be changed jesus come on would you come and leave the nameless child at this altar and walk out of here free today