Jesus Can 2007
Part 4: Jesus Can Steer Me.
Psalm 32:1-11
Sermon by Rick Crandall
McClendon Baptist Church - Feb. 11, 2007
*I have a wonderful wife! This Valentine’s Day we will celebrate 32 years of marriage. Lord willing, we will be in Texas for a week of vacation.
*I remember getting down on my knee just after Christmas that year and asking Mary if she would be my wife. Many of you know that the first thing she said was, “I’ll have to think about it.” Now a third of a century later, I am so glad that the Lord led her to say, “Yes.” Mary needed some guidance from above. We all need guidance in life, and Jesus can show us the way to go.
1. Let the Lord lead you away from your sin.
*We all need this kind of guidance in our lives. We all lose our way; we all get into trouble. As God’s Word says in Isaiah 53:6, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way. . .”
*Wouldn’t it be nice if after we received Jesus, we never sinned again? It would be fantastic, but that’s just not the case. King David was certainly saved. He talked about it in vs. 1 when he said, “Blessed or happy or joyful is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.”
*David was a saved man, but he was also a sinful man. Most of us are familiar with the dark story of David’s adultery with Bathsheba, and his cover-up conspiracy to murder her husband. Now we could try to take false comfort by saying, “Oh, I’ll never do that.” But that doesn’t get us off the hook.
*There are many ways to sin. In fact man is sort of an expert when it comes to sinning, so much so that God had to use fifteen different words in the Old Testament to describe our sins. And David used four of them here in vs. 1&2:
-Transgression: That’s defiance, rebellion, revolt. “Get out of my face. Get off my case! I’m gonna do what I want to do!” That’s transgression.
-Then there’s sin: This is a defect, missing the mark. The man who is really trying his best, but he just can’t seem to make it: The person who walks all the way across the desert, but can’t crawl that last ten feet to the waterhole.
-And iniquity: That’s a distortion, something warped, bent, crooked, twisted, perverse. It could be sexual, but it could just be a warped outlook on life.
-Finally there’s guile: Dishonesty, lying to others, lying to yourself.
*There are many ways to sin. Steven Chapman says, “Think how many temptations you and I face in an ordinary day:
-Staying in bed late: The temptation to laziness.
-Growling at the breakfast table: The temptation to unkindness.
-Arguing over who should change the baby this time: The temptation to selfishness.
-Starting work 10 minutes late: The temptation to laziness.
-Losing your temper when a co-worker crashes your computer: The temptation to impatience.
-Flirting with that good-looking woman, taking a second look at the good-looking man: The temptation to lust.
-Refusing to speak to a person who has hurt you: The temptation to malice.
-Repeating a juicy story of your neighbor’s misfortune: The temptation to gossip.
-Lying awake at night thinking sensual thoughts: The temptation to impurity.
-Taking your anger out on the children after a hard day: The temptation to cruelty.
-Going out to eat when you can’t afford it: The temptation to self-indulgence.
-Having a second helping and then a third: The temptation to gluttony.
-Firing off a hasty letter to a friend who hurt you: The temptation to revenge. (1)
*We could go on, but man, that’s a lot of sin. And if you didn’t see yourself anywhere in that list -- Let’s talk about pride.
*How many of us have never sinned? How many of us have never sinned since we got saved? All of us have sinned and sometimes we get stubborn about our sin, so the Lord has to push us in the right direction. God talked about this down in vs. 9, when He said, “Do not be like the horse or like the mule, which have no understanding, which must be harnessed with bit and bridle . . .”
*Have you ever said someone was stubborn as a mule? Has anybody ever said that about you? Were they right? God doesn’t want us to be stubborn as mules, so He will confront us and convict us about our sin.
*God will even give us some painful correction for our sin. That’s what David went through in vs. 3&4, probably when he was trying to cover up his sin with Bathsheba. And David said:
3. When I kept silent, my bones grew old Through my groaning all the day long.
4. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; My vitality was turned into the drought of summer.
*“When I kept silent, my bones grew old.” David felt decayed and worn out, used up. “Through my groaning all the day long.” (The KJV says “roaring,” because the word picture is a lion roaring in distress.) “For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me. My vitality was turned into the drought of summer.”
*God’s Hand was heavy on David, pressing, severe, painful, draining. And sometimes God has to go that far in our lives, when we stubbornly sin against Him, but the Lord is always trying to steer you out of trouble.
2. Let the Lord lead you away from your sin, and let Him lead you to His salvation.
*That’s where God wants to take you, because He loves you! We see great expressions of God’s salvation in this Psalm. In vs. 1&2, “Blessed or happy or joyful is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity.” Or as the NIV says, “Blessed is the man whose sin the LORD does not count against him.”
*David was certainly saved. How did he get there? It was by faith in the Lord he knew as His Good Shepherd. By faith, David was looking forward to the salvation that God would provide through the Messiah. And now, on the resurrection side of the Cross, we know that the only thing that can cover our sins is the blood of Jesus Christ. Jesus died on the Cross to pay the price for our sins! And when we receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior, our sins are forgiven, our record is cleared, the righteousness of Jesus Christ is put in our account, and we are saved!
*Josephine Robertson told a terrific story of salvation that happened in the Wild West. In 1883, a young preacher named Joe Roberts arrived by stagecoach in a blizzard to minister to the Indians of Wyoming. Soon after Joe got there, the son of Shoshone Chief Washakie was shot by a soldier in a brawl. The chief swore to kill the first white man he met.
*This could have meant the start of a long, bloody feud, so the young preacher decided to take action. Joe rode out to the Indian village 15 miles away in the mountains. He was taken to the chief’s the tepee, and as he stood outside, he called the chief’s name.
*When Chief Washakie appeared, Joe tore open his shirt and said, “I have heard of your vow. I know that the other white men have families, but I am alone. Kill me instead.”
*The chief was so amazed he motioned for Joe to come into his tent and asked, “How do you have so much courage?”
*Joe told the chief about Jesus Christ, His life, His death and His teachings. They talked for hours, and before Joe left, Chief Washakie renounced his vow to kill and opened his heart to receive Christ as Savior and Lord, because he had seen the love of Jesus Christ in action. (2)
*Joe Roberts gives us a picture the Lord’s love for us, because Jesus did die on the Cross for us and rose again. When we trust Him as Savior and Lord, He forgives our sins and gives us a home in Heaven.
*But after we are saved, there will be times when the Holy Spirit brings us under conviction for new sins. We are still saved, but our fellowship with God is broken, so we have to confess our sins, trusting what God’s Word says in 1 John 1:8-9, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
*Then we can echo what David said in vs. 10, “Many sorrows shall be to the wicked; but mercy will surround those who trust in the Lord.” Surrounded by mercy -- That’s where I want to be! And that’s where the Lord wants you to be.
3. So let the Lord lead you to His salvation, and to His security.
*We live in a world that can be very dangerous, but Jesus wants to lead you to the ultimate security in life. The kind of security that David talked about in vs. 6&7, when he said, “For this cause everyone who is Godly shall pray to You In a time when You may be found; Surely in a flood of great waters They shall not come near him. You are my hiding place; You shall preserve me from trouble; You shall surround me with songs of deliverance.”
*This does not mean we will never have storms in life. Sometimes the best people go through the worst storms, and all kinds of storms will come in our lives.
*Friday morning there was a terrible wreck in our town that has broken our hearts. A brother and sister were on their way to school on a wet road. The truck went out of control, and hit a tree. The brother was critically injured and his sister passed away. She was one of the sweetest girls at the high school, loved by all, and especially loved by one of the young men in our youth group, who dated her. He saw her Thursday night and talked to her on the phone Friday before school.
*I have never been in a sadder place than when the doctor had to tell that shocked family that their daughter was gone. This side of Heaven we will never understand why this happened. Sometimes the Lord does shelter us from the storm, but not always -- Not this time.
*So Tony Wood & Kevin Stokes wrote this song:
All who sail the sea of faith
Find out before too long
How quickly blue skies can grow dark
And gentle winds grow strong
Suddenly fear is like white water
Pounding on the soul
Still we sail on knowing
That our Lord is in control
Sometimes He calms the storm
With a whispered "Peace be still"
He can settle any sea
But it doesn’t mean He will
Sometimes He holds us close
And lets the wind and waves go wild
Sometimes He calms the storm
And other times He calms His child (3)
*Sometimes the Lord shelters us from the storm, and sometimes He shelters us in the storm. We have to go through it. But Jesus goes with us. And if we know Jesus as our Savior and Lord, then God Himself is our Hiding Place. That is the safest place of all.
4. So let the Lord lead you to His security, and to His success.
*The Lord wants to lead you to real success in life, spiritual success. The Lord promises to do this in vs. 8, where He says, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye.”
*That word instruct has the idea of giving us wisdom and insight, making us prosper and be successful. Teach has a word picture of something being thrown or shot, like an arrow being shot in the right direction. You see, the Lord wants to point you to the right direction in life. He wants to make you wise and truly successful. He wants you to find spiritual answers for your problems.
*I think of how the Lord has been working and is still working in my life. One of the greatest lessons He has taught me in my marriage is that He can break down the walls between us. There have been several times in our marriage when great walls rose up between me and Mary (Mostly my fault, of course).
*Walls tend to rise up between all of us, because of our sin and selfishness, because of miscommunication, because of our personalities and preferences, because the devil does everything to divide us.
*But years ago, I was reading in Eph 2:12-14, where Paul was speaking to Gentile Christians and he said, “At that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been made near by the blood of Christ, for He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of division between us.”
*I had an eureka moment that day, when I realized that the same Lord who broke down the wall between the Jews and Gentiles could surely break down the walls between me and my wife. I began to ask the Lord to do that, and He did!
*That’s what we need on so many levels today. Wall need to be broken down between husbands and wives, between parents and children, between friends who are fussing. God will do it if we ask Him to!
*A few weeks ago, I was talking to a young wife going through some troubles in her marriage, and she asked me, “Were you crazy about Miss Mary when y’all got married?”
*I’ve got to tell you that question caught me off-guard. And the truth is that although I loved Mary when we got married, I don’t think I really was “crazy” about her. But the next day I realized something a whole lot better. I’m “crazy” about her now! I am more crazy than ever about the wife God gave me!
*That’s one kind of spiritual success, and God wants to give it to you.
*Orel Hershiser was a great Major League pitcher. He earned MVP in the 1988 World Series after winning two games to help the Dodgers defeat the heavily favored NY Mets. This led to a $7.9 million contract, but his agent wasn’t impressed.
*Robert Fraley, who also represented Payne Stewart, put things in perspective, when he said: “You’re at the top of your game, Orel, and you’re about to make a lot of money, but that’s not true success. Success will be measured at the end of your career, not at the peak. When you’re finished with baseball, if you love God, if you’re still in love with your wife, if your children know who you are, and if your reputation is still intact, then you’ll be successful.”
*Ten years later in 1999, Robert died with Payne Stewart when Stewart’s private jet lost pressure and crashed in South Dakota. Orel then said that Robert’s words set a new standard for him and challenged him to never forget his highest priorities.
*He also said, "Robert’s words were a great gift to me." (4)
-And they were because they helped lead Orel to real success.
5. Let the Lord lead you to His success, and to His supreme joy.
*In vs. 11, David tells believers, “Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, you righteous; --And shout for joy, all you upright in heart!”
*On our worst day, Christians, we have infinite reasons for joy! My favorite story about joy is a story that Max Lucado told about a man named Robert Reed. Robert is a strong Christian, totally committed to the cause of Jesus Christ. But Robert’s hands are twisted and his feet are useless. He can’t bathe himself or feed himself. He can’t brush his teeth, comb his hair, or put on his underwear. Strips of Velcro hold his shirts together. His speech drags like a worn out cassette. Robert has cerebral palsy.
*The disease keeps him from driving a car, riding a bike or going for a walk. But it didn’t keep him from graduating from high school or attending Abilene Christian University, where he graduated with a degree in Latin. Having cerebral palsy didn’t keep Robert from teaching at St. Louis Junior College or from going overseas on 5 mission trips. And Robert’s disease didn’t keep him from becoming a missionary in Portugal.
*He moved to Lisbon, alone, in 1972. There he rented a hotel room and began studying Portuguese. Robert would get someone to take him to a park every day, and there, he would pass out brochures about Jesus. In six years he led 70 people to the Lord. And one of them became his wife, Rosa.
*Max Lucado said:
-“I heard Robert speak recently. I watched other men carry him in his wheelchair onto the platform. I watched them lay a Bible in his lap. I watched his stiff fingers force open the pages. And I watched people in the audience wipe away tears of admiration from their faces.
-Robert could have asked for sympathy or pity, but he did just the opposite. He held his bent hand up in the air and boasted, ‘I have everything I need for joy.’
-His shirts are held together by Velcro, but his life is held together by joy.” (5)
Conclusion:
*Robert Reed is a great picture of a life led by the Lord.
-Let Jesus lead you to His salvation, to His security, to His success and to His supreme joy.
1. SermonCentral sermon “Living as Though You Were Special” by Steven Chapman 1 John 1:5-2:6
2. SermonCentral illustration contributed by Richard McNair
3. “Sometimes He Calms the Storm” (Recorded by Scott Krippayne, written by Tony Wood & Kevin Stokes, 1995 BMG Songs Inc.)
4. Men of Integrity, July/August 2005, p.8/28 (Source: In Other Words January2007_2) (IN OTHER WORDS... began in 1991 and is produced by Dr. Raymond McHenry, Senior Pastor of the Westgate Memorial Baptist Church in Beaumont, Texas. 6130 Barrington ~ Beaumont, Texas 77706 (800) 553-4697 www.iows.net)
5. SermonCentral illustration contributed by: David Yarbrough (Max Lucado. http://www.maxlucado.com/read/where.do.i.go/index3.html)
