Compiled from the sermon notes of Pastor Don Elmore

Audio not available.  Published, in part, in the New Covenant Messenger Jan 2022

PSALMS 90:1-2

This psalm (Psalm 90) was written by Moses and was called a prayer.  It is supposed that this psalm was penned upon occasion of the sentence passed upon Israel in the wilderness for their unbelief.

• They were punished for all their unbelief, murmuring and rebellion that their carcasses should fall (all those over 20 years old) and be buried in the wilderness. 
• That they should be wasted away by a series of miseries for thirty-eight years together. 
• And that none of them that were then of age (20 years and older) should enter Canaan.

What if we were living at this time?  Suppose we were thirty years old when the punishment was explained to us by Almighty God that we would not be allowed to go into the Promise Land.  Everyone over the age of 20 years old, except for the faithful two Israelite spies, Caleb and Joshua, would spend the next 38 years being buried in the wilderness.  We would just wander around till the 38 years ended and all of us had died.  How depressing would that time period be?  Would we need something to help us get though this long time?  We couldn’t enter the Promise Land, we just had to wait and wait and wait.  How depressing.  Moses’ second song was written for this purpose.

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November 28, 2021

Scripture Reading:  Joshua 24:15

When the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, it was a call for the right of statehood rather than individual liberties.  Many scores of years later many Americans began reading the affirmation that “all men are created equal” in different ways than the framers intended.   When the Continental Congress adopted the historic text drafted by Thomas Jefferson, they did not intend it to mean individual equality. Rather, what they declared was that American colonists, as a people, had the same rights to self-government as other nations. Because they possessed this fundamental right, they could establish new governments within each of the states and collectively assume their “separate and equal station” with other nations. It was only in the decades after the American Revolutionary War that the phrase acquired its compelling reputation as a statement of individual equality.

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October 17, 2021

Scripture Reading: Psalm 92:9

When Apartheid ended, it was decided to keep December 16th as a public holiday, but to infuse it with the purpose of fostering reconciliation and national unity.  It was established by the government in 1994.  Communist Nelson Mandela was part of the group of politicians that helped start the idea for the holiday. On December 16, 1995, the first celebration took place. The first meeting of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission also took place on December 16, 1995. In an address in 1995, Communist Archbishop Desmond Tutu described the holiday as serving the need of healing the wounds of Apartheid.

In America, the plot was harder to execute.

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October 1, 2021

Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 29:7

When God’s people failed to follow the laws of their God, God raised up a couple of the countries nearby to invade the land and take the people of Israel into exile.  First, the Syrians took the Israelite tribes east of the Jordan River and then the Assyrians invaded the rest of the House of Israel and the House of Judah and then later the nation of Babylon invaded Jerusalem and took the remaining captives of the House of Judah to Babylon.  Before the exile, false prophets had claimed that what Jeremiah prophesied was untrue and that the exile would only last for two years.  Jeremiah warned that the exile would last for 68 more years. 

“Build homes, and plan to stay. Plant gardens and eat the food they produce. Marry and have children. Then find spouses for your children so that you may have many grandchildren. Multiply! Do not dwindle away! And work for the peace and prosperity of Babylon where I sent you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, for its welfare will determine your welfare” (Jeremiah 29:5-7 NLT).

This sermon will begin with a short question: Who wrote the two paragraphs, which contained the above verse (Jeremiah 29:7), which will be given shortly in this sermon, which was taken from the author’s small booklet?  Everyone here will recognize the author’s name when it is given.  Was he a preacher, a teacher or just an ordinary believer?  Maybe he wasn’t a Christian at all.  Maybe he was an atheist or an agnostic or a skinhead.  Some say that he was a hero; many say that he was a villain.  Some say that he was both.

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August 21, 2021

Scripture Reading Romans 11:17, 18:

17) “And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert grafted in among them, and with them partakes of the root and fatness of the olive tree:

18) Boast not against the branches.  But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee.”

These two verses are a portion of the mystery of God that is mentioned, seven verses later, that pertains to the grafting of the branch of the wild olive tree into the good olive tree:

Romans 11:25:  “For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits, that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles [nations] be come in.”

There are five important questions that need to be answered correctly in order to understand the mystery of the verses in Romans chapter 11. 

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July 11, 2021

Deuteronomy 14:21a

There are three separate, diverse groups of people mentioned in verse 21:

• “Ye”, “thou”, “thy” or “holy people”:  These are the seed of Jacob or the covenant people of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  They had the LORD God as their king, until they requested that one of their own people be king instead of Him.  They were forbidden to eat any animal that died of itself, but they were permitted to give the dead animal away or sell it.
• “Stranger” [#1616, Strong’s]: sojourner.  To this group of people, the Israelites were told that they could give the animal that died of itself to them and then the people that they gave it to could eat it.
• “Alien” [#5237, Strong’s]: alien, foreigner, outlandish. To this group of people, the Israelites were told that they could sell the animal that died of itself and then the individuals that bought it could eat it.