← ArchiveSunday, May 10, 2015DateMay 10, 2015Speaker—TextPsalms 23Passages in this sermonPsalms 230:22James 111:07Isaiah 5319:52Proverbs 1320:00James 1:520:45John 127:11Proverbs 2029:49Psalms 7731:07Proverbs 432:15Proverbs 332:25Psalms 3732:46TranscriptClick any line to jump there.0:00Thank you, Greg, thank you, worship team, thank you so much. Turn with your Bibles, please, to Psalms 23. Psalms 23, we pick it up in Psalms 23. Verse 3, and I'm going to read the entire text, if you don't mind.0:30I think we will every week, just to kind of refresh and let it bathe over us. Psalms 23, beginning with the first verse. I'm reading in the English Standard Version of God's Word, but I'll be preaching across the board through several translations today. But primarily, the text is taken from our ESV. Psalms 23, verse 1. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.0:58He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me besides still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in the path of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. For you are with me, your rod, your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.1:25You anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Let's pray. Father, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable today, Lord Jesus. Father, I pray as we unpack your word today, we handle this passage accurately today.1:55Lord, we love you. We thank you for what you're about to do in our midst today. Father, change lives in this place. If one is looking for direct path, if one is here today that's needing a clarity in their life,2:21if one here today is seeking direction, Father, I pray your word speaks to them. Not my words, but your words, Lord Jesus. Take this fantastic psalm and use it for your glory today in such a way that we will walk away from this place more energized, more surrendered than ever before.2:48It would be so tragic, Lord Jesus, that we come one way and we leave the same. I pray we all, from this preacher all the way across this auditorium today, walk away from this place completely and radically changed for all of eternity. And we give you the praise and the glory and the honor.3:16In Jesus' name we pray and the church said, amen. If I had a sermon titled, it would be God's Antidote or God's Prescription for Indecision. Life is a series of choices, a series of decisions. Success is basically a matter of wise decision or wise choices. Several years ago, my son, he's 24, he's about 12 years old.3:46Around that time, during the summer, a couple of our board of directors had decided to take their sons to a father-son camp. They said they asked me if I wanted to go. I said, well, yes, kind of give me some idea about the camp. Because when I hear the word camp, that simply means that we might be sleeping in some environments that, you know, I'm just, some people love, but we're just not jazzed about it.4:13I mean, my wife, her idea for camping is no room service at the hotel. That's her idea of roughing it, you know. But there's some in this room, and I don't mind doing a little bit of that. But he said, no, no, no. It's cabins, but they do a couple of nights out on the riverbank and that kind of stuff. I said, well, that sounds like fun. They said, well, we'd like for you and Seth to come along with us. I said, oh, that'd be great. How much is it? He said, oh, it's scholarship. I said, yeah, we're in. And so then they tell me where the camp was.4:44It was in Aetna, California. I said, wow, that's a little bit drive to get to camp, you know. They said, oh, no, we're flying. And so I looked at my air miles, how many I had. And so we ended up burning all my air miles, and Seth and I bought our air tickets out to San Francisco. Actually, we flew into Sacramento, got a rental van that they rented. And we went up to Aetna, California to the J.H. Ranch. Now, I'm not here to promote the J.H. Ranch. It's a phenomenal Christian organization. It's a wonderful campsite, a wonderful opportunity.5:14And it was a great time at Seth, age 12, and me to gather together. Now, we have a pretty tight relationship, my son and I do already. We have a unique, unique friendship. And so we love doing things together, love playing golf together, love doing a lot of stuff together. Even though he lives in a different state, we still find time to connect and those kinds of things. And so we went to this camp. And so we got there. We checked in, got our bag, got our stuff, got our sleeping bags all laid out.5:43Everything was all ready to go. And we started going through all the camp procedures, the opening day, the opening, the rodeo that they had, and all kinds of neat stuff. Horseback riding, ropes trails, ropes courses, all kinds of stuff. It was an amazing opportunity. Man, it was all this team building. And then about two days into it, they said, now, tomorrow night, there'll be 24, 25 of you guys that will, and your sons, that will go and will bus you, will van you out to a location.6:08You'll spend the night. We'll cook out by the lake, by the river. And you're going to do some rafting down the Kalamath River. I said, well, okay, that's going to be an interesting little thing. We'll have you food stationed all the way down, you know, kind of already pre-planned trip. They said, now, there's two caveats.6:36The one is you can actually go in a raft by yourself, whether with a couple of other guys and their sons, or you can have a guide. And I'm sitting there thinking, okay, this is a kind of adventurous thing. We can do it on our own, or we can do the guide thing. And so, my board chairman said, I'm voting right now that we get the guide thing. I said, I think we can have it. He said, oh, no, I am overriding you as the president and founder of the ministry.7:03We are going with a guide, because we don't know what this river looks like. I said, oh, it's not that big a deal. Well, you can see the river, it's not that big a deal. He said, we're going to go for a day down this river, and none of us are gifted in rafting down rivers. I'm a lawyer. You're a preacher. None of us have held an oar in our hands forever. So, we're going to get the guide. So, okay, we got the guide. Well, a couple of other rafts, some other guides, they were more adventurous guides.7:32I think they were from Mississippi or somewhere like that. They decided they were going to do it without the guide, and we know that that was not a good idea. So, we're rafting down this Kalamath River in Aetna, California, all the way down towards Redding area, California. Beautiful scenery, all these beautiful mountains, and it was awesome. And we kind of made this turn, Brad, in this river, and there was this huge bluff up there.7:57And all of a sudden, just like on cue, just like on cue, this huge eagle starts swinging around. I mean, goodness gracious, I thought I was at Jordan-Hare. I mean, it was just swinging around. And I said, whoo, war eagle. You know, I just, everything was getting all jazzed up. It was beautiful. And that eagle swung around. And then we made another turn, Matt, we made another turn, and then we hit some rapids.8:24And it started picking up some steam. And we're in the thing, and we're kind of helping along the way. And the guide said, y'all just hang on. I got it. I know the way to go. And the other guy says, y'all come on. We got this thing. And they went ahead of us, and their wrath flipped over, and they lost all their gear. And our guide just kept right on going, right down the river. I was thinking about this little illustration today.8:52Not because of that fantastic eagle, which it was. I was thinking more about the guide. Here's a California native. He has chartered that river time and time and time again. And here's some old rednecks from the deep south who think we know everything about rafting, about water, and about rivers, and how to guide ourselves. And them old boys from Mississippi lost all their lunch, all their stuff.9:21Everything was upside down. And they kind of floated down the rest of the river on what they could find. You say, wait a minute. What's the point? We, every one of us in this room, have a great need for a guide. Every one of us need to step aside and say, you know what? We have decisions to make, but we need help along the way.9:47We make our decisions, and then our decisions, they end up making us. Because decisions, all decisions, have consequences. Every choice you make has a consequence because we're human beings, which makes us prone to making bad decisions and bad choices. Decisions can be very stressful. They can be very stressful because we don't know what's going to happen. We have no idea what's going to happen in life.10:16Have you ever been afraid to make a decision? Have you ever been afraid like, hmm, boy, I just don't know if I'm going to. I'm afraid if I make the decision, it'll be the wrong decision. Some of us right now in this room, as you're facing a decision this week, something to do with your life, some kind of stressful situation, you're looking at, do I make the choice? Do I get in the market? Do I get out of the market? Do I get married or do I not get married? Some of you in this room are making major decisions whether you're going to have surgery10:44or not have surgery. You all have got decisions. Every one of us have decisions to make. Should I let go or should I hold on to it? The stress of indecisions make us crazy. It will get to us. James 1 says, a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. The Greek word literally says for unstable literally means a staggering like a drunk.11:12When we are double-minded, we're kind of staggering back and forth, teetering back and forth like a pinball in a pinball machine, back and forth, hitting the walls, hitting. Sometimes we're making it. Sometimes we're not. Sometimes even after making the decision, after we say, this is what we're going to do, have you ever been like me? You say, hmm, I wonder if that was the right decision to make.11:41Was that the right decision? Should I have said yes to that situation? Should I have said yes to that opportunity? Did I do the right thing? Did I make the right decision? Let me tell you something. In life, you're going to make some decisions and sometimes they're going to turn out wrong. Amen? They are. You're going to buy the wrong thing. You're going to purchase the wrong house, purchase the wrong car, something. Somewhere along the way, now some of you wives, quit looking at your husbands right now, please.12:09That is not the wrong decision. You made the right decision. I know the hair is growing out of his nose and it's not very pretty, but he is the right choice for you right now. We get to those stressful situations. Psalms 23b gives us a clear stress reliever. He, he leads me. Capital H-E. He leads me in the path of righteousness for his name's sake.12:38He guides us to the path of righteousness. This simply means the right path. The right path means righteousness. He will keep us on the path provided, surrender, providing that we surrender to his perfect will, not ours. His perfect time frame, not ours. It is easy to get off track. It is easy to get preoccupied with the trivial things, majoring on the minor things.13:07We have a tendency to do that. We make minor things major when we should major on the majors and less on the minor things. Amen. That's what this passage is telling us. That's what this passage is telling us. He guides our path. Some of you are saying, I've tried this, Dan. I've tried it myself. I've tried to take it. You've asked God to guide you and then to lead you and to direct you, but it's more confusing before and you can't figure out why.13:36Or is God trying to teach me something? Is he trying to lead me down the wrong path? No. Does he take pleasure in me stumbling along the way? Absolutely not. Sometimes we need to surrender to the Lordship of Christ. God wants to guide us even more than we want to be guided. He wants to bless us even more than we realize that we need the blessing. He is in the business of guiding us, but there are some caveats.14:03One of the major problems that I found in dealing with church people and people in general, to be honest with you, we often look for directions all in all the wrong places, do we not? We look for directions. Some people look at the mystical approach. They want some kind of sort of feeling, a kind of a quiver in their liver type thing. You know, they want to feel something magical, mystical.14:32That's what they want. They're looking for some emotional release, some kind of emotional charge in their lives. And they say, that's the way you find God's will. No, it's not. Some want to look at the methodological approach. Now, I served at a church as the intentional interim pastor for about 16, 14 months in this church. And it happened to have, it was an unusual church.14:59It was a high academic church. Why in the world they had me? I don't know. But they had a high academic church. A lot of the members of the church had graduate's degree and post-graduate degree. They had master's degrees. They had high academic. A lot of engineers in this church. A lot of airline pilots in this particular church. They'd fly for Delta and the other airlines in high academic and they would spreadsheet meet. We'd go to staff meeting. We'd have pie charts.15:28I mean, it had all kinds of PowerPoint in staff meeting. I was like way overload. Man, there was all kinds of high academics and they wanted to analyze everything. Some of us look for God's will in a methodological approach. We want a mechanical approach. You want a recipe or a formula, nine ways to find God's will, point A, B, C, et cetera, et cetera. God's will is not found in a recipe.15:58It's not found in a formula. It's not a mystical approach. It's not some in the sky pie idea out there. Some look at the magical approach. You want some kind of fantastic, some kind of fantastic sign. You want a burning bush scenario. You want to hear a donkey speaking in English. I mean, some of you really want to see some kind of magical sign to come across. You want to see a plane riding it in the sky.16:28Here's God's will for you. Some kind of magical sign. Folks, let me tell you something. You're not going to find God's will in a text message. You're probably not going to find God's will on social media. I know some of that just killed you right there. Some of you are so into social media. I think it's a great tool to present the gospel. I think it's a great tool to stay connected with friends. But folks, you won't find God's will in Facebook.16:55I just put Facebook down. To be honest with you, I just started with Facebook last year. I know. I'm old school. But let me tell you something. Some of you are more into Facebook than finding God's will. Some of you are more into Instagram or Snapchat. You can't wait until you Instagram what you're going to eat like we care. I don't care if you went to the mailbox.17:25Praise God. You got mail. That ought to be a movie. Just dated myself, did I not? Some of you are so frustrated because you're looking for God in all the wrong places. You're looking for a sign. It's not a feeling. It's not a formula. It's not a fantastic sign. You're frustrated. He doesn't want you to be frustrated, nor does he want you to be fearful.17:51God has a specific plan and purpose for every one of us. But we have to do some things to do to find God's will. That getting clear guidance from God, number one, is this. I need to admit I need a guide. I didn't want to do it. My guys, you know, my directors were in that raft, and we'd slept out on the bank,18:18had a great breakfast that morning. You know, something about eggs and bacon on the creek side over a fire smells great. It's fantastic. We get in the raft, and I say, man, we don't need this knucklehead college kid from University of California. We know how to get down this raft. I'm going to have to beat that guy. You know, well, I don't want to listen to him. And I about halfway through said, praise God for those California rafters. I'm telling you, we have to admit that we need a guide.18:45Now, this is very difficult for men, is it not? I mean, even with GPS, we question it. We get on GPS, we're map questioning. We want to question that. That's not the way to go. I always say that. My wife looks at me like a calf at a new game. What are you talking about? You've never been to the place. The guy's telling you how to get there, but it's the wrong way to go. We must admit that we need a guide.19:14I don't want to know God's will sometimes, we say. We want to know God's will, but we want to know God's will our way. Sheep. Have you noticed that? Sheep have poor vision. Sheep have poor vision. They bump their heads. They even fall off cliffs. Sheep can't see very far. We're humans just like that. We can't see very far. We don't plan a lot sometimes.19:41We want to work and operate in the now. We have a need for a guide, so we must admit that. Isaiah 53, verse 6 says, Every one of us have strayed like a sheep. We've all left God's path to follow our own. Proverbs 13, verse 12 says, There is a way that seems right to man, but in the end leads to death. I love what the psalmist says in chapter 25, verse 9.20:08He guides the humble in what is right. He teaches them his way. He's actually saying he means we need a guide. He wants to teach us. So we have to knuckle down. We have to surrender and say, I admit I need a guide. Secondly, we have to ask for the directions. You say, well, how simple is this? Well, I'm trying to pull it down so I can understand it.20:38We got to first admit that we need a guide. Secondly, we got to ask for directions. Listen to what James chapter 1, verse 5 and 6 says. If you want to know, if you want to know what God really wants you to do, ask him. He will gladly tell you. For he is always ready to give a bountiful supply of wisdom to those who ask him. But be sure that you really expect him to tell you. If you don't ask in faith, don't expect the Lord to give you a solid answer.21:06Church, let me tell you something. We want God's wisdom, but sometimes we don't want God's wisdom. We may say it out of our mouths, but deep in our hearts, we don't want. God wants to give us wisdom. He wants to give us directions. He's anxious to give us direction. One person in this room today that I know is probably excited but terrified as well. That is the high school and college graduate right now.21:34They're excited, new chapter in their life, and then they're terrified because they have no idea because mamas and daddies have been taking care of them all the way along the way. Now, maybe not so much the college students, but the high school student. All of a sudden, he's about to step into a new arena or she's about to step into a new arena. She's going to actually have to get up and brush their teeth without being told to brush their teeth. Church, let me tell you something. We've got to ask God.22:04He's anxious to give us wisdom. He wants to guide us. We have to do two things. Number one, we have to ask the right person. Now, time out. I know some of you are counselors in here, and you love giving counsel, and we thank God for your counselor ministry. We love it, but let me tell you something. A great, spiritual, gifted counselor will point you to God first. It's not his wisdom. It's God's wisdom. You must ask God. Ask with the right attitude. In faith, expecting the right answer to come.22:33Expecting it in God's time frame to come. We ask God, and then nothing happens. God works in life according to faith. Sometimes we need to say, God, I'm asking you for this. And he says, I'm going to give it to you, but in due time, I need to let you get in the pot and simmer just a little bit. I need you to understand that according to my will for your life, you need to step out in faith. A decision of employment, a decision in your life, a decision in your marriage, whatever it might be, how big or little.22:58We say, God, I'm asking you to guide me through this. We need to trust him. We need to ask him for the direction. We need to admit that we need a guide. Number three, and here's where it really gets muddy. I need to listen to God's response. Two ears, one mouth.23:28Why? Double listening, single speaking. Twice as much listening is what I think than speaking. You say, well, that's kind of a dumb way of putting it. It just helps me understand that I need to listen more than talk. And I talk for a living. This is my job. I'm at my workstation right now is speaking and leading a congregation in ministry around here, around the world, everywhere.23:51I'm in my job when I'm talking. I'm giving direction. God speaks sometimes one way or another. Even though people may not understand it, God is speaking. So we need to listen. Folks, some of us in this room need to get this principle right here. This one was hard for me to write. I didn't want to write this. I want to pass over this one.24:20This is not going to be fun. I just need to be honest with you. Some of you need to understand that our receptors are off. There's microwaves. There's something going on all the time. There's information is flapping back. And I know some of you are text messaging right now. We should hurry up and get over. Some of you are checking your Facebook page right now. I know you're looking at your computer screen right there on your phone. Some of you are doing that right now. I know you are. That's okay. I don't have a problem with that. Some of you are checking references. I don't care. It doesn't matter to me. But we're missing sometimes.24:49We're missing God's will because we're wanting God to speak to us. And God may be on channel four, but you're on channel 13. There's all kind of disconnects going on in here. You know why? Because we're not in the center of God's will. Study in God's word. God has a divine design plan, and he wants to speak into our hearts. The receiver may not be turned on the right channel. We need to get in sync with God.25:17And God speaks in several different ways. Your receptor may be off. You're on the wrong channel. But God speaks all the time. He never sleeps. He never rests. He's there 24-7, 365 days a year to speak to our hearts. But we're not listening. God speaks through his word. He speaks through his word.25:48However, if you don't read his word, don't expect to hear from God consistently. Now, I know some of you say, well, I read it yesterday. I just flipped over, and I just stuck my finger right here, and I hit that word. I just read it. Now, that's okay. I'm not saying that's better than nothing. But let me tell you something, folks. If you really want to know God's perfect will, how many of y'all want to know God's perfect will for your life? Raise your hand. How many of you say, I really, really, Dan, I really do want to know God's perfect will? Some of you raised your hand. Some of you didn't.26:18Thank you very much. Thank you for those that you didn't. You were honest. So, you can take a nap. But that's okay. If you want to know God's will, let me tell you how the formula is. We're automatically reading God's word, consistently in the word. So, God speaks to the pastor's search team. He speaks to the deacons. He speaks to the pastor's own staff. He speaks to us through his word. You say, well, I've read it over and over, and I don't understand it. Get a version that you can understand.26:47You're probably reading that King James Version, We don't speak in Elizabethan English any longer-eth. So, why are we reading it? So, get a copy of God's word that you can understand. So, systematically read God's word. You say, well, I don't know where to start. I'm going to tell you what. If you've never systematically read the word of God, start in John chapter 1. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, fourth book, new chapter, New Testament.27:13The gospel of John will radically change your life. Systematically read it every day. God also speaks through teachers. I like the word leader better than teacher. Through a small group Sunday school class, if you're not connected to a small group, life group, connecting group, if you're not connected in that area of life, please don't expect you get the full portion of God's will.27:42You need, if you're a Christ follower, and you say, oh, I just like the worship gathering. I like old brother Dan screaming at me all the time. I like that. You need to get involved in a life group. Man, Brad's got a great plan coming up for the fall. It's going to be staggering what's going to happen in that. Our leaders that lead those classes will be leading you through systematically understanding God's word, breaking it down so you can understand.28:11And connectivity there. So you need to understand that leaders can give you a word of God. Yes, you might get it from the pulpit every now and then, but you're probably going to forget most of what I say. But you need to be involved in a small group, learning through the word of God. Also, God speaks through an impressions. Now, time out. Sometimes impressions can confuse you. It may not be impressions. It might be the Mexican that you ate last night.28:39Ooh. No, that wasn't an impression. That's a bad stomach. Right? So you need to be careful. But sometimes he can use impressions through the word of God. Something in a song might spur you on in the journey. So God uses the Bible first and foremost. He uses teachers or leaders. He uses impressions. And sometimes he uses some circumstances. Go through some particular tragic circumstance in your own personal life.29:07And God speaks to you through that circumstance. And also, he obviously, obviously speaks through pain. In our pleasure, he whispers to us. But in our pain, he shouts to us. Because our senses and our feelers are so wired when we're going through the pain. He gets our attention in our pain.29:36Where there's no pain, sometimes there's no gain. So we need to listen to God's response. Proverbs 20, verse 30 says, Sometimes I take painful situation. It takes a painful situation to make us change our ways. If you listen, he will speak to you, guide you in the path of righteousness. He will correct your broken dreams. Your broken lives, your broken homes, your broken down careers.30:06He cares for you. The path of righteousness is always the road to recovery each and every time. So we must listen to him. And finally, and I'm done. I need to trust God when I don't even understand him. That's the hard one for me. Because I think I've got this whole life stuff figured out. And just about the time I feel like I've got it figured out, God turns a curve on me.30:32We make a bend in the river. And there's the rapids. And we got to trust the guide to take us down through the rapids. So we must trust him when we don't understand. I can just imagine in my infinite, finite little brain, the children of Israel walking up to the Red Sea saying, What? Are you kidding me? Exodus, go look it up. You want us to cross here?31:02Yes. Church, listen to me. Psalm 77 verse 19 says, The road, your road led by a pathway through the sea, a pathway no one knew was there. You see, when we trust God for every minute detail of our lives, it's stepping out. It's like Peter stepping out of the boat. Sometimes he put the foot in the water and he starts walking. I know some of you think the guy that used to coach football in Tuscaloosa could walk on water.31:29No, he was a good football coach, but he couldn't walk on water. But Peter walked on the water. And when he took his eyes off Christ, that's when he began to sink. Folks, let me tell you something. Sometimes we just need to step out of the boat. That's a new sermon coming up pretty soon, I believe. We need to get out of the boat. Amen. That's coming this summer. I'm feeling it on right now. I might preach it in the next 20 minutes. Hang on. We're going to be here a while.32:00We just need to trust the Lord. Some of you have got this whole thing so figured out that you have nothing figured out. That's the way I feel a lot of times. That's the daunting task that I feel. The path of righteousness, Proverbs 4, verse 18. The path of righteousness is like a first gleam of dawn, shining brighter to the full light of day. Proverbs 3, verses 5 and 6. We know this one. Trust the Lord with all your heart.32:28Lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him, and he will make your path straight. We've got to trust him that every step in this journey, he has already mapped out for us. Psalms 37, verse 23 and 24. The steps of the man who are righteous are established by the Lord. When he falls, he shall not be hurled headlong, because the Lord is the one who holds his hand.32:53He holds our hand. Why? Because he knows our name. Not only does he know our name, he knows every aspect about our lives. Why? Because he created us. We're his. Why would you think the Lord would lead us in the wrong path? He wants to guide us, Brother James, to the next guy. He wants to lead us, students, to the next university, the classroom you're supposed to take.33:22He wants us to follow that path he already has for us. He don't want to lead us wrong. It would be detriment to him. And God's perfect. Amen? We are the sheep. We just need a shepherd. In the way of righteous, there is life. Along that path is immortality. Now, church, let me tell you something.33:53Sometimes we forget that we have clearly a shepherd to guide us along the way. 105 words of Psalms 23 in those six verses, depending on your translation, they all point back to the first two. The Lord. He has your path of righteousness laid out completely.34:20Well, here's what we do. We follow it, follow our own game plan, rather than the game plan that God has laid out for you. You say, wait a minute, I'm well into my career. I'm well into my path. That's okay. He knows that. His submissive will allowed you to be where you are. But you want to see the fullness of your life?34:50You want to see the fullness of God in your life? Completely surrender to his lordship. Let him be the Lord shepherd of your life, regardless of what career path you're on. Regardless of where your stage of life is. The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me besides quiet, still waters.35:20He restores my soul. Your soul in need and restoring today, he restores it. He guides me in the path of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk, say it with me, through the valley of the shadow of death. I fear no evil, I fear no evil, for you're with me. Your rod, your staff, they comfort me.35:47Church, let me tell you something. You want to see the best in God has for you. Surrender today to his complete lordship. He's lord anyway. It's a matter of you deciding to admit you need a guide. Ask for the help. Listen to his call.36:15And take that step to trust him for every step of the way. Let's pray. Let's pray.More sermons on Psalms →
