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Ghana National Association of Adventist Students-University of Ghana, Legon campus

The Early Rain Evangelistic Revival

Eric Walsh

Digital Rooftops

A message tonight is entitled Digital Rooftops.

Father God, we thank you for this opportunity, Lord, to visit with your word and to have your word come alive.

Make me a nail upon a wall once again, Lord, rusty and sorry.

Lord, I ask that you hang a portrait of Jesus Christ upon that nail tonight so that I, Eric Walsh, have not heard.

Instead, Father God, tonight we need to hear a word from the throne room of grace.

It's our prayer in Jesus's precious and holy name.

So we're gonna start tonight by talking about 1 of my favorite Bible characters, a king, shepherd boy, a youngest sibling, a master musician, a poet, songwriter by the name of David.

There's a lot that the Bible will teach you about life.

First of all, let's start in 1 Samuel 13 and verse 14.

We're gonna start at the time that David is called.

The time that David is called, the Bible says 1 Samuel 13, 14, But now thy kingdom shall not continue, speaking to Saul.

The Lord hath sought him a man after his own heart.

The Lord hath commanded him to be captain over his people because thou hast not kept that which the Lord commanded thee.

So David, from the outset, chosen to be the king over Israel because he is a man after God's own heart.

Now, His name, the name David, oh Acts 13, 22, I skipped 1.

And when he had removed him, talking about Saul again, he raised up unto them David to be their king.

To whom also he gave their testimony and said, I have found David the son of Jesse a man after my own heart which shall fulfill all my will.

In the Old Testament, the New Testament, David is referred to as a man after God's own heart.

Important to remember that that's the starting point of where we come into David's story.

Now David is the Hebrew word David which was probably derived from Hebrew DWD meaning beloved.

No 1 else in the entire Bible has the name David.

He's a shepherd, musician, a giant killer.

1 of my favorite Bible stories is how he trash talks Goliath and then, Whoops, I think that's a great story.

When the prophet came to look for who was to be the next king, he came to Jesse's house.

Jesse showed him every 1 of his sons, except David.

When Samuel was done examining all the other brothers, he said, wait a minute, is there anybody else here in this area?

You have 1, the little, the little runty little 1 that we leave out there with the sheep, David.

And the 1 that was forgotten was the 1 who was called.

He was a king, and he was a mega-superstar.

In fact, David was so popular that when he and Saul came back from battle, The women would sing, Saul has killed his thousands, but David has killed his tens of thousands.

But eventually we fast forward in the story and David is king, he's successful.

Israel has peace, he's beaten up most of his enemies, he's finishing up the job.

When we jump into the story in 2 Samuel 10 in verse 18, the Bible says, Syrians had fled before Israel, 1 of their arch nemesis.

David slew the men of 700 tariots of the Syrians, 40, 000 horsemen, exceeding numbers, smoked Chobak, the captain of their horse, who died there, when all the kings that were serving stopped.

Adarezar saw that they were smitten before Israel, they made peace with Israel, but David made peace, and they served Israel.

So the Syrians feared to have the children of Ammon anymore.

And David got to a point where he was really making the world quiet for his people.

David was a warrior king, but he wasn't just a warrior king, he was an incredibly successful warrior king.

He laid down his enemies by the power of God.

Israel had never known a time like this, really, in its existence, with domination and a king.

But the first question I want to give you tonight is this 1.

The enemy couldn't make him quit when Saul was chasing him.

The enemy couldn't get David to be killed by Saul.

So sometimes what the enemy will do, we'll talk more about this on Simon, but Sometimes what the devil will do is actually make sure that you get what it is you want.

In a bid to make you complacent, in a bid to make you lay down your vigilance for the Lord.

The enemy will sometimes allow you to be successful so that you will stop fighting for God.

There's many people that come from Jamaica or Ghana and they reach to the United States or Europe and they get there and they start making money that has a lot of value and they buy a nice car and a nice house.

All of a sudden, when success reaches them, they're just no longer so important.

They don't even worry about being administered anymore.

So I challenge you, when you're successful, to always remember something I told you last night.

Give God the credit for your success and move on.

It's not what happens to David, it can happen to you.

2 Samuel 11 says, And 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 besieged Rome.

So it was a time of year when the kings would all go to fight.

David was supposed to go and fight with all the other kings.

David was so successful, he's like, man, I'm going to stay home, chill out, No reason for me to go fight, we can't lose.

And so he sends Joab to go and fight instead.

The Bible says he tarries, meaning that If you take that word back to the Hebrew, it's like he hangs out, knowing he really should have gone.

The second lesson, an idle mind is easily corrupted.

My Jamaican grandmother had a lot of faint, really good, wise quotes.

And she would say stuff like, an idle mind is the devil's workshop.

You sit there minding your own business at home, your mother kicking the room door like some Arnold Schwarzenegger or something in the Terminator.

And she's like, an idle mind is the devil's workshop.

Ellen White says in the book Ministry of Healing Patients, she says, it is wrong to waste our time, wrong to waste our thoughts.

We lose every moment that we devote to self-seeking.

If every moment we're valued and rightly employed, we should have time for everything that we need to do for ourselves and for the world.

And the expenditure of money and the use of time, strength, opportunities, let every Christian look to God for guidance.

The second reason why David gets in trouble, successful and then when he's supposed to be busy working for God, he's idle.

So I'm gonna challenge you again, I've been doing this all week.

I wanna challenge All of you again, do not be idle on this campus in winning souls for Jesus Christ, amen?

Science of a Side Piece

Father God we thank you for this opportunity tonight to go through your word to have this meeting Lord, I want to ask in a special way right now At first you sent angels that excel in Strength the given charge over this place that excel in wisdom and in strength.

Father God, bind up this place, protect us, block out the enemy.

I want to ask Father God that you send your Holy Spirit into this place.

And that Lord, by the blood of Jesus Christ that would shed on the cross want you to be with all the technology Lord we know that the enemy's gonna want to come against my computer the projector the microphones I bind all of that up Lord Then Father God bind up spirit that they're messing with down there.

Bind it and let them realize there's no power there.

Father God for tonight take control of this entire dormitory facility from the street all the way up where we are now and then father God your young people that are here who attend this school Lord let them know tonight that you are God who is in complete control of the affairs of men.

So I will confess to you that since my computer fell the other night, it has been misbehaving.

I had that problem in the States and I went to the store and got it fixed.

Since it fell, it's starting to do it again.

So I'm gonna leave it on probably until I leave.

But let's pray that we can get through everything tonight.

So I wanted to go over to last night was digital rooftops.

Tonight is the science of the side piece.

Tomorrow night is confessions of a godly sinner.

And last night, we ended by asking the question, what are you doing on your rooftop?

Do you send around texts to encourage people in Christ?

Are you sending around texts trying to hook up with people.

Are you on your phone watching things that you shouldn't be watching?

Or are you on your phone, you know, using that technology to get you Bible study information or to watch sermons or listen to sermons on AudioVerse?

And I've got to make sure I hook all of you up so that you know how to go to the audio verse website download Thousands of sermons that are on there that are really good And then We make the statement last night.

We'll make it again tonight, but let me just remind you of the statement be careful what you entertain Sin does what it?

Fascinates before it assassinates and that is exactly what sin does.

So our message tonight is the science of the side piece.

We're going to read from 2nd Samuel 11 4 and David sent messengers and took her came in unto him and he lay with her was purified from her uncleanness and she returned unto her house and the woman conceived sent and told David and said I am with child this is so I asked somebody today what these soap opera looking shows I see on TV or they're filming in the village and is all this drama I can't understand what they're saying because they don't always speak English but it's very dramatic they told me it's called a con drama all right so you guys laugh that's funny in Spanish countries it's a it's a they call them tell our novellas English their soap operas in the states but either way this is a bible soap opera a-con drama I left you with a cliffhanger I left you with she's pregnant and then we we left last night and we come back tonight to find out how does David go so so deep into sin so the message is entitled the science of the side piece and what I mean by that is the mechanism by which someone would get a side piece and I don't know how many of you are familiar with that term.

I don't know how old the term is, but it's a term that means when a man has a woman on the side from his wife.

That's gangster Wow he has a side chick Wow okay that works in America all right so we're gonna read back to the story get you caught up and then we're gonna go forward in the story They came to pass after the year was expired, and the time when kings go forth to battle, David sent Joab and his servants with him, and all Israel, and they destroyed the children of Ammon, seized Raba, but David tarried still at Jerusalem.

And They came to pass in an evening tide David arose from office and he walked upon the roof of the king's house from the roof.

He saw a woman washing herself the Bible says and the woman was very beautiful to look upon and David sent and inquired after the woman and 1 said it's not this Bathsheba daughter of Ilium the wife of Uriah the Hittite I told you last night this was a warning don't mess with your homeboys girl don't do it David said the messages and took her.

And she came in unto him, and he laid with her, for she was purified from her uncleanness, returned unto her house.

The woman conceived and sent an old David and said, I am with child.

If you're a married man, those are some of the happiest words you'll ever hear.

If you're not young men some of you would literally have a heart attack if you're told that.

So it's an interesting story it's time 1 It's the David is supposed to be somewhere else.

But I want to talk about Bathsheba a little bit.

So he's looking for something to conquer.

And Bathsheba becomes the thing he wants to conquer.

Women, you have to realize sometimes men are after you because they want to conquest.

And you've got to be able to decipher the kind of man that wants you for a partner and the 1 that wants you for a trophy.

Don't let them come after you to make you a trophy.

But the other part of this is that Beth Sheba was in an interesting place.

Her husband had been probably gone for months as well, maybe, or at least weeks.

And if you study biology, you understand that when a woman ovulates is actually a time when she may be hormonally more ready for physical activity, if you know what I'm saying.

And so some of you get it, some of you don't.

It was the time of month where she would be, theoretically, at least, hormonally, most desiring.

But the devil, like I said last night, he knows how to lay out a trap.

I would imagine the enemy probably is the 1 who woke David up off his bed and led him up the stairs in a sense.

So we get the story where David is under the influence.

He thinks because he's king, he is above the law like all the other kings at the time.

So I'm going to give you several principles tonight as to how and why David falls.

And if you follow the steps of his fall, you will understand.

How it is that David gets into the mess he gets.

So number 1 your sin potential that is how easy it is for you to fall in the sin and I made this into an equation equals secular influence times self divided by divine dependence.

I know some of you are like, I left math class, why is this man making up equations?

But I like it because it makes it simple.

The more you depend on God, whatever's in the denominator on the other side of the equation, the bigger that is, the smaller the thing on the other side of the equation becomes.

So the bigger you, the more you depend on God, the lower your sin potential becomes.

It's not that David didn't have willpower or had willpower.

David had shown in his life he was gritty.

When you stop depending on God, then let you fall into sin does what?

The other part of it is, the more self is exalted.

Confession of a Godly Sinner

Father God, we thank you for this opportunity to study your word once again.

Make me just a nail upon the wall, Lord, a rusty, sorry nail.

Upon thy nail eyes that you hang a portrait of Jesus Christ so that I am not seen tonight.

Instead, Father, let us hear a word from the throne room of grace.

This is our prayer in Jesus's precious and holy name.

So we've been following our A-con drama, right?

Our soap opera, as we say in the States, is a very interesting soap opera, actually.

And it is based on the story of David and Bathsheba.

So the story takes this interesting turn where David now has been living with Bathsheba as his wife for a while.

David thinks he's gotten away with murder.

He thinks he's gotten away with everything.

He thinks nobody knows, but of course people are murmuring around Jerusalem.

Somebody, their servants in the castle, or in the palace, they would have seen things, but they didn't know what's really going on.

So, in a scene, 1 of my favorite scenes in the entire Bible is this scene.

2 Samuel 12, and verse 1, it says, and the Lord sent Nathan unto David, came unto him and said unto him, there were 2 men in 1 city.

The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds.

But the poor man had nothing save 1 little ewe lamb, which he had bought and nourished up.

And it grew up together with him and with his children, and it ate of his own meat, fed him out of his own food, and drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and his lamb was like a daughter to the man.

There came a tribe unto the rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock and of his own herd to dress for the wayfaring man that was come unto him, but took the poor man's lamb and dressed it for the man that was come to him.

So the parable is that there's a rich man, a poor man, and has blocks and herds and tons of stuff that he can kill and eat.

There's a poor man who just loves a lamb.

You know, I don't really get it, but he's trying to make a point.

So I guess you just got to figure it like that.

I don't really hang out with too many lambs in my life.

The Bible says in the parable that the lamb is like 1 of his daughters so the rich man has a visitor that comes to visit and in the parable that Nathan is telling to David there's a reason Nathan is using the parable.

The rich man goes to where the poor man is, takes his little ewe lamb, this fat lamb that he has, and kills it and feeds his traveler, even though the rich man has plenty that he could have killed to feed the traveler.

When David hears this, David is a fair man, that's 1 thing you gotta give him.

David's anger was greatly kindled against the man.

So David jumps up off of his throne, he's ready to fight.

And he says to Nathan, as the Lord lives, the man that has done this, verse 5, the man that has done this thing shall surely what?

Shall surely die, and he shall restore the lamb fourfold because he did this thing and because he had what?

So David comes off the throne, he's like what?

He's gonna die and before he dies, he's gotta pay him back 4 times what he took.

The next verse is 1 of the most killing verses in all of scripture.

It says this, 2 Samuel 12, 7 says, and Nathan said to David, thou art the man.

In other words, you are the man in the story, David.

You're the rich guy with all the stuff and the other guy is the guy you killed who you took his wife.

Now what you have to understand is that when, see what happens is when you think you've gotten away with sin, when you think you've gotten away with murder, in this case literally David thought he got away with murder, and you're confronted with it, a lot of the normal human response is to become offensive.

It's to make excuses, to defend yourself, to say you weren't there.

I have no idea what you're talking about.

It's not my fault that Uriah got murdered and killed in a battle.

Some live in a war, some die in a war, as we told the messenger.

But in this case, David's response is different.

David says, before David gets to speak anymore, in verse 7, the rest of the verse 7, Nathan says, thus said the Lord God of Israel, I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul, and I gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your bosom, and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah, and if that had been too little, I like this, what God says to David, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things.

God says, it's not even just that you had so much.

God says, if it wasn't enough what you had, had you asked for more, I would have given you more.

God says, so the idea that you needed to take somebody else's life and kill him is absurd because we had the kind of relationship where if you said, listen, Lord, I want more than what I have.

Nathan the prophet says wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord to do evil in his sight.

Thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword and has taken his wife to be thy wife and has slain him with the sword of the children of Amnon.

3, you killed him with our unclean, even enemies, sword.

Then Nathan begins to give David all the top ones.

Now, therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house because you have despised me and has taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.

Thus saith the Lord, behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house.

This is what happens with his son Absalom later on.

And I will take thy wives before thine eyes and give them unto thy neighbor, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of the sun.

For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the sun.

If I had time and I was doing the rest of the series, it would be very relevant when we get to David's children and the effect this has on them.

Number 1, 4 of David's own children would die or suffer, Right?

The baby that Bathsheba has, the first baby dies, Absalom dies, his daughter is raped by 1 of his sons, that son is killed.

Absalom leads a massive rebellion against him, the warden never leaves David's house, his wives are publicly violated by his own son Absalom, and everyone in Jerusalem would see David running like a coward from his own son.

The consequences of his sin are enormous.