.  Living Hope Fellowship Church....Sermons by the Pastor 

LAY ALL YOUR CARDS ON THE TABLE

by Associate Pastor Richard Bundren, 06/01/08 p.m.

Have you ever heard the term “Let’s just lay all our cards out on the table”?  I’m not talking about gambling.  When you go to negotiate, that is what you do.  You need to just come before the Lord and lay all of your cards out on the table! 

Isaiah 1:18 says, “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”  That means, “Let’s talk this out.” 

Once a woman came to me after church, bawling.  She was under conviction, and she got gloriously saved. Two or three months later she said, “I thought I got saved, but I couldn’t do these things if I got saved.”  She had been molested as a child and became promiscuous.  She thought it was over when she got saved.  I asked, “Did it bother you that you did these sins before you got saved?”  She answered, “Of course not!”  I said, “You got saved.”  She said, “How can I keep this up?”  I told her, “Just lay all your cards out on the table before God.” 

Philippians 4:13 says, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”

Her sins were as scarlet and everybody knew what she did, but everybody also knew she got saved.  They knew she slipped.  The Lord knew it, and the Holy Ghost pricked her heart.  Through a lot of weeping and repenting she whipped those sins!  She got married and now lives a wonderful life!

When you get saved, you have eternal life.  You cannot go out and live like you want to, but sometimes it is a struggle. 

Philippians 2:12 says, “. . . work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” 

He doesn’t mean to work to earn your salvation.  He wants you to get in the Word of God and find out what He’ll do for you and what he wants you to do – with fear and trembling.  He saved you for a purpose.  You may not learn to walk above all sin immediately.  You have to work that out.  God knows you stumble and fail, but He will pick you up.  

I am reminded of bankruptcy court.  Everything that person lays on the table and declares as a debt they owe that they can’t pay is forgiven!  However, if there is a debt he owes that he does not declare, he still owes it.  Put ALL your cards on the table.  There is a song that says “I owed a debt I could not pay”.  You can’t pay for your sin, but your sin has already been paid for by Jesus.  All you have to do is declare the debt.  Isn’t that wonderful?

A couple of years ago one of my boss’s customers came in and we spent $900 on his car on a Friday.  On Monday he declared bankruptcy.  He declared the work we did on his car as part of his debts, and in this life he was forgiven legally.  Don’t premeditate what you are going to do and think you can just ask forgiveness next week.  That is not declaring your sin.  That is declaring your intention to fraud!  God won’t bless that. 

False repentance doesn’t work, but precious is that blood that makes you white as snow if you will but put your cards on the table.  When you get in bad shape spiritually, there is no true joy in life, no happiness.  You can become spiritually bankrupt. 

I believe the young man of Luke, Chapter 15, was raised understanding right from wrong, but he got distracted from the truth.  Luke 15:17 says, “And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!”  Even though we are saved we can get to the place spiritually, that we are starving to death!  We can read the Bible without it affecting us!  We think people in the world have it better than we do when we take our eyes off of the Father. 

Luke 15:18-19 says, “I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.”  The young man knew there was food in the Father’s house.  When you are starving, being a servant is not so bad. 

You may have decided to repent and follow Christ, but have you come and laid all your cards on the table?  God knows it is in your heart, but you have to get up and do it. 

Luke 15:20 says, “And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.”

When you get up, the heavenly Father will meet you.  He will make an altar - put all your cards on it. 

1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Luke 15:21 says, “And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.”  You have to say it for it to come about! 

God knows it takes us coming to ourselves, so we see how vile we are, but the blood of Jesus washes us and makes us brand new.  He sees we have to get the rest of the stench cleaned off of us.  In the mean time, a robe of righteousness will cover our sin. 

Luke 15:22-23 says, “But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet:  And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry:”  There was a celebration.  The Lord is waiting for you, and He has a robe of righteousness for you. 

1 John 1:8 says, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”  Just come before the Lord and lay all your cards on the table! 

God will forgive, and your sins will be white as snow! 

 “. . . happy is that people, whose God is the LORD.”

Psalm 144:15