GOD DOESN’T ACCEPT EXCUSES
** Erika’s testimony
My friends, it doesn’t matter what your background is like, it doesn’t matter what mistakes you’ve made; God will forgive and can help you, so He doesn’t accept excuses.
Each one of the Gospels was written by a different writer, for a different audience. Matthew wrote His gospel with the Jews in mind so he began his account with the lineage of Jesus, showing that He was rightfully the Messiah. In the genealogy of Jesus, I believe we find included 3 reasons why God doesn’t accept excuses.
I. YOUR _SITUATION_ DOESN’T _SEAL_ YOUR _FATE
- Matthew 1:1-17 Notice, if you will, a few of the people God had Matthew include in Jesus’ genealogy.
*v6 Mentions king David. David was called “A man after God’s own heart.” In spite of his sins, David loved the Lord.
* The same verse mentions Solomon, who asked the Lord for wisdom. He built the temple and for the majority of his life, served and followed God.
*v7 mentions Rehoboam. Rehoboam despised God’s people, and thought only of his own comfort.
*v7 Abijah, The Bible tells us that Abijah, Rehoboam’s son, “walked in the sins of his father.”
*v7 Asa, 2 Chronicles 14:11 tells us that “Asa cried to Jehovah, his God.”
*v8 Jehoshaphat, 2 Chronicles 20 tells us “Jehoshaphat prayed: . . . “Our eyes are on Thee.”
*v8 Joram, “But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab had done; . . .”
*v8 Uzziah, “But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up . . .”
*v9 Jotham, Jotham was victorious over many opposing armies and 2 Chronicles 27:6 tells us “So Jotham became mighty because he ordered his ways before the Lord his God.”
*v9 Ahaz, Jotham’s son Ahaz, the Bible tells us, became king when he was 16. He did not do right in the eyes of the Lord. He made molten images to the Baals.
*v9 Hezekiah, the son of Ahaz prayed, “O Jehovah, our God, save thou us.”
We could continue on and on, and we find the same repetition. A godly king can have a godly son. Or, a godly king may have an ungodly son. An ungodly king may find his son following in his footsteps, or his son may see the error of his father’s ways and choose to follow God instead.
My point is, “YOUR SITUATION DOESN’T SEAL YOUR FATE”. There are many people today who claim they act the way they do because of their environment. They act the way they do because their parents acted that way. They say, “It’s not my fault. I was brought up that way.” Or, “If you knew what my home life was like, then you would understand.
We live in a society where people try to make excuses for the way they act and the decisions they make. They want to say it’s their parents’ fault. They didn’t love me enough, or they pressured me too much, or I was potty-trained too soon, or my parents something.
If you only knew the bad breaks I’ve had, if you only knew the way people have treated me and cheated me. If you’ve been through what I’ve been through, then you would act the same way.
> Ezekiel 18:20 The person who sins will die. The son will not bear the punishment for the father’s iniquity, nor will the father bear the punishment for the son’s iniquity: . . .
My friend, your situation, your background, your environment, does not give you an excuse for rejecting Jesus Christ, and it does not give you an excuse for living in sin.
You cannot blame your laziness in following Jesus on others. You cannot blame the sin in your life on your environment. You cannot blame your bitterness on your spouse. You cannot blame your anger on your boss. You cannot say, “The Devil made me do it.” The Bible says it is your own choice.
> Isaiah 53:6 says, All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. In other words, you are what you have decided to be.
II. YOUR _PAST_ DOESN’T _DETERMINE_ YOUR _FUTURE_
In this genealogy, there are 4 women mentioned. Now, it is unusual enough to find women listed in a Jewish genealogy, but if you were to look for matriarchs listed in ancestors of Jesus, you would expect to find godly women; women like Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, and Leah. These 4 women stand out because they are missing. Instead, Matthew lists 4 other women. He lists, Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and “her who had been the wife of Uriah.” Now, what was it that made these 4 women stand out?
*v3 Tamar – If you remember, Tamar was Judah’s daughter-in-law. Her first 2 husbands died, and she was childless. So, she dressed like a prostitute, slept with her father-in-law Judah, and gave birth to his son. She was guilty of incest.
*v5 Rahab – If you remember, Rahab was a prostitute in the city of Jericho. She hid the Israelite spies and so they spared her when they destroyed the city.
*v5 Ruth – The Bible records nothing truly sinful about Ruth, other than the fact that she was a Moabitess. She came from a nation of people who did not believe in the one true God, but who worshipped idols instead.
*v6 Bathsheba – In Verse 6 we find mentioned “she who had been the wife of Uriah.” That is Bathsheba. Her sin was so terrible that Matthew blushed at the thought of even mentioning her name. Bathsheba is the woman who cheated on her husband with king David. She became pregnant by him, so David had her husband killed. She then married the man who killed her husband.
Each of these women were either sexually immoral, or they came from a nation of unbelieving people, and yet God chose to use them, in spite of their pasts.
- 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 READ
My friend, I don’t care what you have in your past. I don’t care what mistakes you have made or what sins you have committed. I don’t care how long you have run from God or how many people you have hurt. In spite of it all, God loves you. He will forgive you and use you if you ask.
God will not accept your excuses, because your past doesn’t determine your future.
III. YOUR _GOD_ DOESN’T _CHANGE_ HIS _MIND_
-v1
Verse 1 begins by calling Jesus Christ the Son of David and the Son of Abraham. I believe Matthew referred to Jesus this way for a very special reason.
If you remember, God once promised Abraham that through him, all nations would be blessed. Well, the Jews certainly were not blessing the world at that time. For the most part, they separated themselves from Gentiles, looked down their noses at them, and had very little to do with them.
It wasn’t until Jesus Christ came, offering salvation to all, seeking to save the lost, that all nations were blessed through the lineage of Abraham.
Likewise, God told David that one of his descendants would sit on the throne forever. It was only a few generations after David’s death, that his descendants quit ruling. It wasn’t until Jesus Christ came, born through the lineage of David, and again ascended to heaven, that One of David’s lineage again assumed the throne to rule forever.
Many people had given up on the promises of God in the Lord Testament. Some had given up, believing that God had changed His mind and that His promises would never be fulfilled.
But my friend I want you to know that YOUR GOD DOESN’T CHANGE HIS MIND. The promises He made in the days of old, still apply today.
> Lamentations 3:22-23 The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, For His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; Great is Thy faithfulness.
> Malachi 3:6 For I, the Lord, do not change; . . .
My friends, God promised to help with temptations. In
> 1 Corinthians 10:13 He says, “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.”
Yesterday, the Orlando Sentinel reported on a man by the name of Timothy Pilgreen. Timothy is being held on 2 charges of murder and 4 charges of attempted murder after driving over 6 Outlaw Biker gang members on their motorcycles. Later, he blamed his rage on a history of drugs, alcohol and childhood abuse. He said he was abandoned at age 4, had been in and out of juvenile detention by 14 and spent nearly a year in prison for stealing a car when 18. My friends, God will not accept your excuses.
Erika could have given up. She could have made excuses saying, “My environment was too tough, I can never change.” She could have said, “I’ve made too many mistakes, God will never forgive me.” Instead she chose to believe our unchanging God. The God Who still delivers today. The God Who still gives victory today. The God Who still forgives today. The God Who can change your life forever.
Tell me, will you quit making excuses today and take God at His word? Will you quit making excuses today and say, “I want to make a difference?”
