Thank God for Teachers!
Psalm 25:1-10
Sermon by Rick Crandall
McClendon Baptist Church - August 15, 2010
*Today is Teacher Appreciation Day in our church. And we ought to appreciate our teachers! Week after week our Sunday School teachers help us grow closer to the Lord and to each other. Week after week they help us grow spiritually through the Word of God. Thank God for teachers!
*Let’s look into the Word of God this morning to see some of the best things teachers do for us.
1. First: Godly teachers help us trust in the Lord.
*In vs. 1-3, King David was trusting in the Lord. There David prayed:
1. To You, O Lord, I lift up my soul.
2. O my God, I trust in You; Let me not be ashamed; Let not my enemies triumph over me.
3. Indeed, let no one who waits on You be ashamed; Let those be ashamed who deal treacherously without cause.
*By the time David wrote these words he had trusted the Lord for many years. And now, something had gone terribly wrong in his life. Charles Spurgeon and other Bible scholars theorize that it was the great rebellion of David’s son Absalom. And that makes sense.
*In his younger years, Absalom was a great favorite of his father and the people as well. He was handsome, charming popular and persuasive. Terrible family trouble started when his half-brother, Amnon, raped Absalom’s sister Tamar. King David shut his eyes to this great crime, but two years later Absalom carried out a successful plan to avenge his sister, and Amnon was murdered.
*To avoid punishment Absalom fled into exile for 3 years, before being allowed to come back to Jerusalem. Two more years passed before he was allowed into the royal presence. By that time Absalom had determined to rebel against his father, and he was able to convince so many people to follow him that David had to flee Jerusalem.
*The Lord gave David time to raise an army that fought a great battle in the forests of Ephraim. There the rebel army was utterly defeated. Twenty thousand men were killed in the first part of the battle, and many more died in the forest that day. One of the men who died in the battle was Absalom. He was riding on his mule when his long hair was caught in the branches of a tree. Then, in spite of the fact that his father had ordered Absalom to be taken alive, he was killed with three light spears through his heart. David's heart was broken. (1)
*What a horrible chain of events. Perhaps David was still on the run from Jerusalem when he wrote this Psalm. We see his anguish in vs. 15-19:
15. My eyes are ever toward the Lord, For He shall pluck my feet out of the net.
16. Turn Yourself to me, and have mercy on me, For I am desolate and afflicted.
17. The troubles of my heart have enlarged; Oh, bring me out of my distresses!
18. Look on my affliction and my pain, And forgive all my sins.
19. Consider my enemies, for they are many; And they hate me with cruel hatred.
*Have you ever been betrayed by someone close to you?
-Maybe not like David, but has someone you loved stabbed you in the back?
-If so, let me tell you this: The Lord understands what you are going through.
*In 1 Corin 11:23-24 the Apostle Paul teaches us about the Lord’s Supper. And Paul began by saying:
23. I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread;
24. and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.''
*Jesus instituted this special supper on the night before He died on the cross. And of all the things Paul could have said, it is striking to me that the Holy Spirit led him to stress Jesus’ betrayal by one of his own disciples. On the same night in which Jesus was betrayed by Judas, he took bread. Jesus surely understands the pain of being betrayed, and you can trust Him to help you through it.
*Terrible things had happened to David, but he had learned to trust in the Lord, so in vs. 20 David prayed again: “Oh, keep my soul, and deliver me; Let me not be ashamed, for I put my trust in You.”
*Thankfully, most people will never have to go through horrible drama like David did.
-But rebellious children can break our hearts.
-And family trouble always brings heartache.
*All of us will go through times of trouble.
-How can we make it through? -- We must trust in the Lord.
*Who do you trust? -- I trust my wife. And I know hundreds of good, Godly Christians I could trust with my life. But standing over and above all, we can trust God! The cross of Jesus Christ proves that forever.
*I trusted Jesus as my Lord and Savior almost 35 years ago.
-And though I have failed Him many times in those years.
-He has never failed me once. And He has blessed me beyond measure!
*We can trust in the Lord!
-Trust in the Lord to save you.
-Then keep trusting Jesus to carry you through the hard times in life.
*Two weeks ago, Shreveport was rocked when 6 teens drowned trying to save a friend who had slipped into the deep water of the Red River. Something similar happened to Louisa Stead just over 100 years ago. Louisa was a faithful missionary to Africa from the 1880’s to 1915. But around the time she left for Africa, tragedy struck when Louisa lost her first husband.
*She watched him drown off Long Island in New York, while he was trying to rescue a drowning boy. But Louisa Stead trusted in the Lord. And in response to that tragedy, she wrote the words to this song:
‘Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus, And to take Him at His Word;
Just to rest upon His promise, And to know, “Thus says the Lord!”
I’m so glad I learned to trust Thee, Precious Jesus, Savior, Friend;
And I know that Thou art with me, Wilt be with me to the end.
-Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him! -- How I’ve proved Him o’er and o’er
-Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus! -- O for grace to trust Him more! (2)
*Thank God for teachers! They help us trust in the Lord.
2. But they also help us overcome our transgressions.
*When King David wrote these words, He wasn’t just concerned about the treachery of his enemies. He was also concerned about his own transgressions. So in this Psalm, David mentioned his own sins three different times.
-In vs. 6&7, David cried out to God and said:
6. Remember, O Lord, Your tender mercies and Your lovingkindnesses, For they have been from of old.
7. Do not remember the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions; According to Your mercy remember me, For Your goodness' sake, O Lord.
-Then in vs. 11, David prayed: “For Your name's sake, O Lord, Pardon my iniquity, for it is great.”
-And in vs. 18, he prayed: “Look on my affliction and my pain, And forgive all my sins.”
*David was going through some deep guilt for his own sins, because he realized that at least part of his trouble was his own fault. Ultimately, all of the world’s sorrows can be traced back to sin. And many times the problem is our own sin.
*In 2 Samuel 12:10, the Lord told David that his house would always bear the burden of his sin with Bathsheba. And through His prophet, Nathan, thus said the Lord: “Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised Me, and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.”
*We might think, “Well, I’ve never done that.”
-But every moment that we spend doing something wrong is a wasted moment when we could have been doing something good.
-Every moment we spend not loving God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength is a moment in sin.
-Every moment we spend not loving our neighbor as our self is a moment in sin.
*We are all sinners, and there are many ways to sin. In fact, man is such an expert in sinning that God used 15 different words in the Old Testament to describe our sins. David used 3 of those words in this Psalm.
[1] “Transgression”: That’s defiance, rebellion, revolt. “I’m gonna do what I want to do!” -- That’s transgression.
[2] “Sin”: That’s a defect, missing the mark. This is the man who is really trying his best, but he can’t seem to make it. This is the person who walks all the way across the desert, but can’t crawl that last ten feet to the waterhole.
[3] Then there’s “iniquity”: That’s a distortion, something warped, bent, crooked, twisted, perverse.
*These three words cover a lot of ground! And how many of us have never sinned since we got saved?
*Christian author, Kay Arthur, helped us see the danger of sin when she said: “If you tolerate sin in your life, that sin will not only take you farther than you wanted to go. It will keep you longer than you wanted to stay. And it will cost you more than you thought you’d pay.” (3)
*But David had trusted in the Lord for salvation. He knew that the Lord would forgive him. By faith, he was looking ahead to the salvation that God would provide through the Messiah. And Christians, we know that the Lord will forgive all of our sins, because of the cross of Jesus Christ.
*David had the promise of the coming Messiah. -- We have the proof!
-Jesus already came to save us.
-Jesus already died on the cross for us and rose again!
-And 1 John 1:8-9 tells us:
8. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
9. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
*Teachers help us to see that Jesus can help us overcome every transgression, every sin, every iniquity in our lives.
*It seems longer to me, but in a couple of weeks it will be 5 years since Hurricane Katrina, the terrible storm that ravaged New Orleans and much of the Gulf coast. Some of us got to go down to Folsom to help with the clean-up. We helped at the church where Patrick Petrus was serving as Student Minister.
*One of the neatest people we met at First Baptist Church in Folsom was a 13-year-old kid named Jordan. Jordan played drums in the church’s praise band. His dad Wayne played too.
*But even though Jordan’s dad is a devoted Christian today. Jordan told us of the time when his dad was everything but a follower of Jesus Christ. In fact, Wayne was a crystal-meth dealer in New Orleans. And he got busted. But they offered Wayne a deal: either he could go to jail, -- or he could turn in the ring leader.
*Wayne chose to turn in the guy who was over the whole operation. It was a huge turning point for Wayne, and he recommitted his life to the Lord. But the drug boss put out a contract on his life, and Wayne lived under a cloud of danger.
*One day about 7 years later, Wayne’s wife got a real burden for the family’s safety. So she asked some prayer warriors in their church to make it a matter of urgent prayer.
*Just a couple of months later the family was eating at a fish place way out in the middle of no where. Suddenly Dad told the family they needed to go to the car right away. In that crowded, out-of-the-way restaurant, Wayne spotted his former drug boss. And the drug boss spotted him.
*The man came over, put his hand on Wayne’s shoulder and said, “Do you know who I am?” -- Wayne said, “I do.”
*Then the drug boss said, “I want you to know that you and your family don’t ever have to be afraid of me again. God got hold of my life when I was in prison. And I have been saved!”
*What a testimony! What a testimony of changed lives and answered prayer and God’s special care! What a testimony of victory over sin!
*Somebody taught that man about Jesus. And if you are saved, somebody taught you! So thank God for teachers. They help us overcome our transgressions.
3. But they also help us walk in the truth.
*Even though David had known the Lord for years, he was still hungry for more of God’s truth. So in vs. 4-5 David prayed:
4. Show me Your ways, O Lord; Teach me Your paths.
5. Lead me in Your truth and teach me, For You are the God of my salvation; On You I wait all the day.
*Then in vs. 8-10 David gave these encouraging words of witness:
8. Good and upright is the Lord; Therefore He teaches sinners in the way.
9. The humble He guides in justice, And the humble He teaches His way.
10. All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth, To such as keep His covenant and His testimonies.
*“Show me Your ways, O Lord; Teach me Your paths.” “All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth, To such as keep His covenant.”
*The Bible describes the Christian life as a walk. In Rom 6:4 Paul tells us to “walk in newness of life.” In 2 Corin 5:7 he said “we walk by faith, not by sight.”
*The Christian life is a walk, but are you walking in the right direction?
-Many Christians are not.
*Many of us know people who used to be in church every time the door was open. They used to come, teach, serve and give. -- But now they don’t.
*I wish this Christian walk was a one way street, but it’s not.
-Some people are headed in the wrong direction.
-Sometimes it’s two steps forward and one step back.
*How can I head in the right direction?
-Be like David: Keep seeking the Lord’s mercy and truth.
-Keep seeking the truth of God’s Word.
*The Bible is not just for getting us to Heaven.
-It will give us the best possible life down here.
-It will help you with your family and your finances.
-It will help you grow up and help you grow old.
-It will bless your children and build your character.
*But that can’t happen, if I only come to church once a month
-That can’t happen if I haven’t read my Bible in months.
-God’s Word is so important, that we ought to study it every day.
*Christian: How’s your walk been going lately?
-It may be a slow crawl right now, but keep moving! -- God will help you along.
-And He uses Godly teachers to help us get there.
*I’ve had some outstanding teachers in my life. One of the best was Dr. Charles Harvey, who went to be with the Lord in 2003.
*Dr. Harvey was a wonderful man of God. He preached a revival for us one time at Emmanuel. By that time he had gone through prostate cancer and critical heart problems. They thought they had lost him after heart surgery in Houston, but by the grace of God, he bounced back.
*One day during the revival, we talked about prayer. And Dr. Harvey said, “I suppose I’ve gotten to the point in my life that I talk to the Lord now more than anyone else.”
*He wasn’t bragging a bit. There wasn’t a hint of pride. He was simply making a matter of fact statement about his walk with the Lord.
*Dr. Harvey was an inspiration to me. He helped my walk with the Lord, and I thank God for that! I thank God for him!
*Thank God for the good teachers He has put in your life.
-Do everything you can to follow them as they follow Jesus Christ.
*And if you have never trusted in Jesus, know this:
-He is the greatest teacher of all, and so much more!
*Jesus is God the Son, the Lord God Almighty who loves you so much, He was willing to come into this world to die for you.
-Jesus died on the cross to take all of the punishment for our sins.
-And He rose again to give eternal life to anyone who will trust in Him.
*Open your heart to receive Jesus as your Savior and Lord.
-You can do that right now as we go to God in prayer.
1. (2 Samuel 13-18) (Information on Absalom condensed from the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, General Editor: James Orr)
2. Information on Louisa M. R. Stead found at:
www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/t/i/tissweet.htm
www.cyberhymnal.org/bio/s/t/e/stead_lmr.htm
3. SermonCentral illustration contributed by Joel Vicente
