Sermon Notes

Notes from JFBC pastor Clay Smith's Sept 15 sermon


2 Samuel 24:1-25. Mercy is compassion in action, for people who don’t deserve it. The God who made the world was merciful. Says so throughout the Bible. Jesus meets us in the middle of our messes.

 

 

Exodus 34. Psalm 25. Lamentations 3. Jesus the only one in the Bible who didn’t make mistakes.

 

 

Three scenes in this chapter of 2 Samuel.

 

 

1. David takes a census - verses 1-10. Why? Not to say how good God is, but to bring glory to David (who is prideful). Superman don’t need no plane story. The census took 9 months 20 days to count all men 20 and over. 1.3 million - 800000 in Israel plus 530000 in Judah . After 9 months David realized his sin. I have sinned greatly. Everyone has a conscious. Conviction of sin is a gift from God. Depend on God for power and strength. Matt 16:18

 

 

2. David is punished. He’s given a choice: 3 years pestilence,

3 months chased by enemies, or 3 days. David gets to pick, would rather pick God than men. Romans 6 asks: should we keep sinning? None deserve God’s mercy. God accepts us as we are, but loves us so much that he doesn’t want us to stay there. He wants more for us. God’s mercy produces growth, even in the midst of judgement. Verse 17: let your hand be against me and not my flock. That’s leadership

 

 

3. Verse 18: David to build an altar to God. On the threshing floor - symbolizes God removing sin from our lives. Verse 24: offered as free but David refuses, says it needs to cost David something to make it worthwhile. Worthy. The problem with living sacrifices is they are always trying to crawl off the altar. 

 

 

End: God was moved by the worship and withheld the plague. At this same place Solomon built a temple. Then later near there Jesus died for our sins.

From Reid: “What four movies were there playing near Times Square when Billy Graham preached his famous Times Square sermon in New York during his crusade in New York? He used the movie titles as the 4 points in his sermon. I remember the sermon VIVIDLY. It has been said that Billy did not have a specific sermon to preach when he arrived for the service. He looked around and noticed the movie marquees, and formed a sermon from them.

 

 

1. The Ten Commandments: the Bible is our foundation.

2. Love In The Afternoon: Jesus went to the cross for us.

3. The Moon Is Blue: when Christ died for us.

4. 3:10 To Yuma: Billy said that he had never seen the movie, but he imagined that if you missed that train, you wouldn't get to Yuma. Then finished by saying that if you missed this opportunity to accept Christ, you might not get another opportunity.

None of the following articles mention what four movies Billy Graham used as his sermon points, though the lohud.com article mentions that he did. Also on the podium in Yankee Stadium: Vice President Richard Nixon.  

 

 

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/evangelical-history/billy-grahams-madison-square-garden-campaign-60-years-later/

 

 

https://www.wnyc.org/story/time-billy-graham-packed-madison-square-garden-and-yankee-stadium-brim/

 

 

https://www.lohud.com/story/opinion/perspective/2018/02/21/when-billy-graham-saved-new-york-city-first-time/359394002/

 

 

Other popular movies from 1957: The Bridge on the River Kwai., Sayonara, The Curse of Frankenstein, Raintree Country, Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?, The Three Faces of Eve, Witness for the Prosecution, Cinderella, Bambi, Twelve Angry men, An Affair to Remember, The Crucible. Of course I had no idea which 4 movies there were, so I had to look up and guess. I did see where 3:10 From Yuma had come out that year. The list was alphabetical and I stopped after C. Had I seen The Ten Commandments I would’ve guessed that.

From a recent column from former SPdL pastor Jim Dennison: is the Church: Dying or Growing?

 

 

Glenn Stanton’s The Myth of the Dying Church takes a very different view. Stanton cites compelling sociological data from objective research firms to show that church attendance in America is at an all-time high. In contrast to the claim that young people are leaving the faith, he notes that the percentage of young adults regularly attending evangelical and nondenominational churches has roughly doubled between 1972 and today. He explains the rise of the “nones” as people who are not new unbelievers but who were never committed to the faith and now feel free to tell pollsters so. And Stanton notes that declining churches are almost all in the mainline, more liberal denominations. For instance, mainline Protestant churches declined by five million members between 2007 and 2014, while evangelical churches grew by about two million during the same time. (For much more, please see my review of Stanton’s outstanding book.)