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It’s Year of the Rat! (by Jeff Hartensveld) PDF Print E-mail
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Sunday, 10 February 2008

Sermon

 
It’s year of the Rat!
 

Who’s excited about it?
  • Tran Quang Thieu, 54, director of a rat extermination company on the outskirts of Hanoi, was reveling in the Vietnamese belief that the rodent population multiplies during a lunar rat year.
  • "Those who like it will eat it, and those who don't, won't," said Phat, who sells rat for US$3 a kilo.
 
 
Why do we live by the stars?
  • People have been doing this for millenniums.
  • In life we feel like we need outside help to make our lives good…Many of us are here today at ICA for that reason.
  • We’ll take as much help as possible.

 
So What’s the harm?
  • It isn’t that accurate.
  • The Society for Scientific Research of Para-Sciences in Rossdorf near Darmstadt, Germany, examined 90 predictions about the year 2004; none of them came true… It was a bad year.
  • My predictions… for last year
  • Earthquakes.
  • Marriages

 
Deut 18:9-14

"When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, be very careful not to imitate the detestable customs of the nations living there. 10 For example, never sacrifice your son or daughter as a burnt offering. And do not let your people practice fortune-telling, or use sorcery, or interpret omens, or engage in witchcraft, 11 or cast spells, or function as mediums or psychics, or call forth the spirits of the dead.

12 Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord. It is because the other nations have done these detestable things that the Lord your God will drive them out ahead of you. 13 But you must be blameless before the Lord your God. 14 The nations you are about to displace consult sorcerers and fortune-tellers, but the Lord your God forbids you to do such things."
 

Isaiah 8:19-22

19 Someone may say to you, "Let's ask the mediums and those who consult the spirits of the dead. With their whisperings and mutterings, they will tell us what to do." But shouldn't people ask God for guidance? Should the living seek guidance from the dead?

20 Look to God's instructions and teachings! People who contradict his word are completely in the dark. 21 They will go from one place to another, weary and hungry. And because they are hungry, they will rage and curse their king and their God. They will look up to heaven 22 and down at the earth, but wherever they look, there will be trouble and anguish and dark despair. They will be thrown out into the darkness
 

What’s wrong with living by these predictions?
 
  • In the OT God wanted a clean break and he was tough on the people.
  • In those days you would get stoned if you were caught consulting a psychic.  Aren’t you glad you don’t live at that time period any more?  We live now under grace not law.     
  • Come on is there really harm in doing it.
  1. It depends on the way you look at it.  EX***  Parents setting days OK.
  2. God desires us to give Him our whole hearted commitment.
  • We prefer COMBOs.

 
2 Samuel 22: 19-27

    * David’s life wasn’t perfect.
    * David learned at the end that He could trust in God.
    * Making a decision to follow God’s ways is not an easy one.
          o Because it isn’t a guarantee that things will be perfect.  
          o It’s easier for me to go to the newspaper and read it each morning.
    * You can get that kind of thing in the Word of God by reading it.

    * What David found to be true at the end of his life was that by following God he ended up with:
          o Protection
          o Guidance
          o Purity
          o Strength
          o Greatness
 
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