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Eric Hayes
You guys can have a seat. Bless your name, holy one. Bless your name, holy one. Anybody enjoy that time with him right there? That was good for your soul. I know we gonna get to the word. I just want to bask in his presence. The Holy Ghost is already working. And even in our agenda and the experiences, we want to go along with what he is already. You deserve the glory. All right. All right. Beloved, welcome to 2819 Church today. All right. Welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome. All right. As customary, my name is Eric Hayes. I'm one of two elders here, and we are. Thank you. God bless you. We. We are a church that is indeed beloved. We baked this into our DNA. We will continue to bake it into the DNA of this house. We are a house of prayer, presence and proclamation. I want to welco the online community of digital disciples. Shout out to. I want to say my sister. I forget your name. You actually hit me up. Want to say. She's in Australia. Said she was looking for a community. I reached out. We had a brief. A brief conversation. We value you, family. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, family. Love you guys too, right? Really serious, really serious about shepherding your souls, man. Okay. A lot of prayer. Intentionality. Thank you. Pray intentionality. Reading of the scriptures, sitting before the Lord, saying, what do you want us to tell your people? That's the disposition of the heart, God. What do you want to tell your people? So I just want to. I just want to pause right Local and abroad, we care. We care because the Lord cares for us. All right. I want to welcome the unbeliever. If you're around here, man, and you struggling with the claims of Christ, man, yeah, you clap for that. You don't have to, but you can. If you're struggling, man, and you just kind of slipping in, slipping out, and, you know, don't. Don't notice me or whatever when we do notice you, because we love you. We playing for you. We want you to be here. We set a seat at the table for you. Why? Why, why? Nothing baked into the DNA of. Of. Of this ecclesia. We. We want you to get saved. We want you to join us aboard the ark of safety that is Christ Jesus. But we also understand that's not something that can be manufactured. That's something you actually have to have. The Holy Spirit prick your heart and God gives you a measure of faith to join us in the kingdom and the family. So we want to welcome you. All right. Honorable mention definitely goes to our pastor. I will continue to say it. You can honor him Honor him. Why do you do that? Why do you keep doing that? You do it every time you get up here and preach. Why don't you just get to the word? No, we will not. Right. One, we have a culture of honor, right? Our culture of honor. Here, it's up to God. It's horizontal. Right? To our colleagues, our brothers, sisters, if you have somebody under you that serves under you in this experience, you better be honoring them too. And if not, we want to hear about it at the top. Amen. Okay? But also we want to honor our pastor because he has put his hand to the plow and the work of Christ of which we all benefit. So I definitely want to honor him there as a church. We're definitely continuing to walk through the book of Matthew in a series we titled Entry and End Times. However, I've been given another assignment to deliver a standalone message that today I'm still. I'm still kind of flirting with the title. I'm gonna throw this out, see how you feel about it. I'm gonna say watch your mouth. Y' all like that one. You might stick with it. Watch your mouth. All right, now, by your heads. Let me pray for us. Holy Father, I thank you for your scriptures and for your spirit, for your provision, for your healing, for the revelation of who you are, for community, for perfecting the things that are concerning us. I thank you for being here in this moment, God, and you being all knowing. You know exactly what is on the heart of everyone that is tuned in, in person or via live stream or even this is the one that. That goes up on the recording. God, we lift all of us up to you right now, all of our souls to be addressed by you, our father, God. As I look to. To deliver this sermon, God, I look to very much decrease that you would increase and that your people would be blessed by something eternal, something life changing. By the spirit of God, it's in Jesus name we pray. Amen and amen. All right, family. So I grew up in an era, right, that I know we, you know, high tech, whatever, holograms, like, we. We actually meet more people online than we meet in person, right? It's been a shift over the last, like two decades or so, but I grew up in an era, right, where. Where. Where. Where you actually said stuff to people in person. And I grew up in an era where you judged what you said with the knowledge that the person that you were talking to could all of a sudden appear and you had to deal with them. And actually, even though it wasn't the Internet, people like real salacious gossip that they knew could turn into a fight in school. It just happens to be like that information just spread like wildfire and it found that person relatively quickly. So you can say something on the bus and after lunch. Now you have a problem because the person that you were talking to has heard about it and now they're coming to face you. 3:00 clock at the school. Many of nervous people have been looking at the clock. Usually at the end of school you're like, hey, get it over with. I'm trying to go home. No, no, no. You're like, please keep me another. Another period. I want after school detention. I have things to do. Let me join a club. I don't want to be by myself to face who I said something about after that, right? 3 o' clock or I also grew up in the 80s, right? My mom's name is Linda, used to be Linda Dixon. Now her name is Linda Murphy, right? I come from Jacksonville, North Carolina. And now I didn't play this because my mother didn't play this, right? But some of y' all heard from a parent when you got just a little bit spicy, right? A little bit spicy, they would say something to you, let you know you are about to get offensive or you already become offensive and you about to take it to another level. They would give you a warning, something times your only warning in the black and brown context. And they would say, watch your mouth. Then even if you were not aware, after you heard that, you just understood that I need to watch what I am saying to this person, right? But I'm willing, I'm willing to bet good money if I was a betting man, that when I said watch your mouth, very few and probably none of you listening here thought about the things that you say to yourself. Because some of the most heinous things that you say and you're in a dialogue sometimes out loud is to your own soul. You know why it stays heinous? Most of you never say it out loud. You get in the mirror and you just murmur, I'm so ugly, so fat. Nobody loves me. The person that's with me is going to leave me anyway. Why even try? My mom never loved me. How can this person love me? I'll never get out of this town. God can never use me because of what I've done. I'm too far gone. The gospel is for everyone except me. Inner dialogue. And if we were to take all of your inner dialogue and put them on paper and make it a book Many of you would be ashamed to let that book out, right? But the tough thing is it's already doing damage in your own soul. So with that being said, we're going to jump into the scriptures today. It's going to be Psalms 103. If you all want to start turning to it, we'll put it up right? And the Scriptures have actually notated and preserved for us some inner dialogue of King David. All right, let's see how he talked to himself. All right, let's go. 103, verse one. We're going to do one and two together. Verse one says, Bless the Lord, O my soul and all that is within me. Bless his holy name. Verse 2. It says, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. I really. I want to spend 40 minutes right here, but I can't. Right, Listen, listen, listen, beloved. Listen, beloved. Sometimes you need to talk to your own soul. But doesn't that make me crazy? I would venture this is how you can stop yourself from going crazy. When crazy is around you, you have to stop and address own soul. I will venture to say that some of the most important sermons that you will listen to will not come from a platform or a podcast. It's gonna come from your own soul. Guess what? You around yourself way more than you around us. You're around yourself way more than you hit itunes or wherever you look at your podcast at. You're around yourself way more. And dare I say, you are a preacher. I didn't necessarily say you're part of the five fold ministry, but you are a preacher and your audience the vast majority of the time is yourself. Right? So King David here and I read just some research that some would suggest this actually happens in his later years when he pins this right, he says, bless the Lord, O my soul. He addresses his soul. He addresses what we know as theological truth, that we are a spirit that has a soul that is enclosed in a body. Holy Spirit lives on the inside of us. And we also have a sin nature all at the same time. And if we're honest, we realize that within us we have competing messages. We're here. Love God with everything. Don't you dare forgive that person. Give him everything that you have. Honor and exhort and exalt. You don't even know if he's real. Competing messages. Anybody in the building, Competing messages at the same time. So what you have to do sometimes is just sober yourself up and say, so we will bless the Lord. Quit letting for stuff. Stuff dictate. No, no, you Decide. We will bless the Lord at all times and everything that is within me. We'll bless his name. Quit waiting until you feel like it. You set the thermostat of your soul today. We are blessing the Lord right now. I am blessing the Lord. What I love about it, this just isn't emotional. King David, our brother, he said at the end of verse two, and forget not all his benefits. Let me talk to you for a second. Listen, listen, listen. Right? We absolutely seek his face, but let's not forget that with his hand, he delivers benefits. Don't you. When you get a new job, what's the first thing you look at? I want to pay and what the benefits look like? Can I go to dental? Like, how much pto? Like. Like, I want to know what the benefits I'm giving my time and energy. What are the benefits of this thing? And that doesn't make you dishonorable. I want to make sure we're a balanced house to know the benefits. Right? All right, let's jump into verse three. I love it. He says, who forgives all your iniquity? Who heals all of your diseases? Right? So one of the first two benefits. He says, we are forgiven and we are healed, but how much am I forgiven? Can he heal me of Everything. Oh, and what I love about it, he's just not talking about the thing. He's talking about who does the forgiving and who does the healing. It's the Lord. Keep going. Verse 4. He keeps going with the benefit package. He says, who redeems your life from the pit and who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy? Have you ever seen destruction in your life? Are you in destruction right now? And there's external destruction, loss of a job, loss of a relationship, but some of you are just going through turmoil in your own soul. And some of us have been delivered. If you catch me, I'm gonna slow this down. I feel like the Holy Spirit because I just want to run and bless the Lord. But I was impressed by the Holy Spirit. After the prayer team was praying for me on Saturday morning, I woke up with this, right? I don't want to just preach this thing and run back and forth. I want to teach it to you. I feel like it'll last long. I've heard some say, like, you know, praise is like. Like a. Like a torrential downpour. Like. Like teaching is like a soft rain. I want this to lay in your soul, and I want you to consider the one who you praise and his benefit package and say, why Am I dealing with destiny when he delivers? Why have I settled for this unhealed trauma to stay when he heals? I know what the doctors have said, but he heals all my diseases. And into verse four, it says, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy? I know when y' all date, right? One of the things they look, fellas, they want to look for. They want to see, are you steadfast. Especially ones looking for marriage. They want to know, can I depend on you? And since I'm here, we looking for some of the same things. If we are you fair weather when the rain comes, are you going to leave? And we look and we try to judge that character. If we're looking for something long term. Right, right. But let's say in the Scriptures it says that he crowns us with steadfast love and mercy. Isn't that someone you want to be in relationship with? I know we're looking for it in a person, and I get it. Right, right, right. But why don't you put your life in the hands of the one that crowns with steadfast steady. I wonder if I got love and mercy today. Steady. But I messed up. Yeah, you did repent. Okay. But he's still steady. And you were crowned with it. You crown people you think are important. One of the things baked up in the benefit plan of God. We are crowned. Verse 5. Still talking about the benefit plan. The one who does it, he who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagles. His plan for you is good. Some of us don't really believe that. We think our plans are better than his. Hear me? Functionally, if you look at how much you consult him and how much we just go and do our own thing, functionally, it shows that we believe that our plans are better than his. And too many times we label his plans as difficult, as inconvenient. But he says it's good. He says, my burden is light. You know why? That's one of the reasons you need to continue to renew your soul in the word of God. Because we have preconceived notions about the One who crowns us, that it's not true. Verse 6 says, the Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. I'm going to read it again. The Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. Another version, when it says works, it says executes. Right? Talk to the men again. Listen, listen. We want to use our strength. You don't want to let go of it. No. You want to keep your strength. You want to keep your aggression. You just want to be able to use it for those who are oppressed. You want to use your strength. You want to use everything to protect those. You give justice for those that are oppressed. God did that through Jesus on the cross. You were oppressed in your sin. You were oppressed by the kingdom of darkness. What do you do about demonic activity if you're outside of Christ, what do you do about the weapons of this world? If you're outside of Christ, what do you do about trying to get lasting peace and joy if you're outside of Christ? Trying to use the world's weapons against the world. We were oppressed, but now he worked justice for all of us who were oppressed. Now again, we walk in freedom in him. Or unfortunately, freedom has been purchased, but some of us haven't picked it up yet. You ever been walking around like, I think I've said this before, but, like, when it turns cold and you bring out your winter coats, they're a little thick, you know what I'm saying? You're from up north. We don't do a whole lot in Georgia. I can go the whole winter without a coat, but nevertheless. Right, but those that come from colder climates, and you pull out like a winter jacket and you just pull out 20 or $50. You love it, don't you? That's a good day. I find 50 or find 20. I can find five and be good, right? But there. There have been times in between paydays that if you knew that 50 was in there, inflation has hit us all. If you knew that 50 was in there, that 20 was in there, you would have accessed it, used it within Christ, within salvation, within the benefit package. We have freedom, but we got to dig in with Christ and use it. You with me, beloved? All right. Verse 7. He said he made his known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel. Go to verse eight. It says, the Lord is merciful. Can I slow down here? I really want to land here a little bit. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and again, abounding. Say abounding in steadfast love. Is that how we view Him? No, no. Ask yourself. Is that how I view him? Functionally? Is that how I relate to him? The root word of relationship? Do I relate to him as being slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love? Is he merciful and gracious? The answer is yes. But I want to continue to present to you that we're not experiencing enough of it because we're choosing other things. And David is giving this sermon to himself. Right? And jump to nine. Right. I love this because he's not this. I really believe that David knew God, right? He didn't just give you all benefits as if it's all good, because God is all good. But look at verse nine. He said, he will not always chide, nor will he always keep his anger forever. So one of my favorite sayings now is two things can be true. Yes, he is merciful. Yes, he is gracious. Yes, he is slow. Yes, he is abounding in steadfast love. However, he will not always strive and nor will he keep his anger forever. That's how you know you're dealing with a real person. There's a real standard of holiness, which is one of the reasons that Colossians said, we are warning every man that you will be saved and come on the ark of safety. Because he will not keep his anger forever. But in Christ, we can enjoy the peace again. We're talking about wrath. That's not talking about us. Do you know in Christ you will not encounter the wrath of God? Do you know your wrath was again absorbed on the cross when the nails went through his hand? That wrath went there for you. You enjoy peace. Talking about the benefit package of being in God in Christ. Verse 10. David Let us know that he does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. Listen to me. This isn't a prophecy of Christ. But can't you see the gospel all in this? Can I talk about myself? I preach the gospel and I was just talking to somebody else that I respect their spiritual walk. They were just telling me last Sunday that they just got something right. So they've heard it. They've heard it. They've grown in Christ. It's not. They don't have a relationship with God. They've heard it. They've heard it. They heard it, but it just broke open in their soul. And that's why you have to continue to preach the gospel to yourself. Because in between Sundays, you can hear the gospel here. You're a gospel preacher. And then through the week, through the month, you mess up and you're waiting for repayment from God. You know your iniquities and you're waiting for God to pay you back. And the scriptures say, not so. Not so. Come on, man. You can't believe I just be getting away now. You can sow some things yourself and you can put a Seed in the ground and you can reap that. That's not God giving that to you though. Okay, but you say I just keep on doing this. I know I keep on sinning. Something has to give. The cross gave. He never got soft on sin. He dealt with sin harshly through Christ on the cross. So that's why he can look at us in his image and see Christ and see the blood and remember the sacrifice and. And pass over you. And what does that do for your soul if you believe it? Not just here, if you believe it, what you'll do is you will ultimately have more honor and respect for Christ Jesus. We will esteem him more because he took the price of sin away. I love it. Verse 11, it says, for as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love. Talking about being steadfast again toward those who fear him, right? So here, and we're not sure in the Bible, we're talking about heavens. It's like three heavens, right? Paul says, I was caught up to the third heaven. The first heaven is the sky, right? So you're in the clouds. Most of us have taken a plane ride, right? And you've been in there. The second one is like the stars, the constellations, right? The third one is where the throne of God sits, right? But it doesn't even matter, right? Have you ever just been on the window seat and they tell you you have now reached 15, 10,000 elevation and peeked over? Some of us are afraid of heights. Some of us are not just peeked over. You can't really make out anything distinguishable or any person. You can start to see, like large coliseums and depending on how hard you are, how high you are, you can't even see through the clouds. That's how great his steadfast love is towards those who fear him. And that fear is reverential fear. He loves us, man. And I'm going to compete with what I feel in your soul, right? He could love us in spite of. I'm not even talking about the person next to you. He loves you in spite of. And it's steadfast when you sin, he's not changing his mind about you. This is not just for the super saints, whatever that means, right? You. Do you believe in Jesus? He loves you. Actually, it says he loved the world so much that he gave his only begotten son to even have relationship with him. Now we are grafted into Christ and his love for us is steadfast, just steadfast. I got a pastor, had a pastor in Durham, North Carolina, Pastor J.D. greer. I think he said it and he wrote it in a book. And I'm be honest, this is one of the reasons I feel like the Lord wants me to preach this here. He said to me, or he said, there's nothing you can do to make the Lord love you more and there's nothing you can do to make the Lord love you less. And I don't care how long you've been in church, you gotta wrestle with that thing. Because surely when I'm, when I'm being holy and we praising them and, and we give in and, and we loving on each other, don't you love me more? God, no. And if I'm out here and I'm wilding in these streets and I'm just looking at everything and I'm meditating on wrong things and I'm enjoying sin and swimming and sin, you have to love me less, right? No. Why? Because God loves based on his character, not your actions. Right. And check me out. If he did love based on our actions and the dispositions of our heart. Let me get this out. He's not, but give me some grace, right? God would have to be somewhat schizophrenic. He would always have to be double dutching on how I deal with you. And I love you all. You got it right? Now I'm back in love with you. Now I'm out like, no. Oh, what? God ain't in heaven doing all that. That doesn't match his character. I said I love you, I love you. And it's just not all talk. I demonstrate my love for you on the cross. And I also have a benefit package. You know, I love about this sermon that David preached to himself. He said, oh my soul, you're only going to preach the sermon that you believe to yourself. I believe that David knew God in this way, that he had been delivered from the pit, that he had sinned. And you did not judge me. You could have thrown me away and killed me and written me off, but you did not repay me for all my sins. He knew him in that way. That's why we're all asking you and encouraging you and begging you. Get to know him. Get to know him, man. Verse 12. He keeps going. We're going to preach this gospel today. He says, as far as the east is from the west. This is a rich verse so far. Does he remove our transgressions from us opposite directions? They never meet up. And I'm gonna kick this, this works consciousness out of your soul. It Said he removed you didn't earn it. You didn't be good enough. Now you earned deliver it. No, I think removed them. I did because I am God. Verse 13. I'm going to spend some time here because as an elder in this house, I sense when we're in worship and when we preach and we talk, throw that back up. Keep that up, family. I know I usually say, take that down. Keep that up the whole time. A larger percentage of you guys clock out here. We literally can see it from the stage. You clock out. I mean, you be with us. We start talking about a father's love, you brush it off. And I believe it's a plan of Satan for you to do so. Because if I had up there or I wrote it and I say, as a mother shows compassion, y' all would be fine, wouldn't you? As a mother nurtures her baby, y' all would ooh and ah. And y' all are, oh, yeah, it would hit your soul. But he says father, and you clock out. I'm just going to address the elephant in the room, especially in the black and brown context. Like 70% of us didn't grow up with a father and have major negative experiences. And I've had personal conversations, negative experiences, horrible experiences, horrendous experiences with a father. And I get up here and I talk about how much I love my children. Some of you get it. Some of you just clock out. And I believe it's one of the major plans of Satan for that to be the case. Because if I say, go get to know him. And then I say, but he's a father, and you clock out, you will miss out on a major benefit of having relationship with him. The King of glory, of heaven, the Creator of heaven and earth, the Alpha and Omega is our Father. Even one of the names of Jesus is Father, the author and the finisher of our faith. The One who put the very plan of salvation place to come and get you and rescue you. The Almighty one, the One when he passed by the rocks, it split all consuming fire. The One who led the children of Israel through the wilderness to a land flowing with milk and honey. Him, the One who was and is and is to come. The One where all of the angels bow before him in glory and in reverence, is also your Father. Now, did I just give you Bible? All right, now with that meditation. Now let's slide into this verse, okay? As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. I'm going to go to 14 and then we're going to come back and talk about it. For he knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust. I know we're used to celebrating Mother's Day, and I get it, but no one has more compassion for you than God the Father. So everybody knows I got three little ones right here. I'm not going to give you the ages, all the good stuff. You know that now, right? So one of them, actually probably three of them. We're in an interesting stage right now. They're two and three years old, right? So now we're trying to figure out, did you understand what I said to you as far as the command? That's the first part. And if you did understand, are you just blatantly ignoring me and staring me in the face and drinking my juice? And with that, it takes time because, I don't know, I literally look at them like this. Come here, come here, come here. So my youngest son, he's, like, cute and chunky. Look, just like me, right? Right. I'm not cute and chunky. But you did what I'm saying. All right, I'm chunky. Another conversation. All right, so I've had enough. Because I believe, based on history, you understand the command. Come here. Put it back. Put it down. No. These are not very complex things that I am discussing. Right? So I'm the father, and now it's time for judgment. You understood what I said and you heard me. Those are the qualifications. Without those things, then I'm being harsh, right? But you heard me. You understand? Eye contact is still being made. So now it's time for me to move towards you. And it's happened once and it's happened again. I've gotten there and I got there, and all of a sudden it's real to him. And he looks at me and he's a little afraid, and he throws his hands up, and it gets me almost every time. And I pick him up and I give them a hug. My boys are extremely affectionate, like me. My girls, they'll take a hug. My boys, and we hug them. We hug it out. I say, hey, man, I told you to put that down. You look at me and hug me again, right? And it. Listen, man, all that tough stuff, get in front of your babies. You ain't as tough as you think you are. But you know what just happened in that moment? I showed compassion on him. Objectively, he deserved judgment. You know what also happened? I remembered his frame. He's only 2 years old. 60 days ago, he was just 1. You see that she was like, oh, now that makes sense. That's how God deals with you. He remembers when you were just dust and he said, slid upon Adam before he was Adam. And he blew breath into him and made Adam a living soul. He's a compassionate father. I know that most of us do not have earthly representations of that closing, Frank. I know I can't change that. I can't change it, man. I wish I could. I would. And if you're a father right now, man, you better make sure that you are a good representation of the heavenly one. And I'm here with you. That's our job. Steadfast love, compassion, mercy, grace, love, unwavering. That's how you be tough. My love for you is the same. Before punishment, during punishment, afterwards. You know, you don't have to be angry to punish. You shouldn't even punish while you're angry. Just like a heavenly father. It's to push us along the way. Why not? Because he's trying. You know, if you just unleashed, we would all be consumed. But no, that punishment in Christ. Hey, hey, hey. That's not how I called you to be. That's bad for you. You know some of my harshest punishments, when my children are trying to deal with something that's dangerous, like electricity or sharp knives. You know why that that punishment is increased? Because that can take them away from me. And some of you can be in sin so much and then get wrapped up like vines in your soul that you will walk away from Christ. Doesn't that compassionate discipline look different now? And I want you to hear me. I never said he'll walk away from you, because in the Scriptures, it says, I will never leave nor forsake. But we can walk away from him. I was reading in. In Isaiah 53, the top of the. The experience, right? We have all went our own way and abandoned him. We are prone to wander. So as a good shepherd, come back over here. I know it looks shiny over there. No, no, no, no. That's a trap. Redeem your life from the pit. No, no, no. You want to go over there? Isolate. That's not good for you. You'll get picked off. Come over here. In community, we preach to ourselves, but doesn't line up with this. I know, sister. I don't always preach to myself like that either. But this is a reminder of King David, a man after God's own heart, telling his soul what to do and laying out the benefit package of knowing the one who saves us. Y' all with me. Beloved by your head, let me pray for us, Holy Father, I know what your word says here. The honest truth is God. We just don't feel like it's true a lot of times, and we feel like we see circumstances that preach a different gospel. Help us rebuke that gospel in our souls. Help us slide up on the scripture in Psalms 103 and reset our soul. Read about who you are, especially when it comes to you being a father. How compassionate you are, how you show compassion to those who fear you and respect you. That would definitely include those who believe on the Lord Jesus and disciples of Christ. Help us, God. Help us watch what we say to our own souls and help us always align with the truth of who you are in the Scriptures and by the Spirit of God. It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen.