“Order My Steps”
Psalm 119:133
Psalm 37:23-24
Last year the theme song for the choir was “Lord Listen to Your Children Praying.” This year’s theme song is “Order My Steps According to God’s Word, Order My Heart, Order my Talk according to God’s Word.”
During the past couple of months I have givens messages based on the Ten Commandments. Today I want to conclude that series and at the close of the message tell a story about the Grace of God.
Have you seen the movie, “Chariots of Fire?” The movie has been around for many years. It’s one of the few movies I paid to see twice and following the second viewing I went out and purchased the movie sound track. The second time I viewed the movie I knew what was going to happen before the action takes place on the screen. My heart was moved each time I saw the effort that Eric Lindell, played by Ian Charleson, when Eric ran in the 1924 Olympics. Chariots of Fire is a true story of two British track athletes competing in the 1924 Summer Olympics. One was a devout Scottish missionary, Eric Lindell, who runs for God, the other was a Jewish student at Cambridge, Harold Abrams played by Ben Cross, who runs for fame and to escape prejudice.
When asked why he runs, Eric Lindell says, “I find God’s pleasure when I run.”
Just as when you have seen a movie many times you know what to expect. So God is all wisdom and knowledge. He knows the blessing that come to those who keep the Ten Commandments and He knows the pain and heartbreak that come to all that disobey the commandments.
Like the Psalmist we are to love and obey God’s laws. Psalm 119:97, “Oh, how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day.”
Then Ten Commandments are given as a fence of protection. Stay in God’s laws, God’s fence, and you find protection and blessing. But go outside the fence and you are on your own. Proverbs 13:13 “He who despises the word will be destroyed, But he who fears the commandment will be rewarded.” NKJ God never intended the Ten Commandments to make your lives miserable. He gave them because they reflected His character and because they are essential. Following the commandments allow you to experience the freedom of the Life He intended for you to live.
Psalm 37:23 “The steps of a good man are ordered of the Lord and he delights in his way.” NKJ “If the Lord delights in a man’s way, he makes his steps firm, through he stumble he will not fall, for the Lord upholds him with his right hand.” Psalm 37:23-24 NIV
“Direct my footsteps according to your word; let no sin rule over me.” Psalm 119:133
The Psalmist models for you the value and love you should have for God’s Word. Psalm 119 refers in different ways in all 176 verses to God’s Law. All who love and obey God’s Word are kept from disaster.
Psalm 119:92-92 TLB says: “I would have despaired and perished unless Your laws had been my deepest delight. I never lay aside your laws, for you have used them to restore my joy and health.”
#In a small Kansas town a number of years ago, many of the residents were gathered in the high school gymnasium for a basketball game. Things were going well for the home team, and the supporters had reason to stomp, clap and cheer. But what happened at halftime changed that little town forever.
The fans packed into the gym were suddenly rocked by a powerful explosion – the kind that vibrates in your chest. Everyone ran outside to see what had happened. As it turned out, the town’s massive grain elevator had collapsed and fallen across a small nursery school. Five little children died that day.
What could have caused the disaster? After a close inspection of the grain elevator’s foundation, investigators discovered that termites had eaten the heart out of the beams and rafters, leaving only a deceptive, empty shell. The damage done by the termites is hard to detect because they work on the inside of the wood.
This is what happens to people that disregard God’s Word. Indifference to God’s Word and Commandments allows spiritual termites to eat away at a person’s life and character, which ends us bringing the person down. People who know the person say, “How could this be? Everything looked good on the outside.”
Is God’s Word your authority today? Does God’s Word guide and direct your steps? Psalm 19:7 says, “The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.” The word “simple” means undiscerning. It means, “I really can’t distinguish between good and bad, right and wrong.” The Lord is saying: “If you walk in obedience to My commands, you will become a wise person, where once you were naïve and undiscerning.”
This week you can apply God’s Top Ten List to your life:
1. Accept no substitute. Never allow anything to substitute for God’s central place in your life.
2. Refuse to reduce God. Don’t reduced God to a mental or physical image. Idolatry begins in your heart. Keep your heart tuned to the one and only True God.
3. Take God seriously. God’s name is important. His name represents His reputation and character. When you respect the Lord you are careful on how you use His name.
4. Honor God’s Day of Rest. Jesus made it clear that everyone needs a day of worship and rest. “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some reset.” Mark 6:31
5. Honor your parents. You may not honor all the practices of your parents but you are to honor their position.
6. Control your anger.
7. Affair-Proof Your Marriage. God’s standard is clear, one mate, one lifetime. Commitment to God’s ideal of sexual purity.
8. Manage Your Money Wisely. How you handle money will greatly affect the climate of your entire life.
9. Tell the Truth.
10. Learn to be Content. To live in discontentment is to question God’s goodness.
Two Sunday nights ago I gave the Sunday evening congregation the hand illustration. To grasp the Bible we need to use all fingers: Little finger – listen, 10 %, Second finger, Read, 20 – 30 %, Third Finger, Study, - 40-60%, Fourth Finger, Memorize – 100 % The thumb. – Meditation – application of God’s Word to your heart and life.
The letters of the word SPECK can be used as a reminder to meditate on a verse and apply the verse to our lives.
S – Is there a sin for me to avoid?
P – Is there a promise from God for me to claim?
E- Is there an example for me to follow?
C – Is there a command for me to obey?
K – How can this passage increase my knowledge about God or about Jesus Christ?
As we meditate on God’s Word we make observations, interpretations and applications.
How much do you know God’s Word? Is an important question? More important is how much are you applying to your life what you do know?
Jesus is our Model. He read and studied the Old Testament as His Word. Luke 2:52 Jesus “grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.”
Jesus faced temptation with God’s Word. ON three occasions Jesus was tempted and all three times Jesus turned to the written Word as his authority for resistance to the temptations.
The Bible is our authority because it is God’s Word. The Bible is not a single book, but a library of 66 books, written by over 40 authors. Many of the writers did not know each other, they lived in different geographical areas, their time of writing spanned centuries, they had different backgrounds, yet they were all speaking the same message. The Apostle John stated one of the primary reasons he wrote the Gospel of John, John 20:30-31. After the resurrection of Jesus, John was an eyewitness to the risen Christ. He writes: “Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, that are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”
Jesus came to give you life and that you might have an abundant exciting life. John 10:10. Jesus loves you and wants you to live life to the fullest.
People all around you don’t know the Jesus of Love. Jesus is a slang word used as a swear word. To many people Jesus is not a real person.
When Jesus died on the Cross He provided salvation and forgiveness for sin and demonstrated God’s love. Under every one of the Ten Commandments you can write – God’s grace. God’s grace is at work today.
I want to tell you a true story that illustrates God’s grace. It’s about a guy named Billy Moore. Billy Moore grew up in a trough city in Ohio to an impoverished family. He got involved with crime when he was young. He’d smoke dope and get drunk and break into taverns and steal cash registers – and committed all kinds of petty theft. Then he joined the army, got married. His wife left him, took their kid with her. He was broke, and he was desperate.
One night he and a friend were drinking, smoking dope, and talking about how broke they were. His friend said, “I know about a guy who lives not too far from here, and the word is, he doesn’t trust banks. He keeps all his money in his bedroom.”
Billy said, “Is he some big, tough guy?” And the friend said, “No, he’s an old guy. Wouldn’t hurt a flea.”
So the plot hatched in Billy’s mind. He went back to the barracks, got his gun, and loaded it. He drove to that man’s house, broke in, and started ransacking the house.
The elderly gentleman, 77 years old, hears the noise and gets his shotgun he used for hunting. As Billy Moore breaks through the door of the bedroom and comes through the door with a gun in his hand, this elderly gentleman pointed his shotgun, pulled the trigger, and a blast went off. The buckshot went over Billy’s head, missed him completely. Billy took his gun, pointed it at the old man, and he pulled the trigger twice. The elderly gentleman fell dead. Billy rifled through the man’s clothes and bedroom and walked away with $5,600 in cash. He fled to his trailer in rural Georgia.
It didn’t take long for the police to track him down. They arrested him and took him to jail. You can imagine his first night in jail. He realizes his life is over. He’s charged with capital murder. There’s an electric chair waiting for him.
Billy Moore’s mom was a Christian, and she knew a Christian couple who lived not far from the jail in Georgia. She called and said, “I got a son, and he’s on death row. Would you please go visit him?” They went to visit Billy Moore, and they said to Billy, “Jesus is willing to give you a fresh start and a new chance at life.”
Billy looked back at them dumbfounded and said, “You got to be kidding me. Don’t you realize my situation here? I murdered an old grandfather. I am charged with a death penalty case. My life is over. There are no new beginnings for me.” But that Christian man looked back at Billy Moore and said, “No, you don’t understand. Jesus Christ loves you so much he wants to find a way to make your life count.” Billy not only heard these words form this man and woman, but he saw Jesus in them. He said later, “Nobody ever told me Jesus had died for me. It was a love I could feel. It was a love I wanted. It was a love I needed.”
And so Billy Moore, as hopeless and broken an individual as you’re ever going to see, got on his knees in his jail cell and prayed: “God, I’m sorry for all I’ve done, and I want to live for you. If you would adopt me and take me to heaven, that would be the best. I don’t have much time left, but if you could do something to make my life count, it would be like icing on the cake.”
Jesus heard that prayer. There was a bathtub there on death row. They got permission from the guards to fill it up with water. Billy Moore knelt in the bathtub, and they dipped him backward into the water to baptize him.
God began to change that man from the inside out. Billy went to court and pleaded guilty. He said, “How can I tell you I didn’t do it when I did?” They found him guilty and sentenced him to death. But the criminal justice system is slow. It took 16 years of living in a cage waiting to die, but during those 16 years Billy opened his life up to God. God changed him from the inside out.
Billy Moore became a model prisoner, so much so that the guards had a nickname for him. They called him “the peacemaker.” Death row was an ugly, violent, hateful place until Billy got there. Bill had Bible studies with the other inmates, and one by one they found redemption and new life in Jesus Christ. The place that had been awful and violent became a place of hope where people cared for each other.
The question is not will God forgive you for what you have done. The question is will you let God forgive you like Billy Moore. I John 1:9 is your promise: “If you confess yours sin, Jesus is faithful and just to forgive your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness.” The issue has never been, can God make you life count? The Bible makes it clear in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “when you become a Christian you become a brand new person in Christ.” The question is not whether or not God can forgive you or change you or give you purpose in life. The question is will you invite him to change you. Will you invite him to give you a purpose for living beyond going to work everyday?
If God can use a guy like Billy Moore living in a cage, then think what he could do with your life. Think what he could do in your family, with your children, in your neighborhood and in this church.
In 1990 the court system finally caught up with Billy Moore. The hours were ticking down to August 22, when they would put him to death. The lawyers were asked what it was like to talk to a man days before his death. The lawyers said that talking to Billy Moore was the strangest experience they ever had. “We would call to console him, but he ended up consoling us. Bill would say thinks like, ‘Are you guys okay? I know this is difficult for you. Can I pray for you? We were trying to reach out to him, and he was reaching out to us. Why?”
Why? Because Billy Moore was not afraid to meet Jesus Christ fact to face. He wasn’t afraid because he knew Jesus as His Lord and Savior. He would close his eyes in the electric chair and know that God would take care of him.
On August 21st, 1990, seven and a half hours before Billy Moore was to be electrocuted, something amazing happened. IN fact, it’s unprecedented in American history. The Georgia Pardon and Parole Board held an emergency hearing about a model prisoner they’d heard about.
The five members of the Pardon and Parole Board looked at lifestyle and testimony of Billy Moore, and did something so amazing it made the front page of the New York Times. They looked at Billy Moore and said, “WE are going to show you mercy.” They threw out the death penalty against Billy Moore and did something that had never been done in American history: they set the gears in motion to release him from prison. It was the first time in history a confessed killer on death row was to be set free.
Underneath all the Ten Commandments is the grace of God, God’s unmerited favor. God’s grace set Billy Moore free. God’s grace through Jesus sets you free.
Today, Billy Moore is a pastor. He preaches every Sunday and tells of the wonderful Grace of God.
You may have broken one of more of the Ten Commandments. God’s grace is available to forgiven and restore you. The question is not will God forgive and restore you. The questions is, “Will you ask him to and let him shower you with His Grace.?”
Action:
• Accept the Grace of Jesus
• Ask Jesus to give you a new beginning
• Walk daily in obedience to God’s Word
• Order your Steps According to God’s Word
