MK040 Sermons
Divine Mercy (Audio)
Well, it was the first long trip that my wife and I had taken after our honeymoon had ended. We had spent that time down in Florida and then we went up to Maine where her family vacations and had not really traveled much, flew into Boston, had family pick us up and then we're up there. So it was our first long trip together kind of as a couple. And we pulled out of the campground that her family stays at every year and I had never driven from this campground to where we lived in Pennsylvania before. And so we pulled out of the campground, I said to my wife right or left and there was a long pause and that should have signaled to me that this was not going to be a good experience. But she said go to the left and I think we should have taken the road to the right because twelve hours later after a tourist, after a scenic trip through the White Mountains of New Hampshire, we ended up in Pennsylvania on what is normally a six hour trip. And that kind of began the journey for us of the adventure of driving and traveling together especially before GPS. And my wife always wanted the map, she loves to be the co-pilot. She wanted the map but she couldn't read the map. That was the problem, you know. It was like it was on a foreign language to her and she could have easily had it upside down and not necessarily, no I'm just kidding, it wasn't that bad. So after I realized after that first experience that I wasn't sure where to go when we would get to these intersections and she'd have to tell me, I would, before we got there I would say well, how about you let me take a quick glance at the map. So I would take a quick glance at the map, memorize the next four routes that we had to turn on and then I'd say where should we go and she'd say right and I'd say right and I know I think we should go to the left and we'd end up where we were supposed to go. Now the reason I did that is because I didn't trust that she could find the way to go using the map and even the GPS doesn't always help her these days but she's more willing to admit that than she has been in the past. And as we talk about this issue really what I boiled down for me is unfortunately I didn't trust her to give me the directions to get me where I needed to go. Now I trust her in a lot of other areas but not with directions and she's very glad that I don't these days but not so much when we were first married. But when you think about your life, can you think about some situations where there's people that want you to trust them but you struggle to do that. They want you to trust them but you struggle to do that. The year spouse wants you to trust them with your finances but the fact that you've run up the credit card the last couple times that they've trusted you makes them not willing to do that. Maybe you want the coach to trust you to run this play for the team but the last two times he said this is the play and this is what I want you to do you've not executed the play the way it should go. You have a friend that wants you to trust you and say hey I'm willing to help out but every time you call them to help out no unfortunately it's not going to work out it's not going to work out and you're like I can't really trust them to help me when I need a hand. Your boss wants you to trust them but every time he makes a promise it doesn't come through and when someone raises a question about your work he doesn't have your back he leaves you hanging out to dry and you're like I'm not trusting him your small group wants you to trust them but you let something slip about something that was supposed to be confidential you say I can't trust them and you wonder where God is why isn't he shown up you feel like he's left you hung out to dry and he keeps saying trust me trust me. This morning we're going to talk about the subject of trust and the challenge that it is to trust God to trust someone in our life when it seems like they haven't come through for us in the past and this morning we're going to wrap up our series on the life of David and hit pause for the holidays and spend some time focusing on some other things and over the last number of weeks we've been looking at the story of this guy who we've described as an unlikely hero a shepherd boy that went to a giant killer that went to a military leader they went to a fugitive on the run and a man that especially over the last three weeks has been faced with decision after decision after decision and we've watched how he's made these decisions the first week he had this decision and he went to God and he asked God for direction and God gave him direction about what he should do and talked about going to God for direction and then a couple weeks ago we talked about David being at this place where he'd taken a step or two down this road and all of a sudden the spirit of God said no stop stop and he realized I shouldn't go down that direction we talked about what it means to listen to God's spirit in our lives and then last week David again this time he's firing mad he's furious he's ready to go to battle and do something that he might regret the rest of his life and it wasn't God's spirit and it wasn't prayer it was a person that showed up in his life a woman by the name of Abigail who stopped him in his tracks and turned him around and spared him from something he might have to live with the rest of his life and so each week David has found himself in these situations and last week we looked at this reality that wise people listen to input and avoid foolish decisions and that's what David found himself confronted with last week I don't know about you but I can stand here and I can think about a couple situations this past week where people spoke into my life and gave me advice and I can think of one situation where I stay there and I listen I said tell me more and explain it to me and help me understand and I was very engaged in it and I took in the input that was given to me and yet unfortunately another situation that I can remember where someone was giving me input and I just gave them lip service and nodded and just wanted them to stop talking to me about it and move on and didn't really want to listen to what they have to say and I think all of us want to be wise all of us want to be wise but not all of us want to listen to people who speak wisdom into our lives and so this morning we're going to find ourselves one last time with David at a crossroads with David at the decision point that he has to make and this morning if you're a Christ follower what we're going to talk about is what this means in your relationship to God and I believe it's going to challenge you in some areas about what trusting God looks like if maybe you came to church this morning because someone invited you or thought you know I really should do this I haven't been there for a while and you're kind of coming back and you're not quite sure where you are with this God thing this issue of trust and God maybe the most important issue in your relationship with God and you're wrestling over this today and deciding where you're at could change the course of your life if you have your Bibles if you would turn with me to first Samuel 26 first Samuel 26 if you don't have a Bible our guys have some and they'll pass them out to you first Samuel 26 and as you're turning there to first Samuel 26 just to set the scene a little bit David's been on the run from King Saul he's at the top of the most wanted list they've been on this cat and mouse chase all through the wilderness of Judea Saul says he's not going to come and hunt down David but word on the street says otherwise and David doesn't believe a word that Saul is saying and they're literally on a collision course for each other and then there's no win-win in this somebody's going to win and somebody's going to lose and at the last run and David paused when he's about to make a decision that he was going to regret and God's spirit stopped him and turned him around and chapter 26 that we're going to be in this morning is going to sound a lot like that story a lot like chapter 24 but there's things that are slightly different that I think are important for us to capture and grab hold of is we face decisions that each one of us has to make and so chapter 26 the story begins with David being ratted out once again a group of individuals known as the zip-lights who apparently were spies for King Saul had said to David had said to Saul David is in this location so get your men and go there and so what David what Saul did is he rounded up his men about three thousand men David from the story that tells us was about six hundred so he's outnumbered five to one so Saul got his men went to this location found out where David was and camped out right near where he was well David had his own spies out in the land and his spy said do you realize Saul is right over there and he said no thanks for telling me and so what David did is David went to his men and said day is Saul is right is very close to us who's going to go with me and sneak into his camp and so there's two men that are listed there a hymnal up and a hymnal like an Abishai and Abishai said I'll go I'll go so they snuck from their camp to the edge of Saul's camp and what they did in those days is the king his tent would be in the center of the camp and so the reason he was in the center because it was the most protected location most protected location and so there would be circles of men around the camp and so imagine David with Abishai as they make their way in the middle of the night from their camp to Saul's camp and then they get past the guards and then they get past row after row after of tents of men sleeping so they find the king's tent you say how do they find the king's tent likely as we often see illustrated in films the king's tent was much more ornate than every other tent and so they would been able to see it it was clearly identifiable and so they snuck up to the outside of the tent and as they come into the tent look what Abishai says in verse 8 and I think we've heard this before he said today got us delivered your enemies into his hands now let me pin him to the ground with one thrust of the spear in earlier stories of David he had been at banquets with Saul and do you remember what Saul tried to do to David he tried to pin David with his spear and Abishai says now got us put an opportunity right in front of you for me to pin him to the ground and it will only take me one time that's all it will take and it almost appears that once again God has provided this opportunity that's what Abishai says he says God has made a way isn't it obvious to you David I mean Saul has killed innocent lives the priest that he killed Saul has been chasing you he said he wasn't going to keep chasing you and he's still chasing you you can't believe Saul he's not going to stop until you're dead and now we have an opportunity and by the way do you remember that you are one day going to be king God said you're going to be king maybe this is the opportunity maybe we need to step into it maybe we need to make this happen right now and David says don't destroy him don't destroy him and he says who can lay a hand on God's anointed and be guiltless he said I will live with this just like he talked about last week when Abigail said I don't want you to live with this David knew he would live with this the rest of his life but I think what he says in verse 10 is even more significant because look what he says in verse 10 he says as surely as the Lord lives the Lord himself will strike him or his time will come and he will die or he will go into battle and perish you see what's so significant about that I think what's significant about that is David says I have an opportunity in my time and in my way to make this happen but I'm going to step back from that I'm not going to do this in my time in my way I'm going to step back because I believe that God in his time and in his way is going to make this happen I don't really know how it's going to happen there's a possibility he might just die there's a possibility he'll go into battle and die but all I know is I'm going to take a step back take my hands off of this and I'm going to let God make this happen I put in a statement that says this that doing God's will requires me to trust the plan of God and the timing of God doing the will of God requires me to trust the plan of God and the timing of David says I don't know how I don't know in what way but I'm not going to trust my plan I'm not going to trust my I'm not going to even trust the opportunity that's right in front of me that everybody thinks you should take I'm going to take a step back I'm going to say I think God's got another way through this I think God's got another way that this is going to happen he did not at that point know what that was and we seen over the last few weeks is sometimes it's the spirit of God that says don't do sometimes it's the person of God and I think in this point David understood the principles of God's word and we talked about that a couple weeks ago about the principles and the laws of God's word David understood that there's opportunities where I can take things into my own hands and it would be justifiable and everybody would say God was in it and there are times to take a step back and say I don't know what God's plan is but I'm going to wait for his plan and his time to make this happen David didn't miss the opportunity though because look what he does in verse 11 he grabs the spear and the water jug and he says let's go let's go and so they took it and in verse 12 it says no one saw or knew about it nor did anyone wake up and then he tells us why because the Lord had put them into a deep sleep now think about it for a moment with me I mean what are the odds that he could sneak from his camp to Saul's camp sneak past several thousand men who were soldiers and sneak into the king's tent take his things get all the way back out all the way back to his camp well we get a little glimpse that God was in it God was in it you know sometimes when life happens like that and you find yourself saying wow I don't know how this happened this is just amazing remarkable how did all these details work out have no idea likely God was in it likely God was in it you say so does that mean God's in it when the plan falls apart and nothing works out well I don't know that may be another message for another day but when things happen to work out in our lives there's a good probability that God had something to do with it so what does David do what does David do well he takes the water jug and he takes the spear heads outside the camp and and my guess is if I was David I'd probably make a racket in the middle of the night I don't think I would have waited till the next morning he wanted to he wanted to say something and so my guess is he made some kind of a racket that woke up the troops and as he wakes up the troops he calls out Abner the captain of Saul's guards by the way look what I have here guys you know he said you weren't doing a very good job protecting your king and if I was if you worked for me I would take your life you wouldn't have a job left and in the midst of the racket in the midst of this conversation that's going on outside the camp Saul says David is that you my son and David very humbly says you know my Lord and then David again goes through the series of questions where he says Saul I don't understand why you're hunting me down he said if I've done something wrong I'll offer a sacrifice he says if these are rumors about me they're not true he says this has chased me from the land that I'm supposed to be a part of his chase me from my home it's pushed me into places where there's foreign gods and he talks about even being invited to worship these other gods something quite remarkable happens to Saul in that moment because there's a change in Saul that is somewhat surprising in verse 21 he says I've sinned he says I've acted like a fool and I've been terribly wrong David still doesn't trust him that kind of makes you wonder if Saul is finally starting to figure out what's happening in his life fascinating picture because last week we saw a guy who is his name meant full and he acted like a fool but he took no responsibility for his actions saw as bad and as evil and as wicked as he was take some responsibility for his actions sometimes when you see someone acting foolishly you think there's no hope for that person God can change the heart of a fool doesn't happen very often God can change their heart look how David ends there in the next couple verses he said the Lord rewards everyone for their righteousness and faithfulness the Lord put you in my hands but I wasn't going to take your head and he says God values my life and he will deliver me from all my troubles what enabled David to say no I'm not going to do this in spite of all the evil that Saul had done what caused him to pause he had this sense that that this was not the right time this was not the right way he knew God would bring this about he knew he would but he said this is not what God wants us to do and especially in the in the day and age we live in as we're even faced with this this evil that you know this evil that has happened to the the people of France we wonder what am I supposed to do about the evil that's around us the evil that we hope doesn't come to our shores but the evil that seems to be growing around us what do we do about all of that I came across the Psalm that I think gives a little bit of direction and that's Psalm 37 if you want to turn there in your Bibles it's just a few pages over Psalm 37 David wrote this Psalm when he was much older and I think he he had gotten an understanding of what to do when evil confronts us when a situation presents itself and it looks like there's every opportunity for you to take and step into it and act on it he offers us a different approach Psalm 37 verse one it says don't fret because of those who are evil or be envious of those who do wrong that the idea of Fred is the idea of kind of getting churned up over it getting stirred up over it you know when we when we come home and our dog is there at the door one of the things that the dog does is she kind of has this hyper spazz fit you know when you come in the door she runs around in circles she jumps all over you and and then she's done you know has to do it every single time you know that's the idea of just kind of getting churned all up and turned all up and and that kind of happening and and it but it happens on the inside and we all know what that's like for some of you when that happens it comes out for some of you you just hold it in and you're just churning inside and David says don't do that don't do that but then he offers us some alternatives he says trust in the Lord and do good in verse 4 take delight in the Lord and God's going to give you what your heart desires and then commit your way the Lord and then look at this last one be still before the Lord and wait patiently and then he says don't fret because of the evil and the wicked people around you when I have a problem in front of me I want to solve that problem I want to find a solution I want to get it done a couple guys at my house yesterday helping us move a shed and it was very different experience than when the professional shed mover moved another shed into my property to have a couple guys there with four by fours and and wenches and straps and trying to figure out how do we get this thing up on this trailer without tipping the whole thing over and smashing the thing you know and it's about a two and a half hour process and I really at one point along the way one of the guys said well maybe we should just come back next week and try again and the other guys like no we're not doing that we're solving this problem now you know and then once they got it up on the trailer they had to figure out how do we drive it from Denver to Bursborough not bounce the thing off the trailer somewhere along the way and it end up in somebody's front yard you know so they had to find a way to strap this thing and there was a lot of problem solving and trying to fix this and come up with a solution to make that happen and then I really don't have a clue how to do all that so I'm just kind of standing what do you want me to hold what do you want me to move what do you want me to lift that's all I'm good for in those situations I don't have the engineer mind this is all we got to think this and this strap has to be right here at this height and this has to be in and levers and all that I'm lost you know but they were all engaged in solving that problem and there's other kinds of problems that I jump into and I dive into and I find solutions for but it's really hard to do what that last phrase says to just be still before the Lord and to wait for Him to wait for Him it is really hard to do that really hard to do that especially when there's something right in front of you that everything around you says go and do it to take a step back and say I just need to be quiet and wait before God one of the things I love to do is I love to plan I love to come up with ideas that's something that just energizes me and so when God gave it this building and gave us all this extra space and gave it this land there's a part of me that just wanted to start planning and coming up with ideas and dreams and plans and I just felt this overwhelming sense that God said no I want you to be still and wait be still and wait and I got to tell you for me it's like a caved animal just sitting there on my hands is what it feels like but I don't know what God has for us but I'm willing to be still and wait and see where He leads us in His time and His plan a couple more verses that are going to come up let's go to the next slide David says this don't fret when people succeed when they carry out their wicked schemes I think David knew a little bit about that not only from the life of Saul but a little bit later his own children were doing this to him and he says don't fret don't fret refrain from anger don't fret it's only going to make things worse and then look what he says in verse 23 he says the Lord makes firms the steps of the one who delights in him they'll stumble but they won't fall got to uphold them he says I was young and now I'm old but I've never seen the righteous forsaken you know it's hard to sit back it's hard to wait it's hard not to get churned up when you see evil around you when you see evil confronting you it's hard not to do that and David says but God will not let you down he's not gonna let you down and David likely at this point in his life had seen God do that over and over and over and over again starting when he was a shepherd boy fighting a lion and fighting a bear and then when he went up against Goliath and then when he was being hunted down by Saul over and over and over and over again he saw God being with there with them and later his son Solomon wrote about these same concepts in a very familiar verse Proverbs 3 verse 5 when he says this he says trust in the Lord with all of your heart trust in the Lord with all of your heart and I read this description about the word trust this past week and they said the idea of trust is when you're laying on the ground simply like this and your face down and your hands are out and you have no way of doing anything and you are completely helpless that's what the picture trust is like he says instead of trusting in God we lean on our own understanding we lean on our own ways we lean on our own wisdom we lean on our own experience and Solomon says you can be faced down hopeless before God and you can be leaning on all of your strategies all of your plans all of your ideas and then goes on to say in verse 6 he says in all your ways acknowledge and how many ways how many of your ways how many of your ways does he say to acknowledge him all how many of your ways can you say that aloud all of them all of them all of them the reality is in all of your lives and in my life there's a few things I'm willing oh okay God I'll give you this one I'll give you this one but we all have one or two things that we do not want to let go of and the word acknowledge in our day when we think of a knowledge like hey how you doing you know or I want to acknowledge a few people who have done these things are given this money you know but it's more than that it's a recognition of God's activity in my life in these areas and him saying are you going to turn this area over to him say John what are the things that it's hard to turn over to God the things that are closest to our heart things that matter the most to us some of those we kind of know you know relationships that matter the most to us are kids that matter the most to us our jobs career direction you know your grandkids maybe a dream that you have for your future Solomon says you you have to decide what you're going to do you're either going to trust God with them or get you're going to lean on your own way with them he says what I'm inviting you to do is I'm inviting you to turn everything over to him and then he says the last phrase he's going to make your paths straight as a couple different ideas about this the idea of straight kind of makes it sound like it's windy and somehow it's all going to come like this another picture of this that I think is helpful for me to wrap my mind around is it's it's like a path that is cluttered and there's trees that have fallen down in branches and it's it's kind of overgrown and there's leaves that are blown and you you kind of know there's a path but you can't quite see the path and when you decide to trust God and not lean on your own ways but to be face down helpless before him waiting on him acknowledging him with everything he's going to start to clear some of this stuff out of the way and the path is going to become clear but the truth is the path that's called God's will for your life may be different than what you want it to be because most of us would if we're honest would say well I want God's will and I kind of hope God's will will improve my life and and make my life better and make me feel better and and make my life happy and solve all my problems but when Jesus on the cross said not my will but your will be done where did the path lead Jesus did it lead him to pain less and pain free and happily ever after no it did not the path that God had for his son was a path that led him to the cross so it's one thing to say yeah I want God's will but then do you want it his way or your way his plan or your plan and then are you still willing to accept that recognizing that what that means for you will be an amazing sense of being in step with God in his spirit and his plan but it likely will not lead you down the path that you would say pick me pick me a sign up I'm ready to go David had a choice right in front of him seemed to be the most obvious choice he was gonna become king anyways maybe now was the time but he chose to step back and say you know what I'm gonna wait for God's time for God's way to make this happen I'm not gonna do it in my time or my way and as we close this morning I want to I want to challenge you to ask yourself a couple questions because the likelihood is all of you are facing situations where you are wondering what God wants you to do a career path that is not at all fulfilling and you dread every day a relationship with a spouse who's distant and engaged a child who wants nothing to do with you or your faith a struggle that one of your grandkids is facing that you can't do anything about other than just be with them I want to challenge you to ask yourself a question a couple questions why do you hesitate number one to give God full control of your life you say you're making an assumption there John I am my assumption is that it's a struggle and it is it is to assume it's easy to say yes to God knowing what that means it's pretty naive so why do you hesitate number two what do you fear will happen if you turn over those one or two things that are in your heart to God and you say God I'm going to stop turning about him I'm going to stop fretting about him I'm going to stop planning and scheming I'm going to stop calling John and saying will you do this or my smaller will you do this and and and you know trying to manipulate I'm going to stop and I'm just going to be still with God and lastly what's the most difficult part of your life to yield control what's the toughest spot we all have one or two of those things in our lives and God says I want you to trust me with everything you should open your hands with everything say here you go what's the hardest one for you right now I want to invite you to bow your heads and just talk to God I think God stirred some things up in your heart this morning as you saw David's story and saw him saying I want to do God's will it's going to require me to trust him do it his way in his timing and I want you to talk to God about what he's stirring up what he's calling you to turn over and to release and trust him with today . . . . . . . . God, the issue of trust is a pretty big deal. Talk to someone this week who said, "I don't trust people easily. I don't trust you." And yet you, a God who we can't see, says, "Will you trust me?" God, who maybe hasn't been there through a difficult time in our lives, says, "Will you still trust me?" Even when there's something right in front of us that seems the most obvious logical choice, he says, "Will you trust me? Will you wait on me? Will you still be for me?" God, for people who are used to making things happen, who are used to finding solutions, who are used to fixing and solving, it's really, really hard for us to take our hands off and be face down, completely helpless before you. God, I pray that you would invite us into knowing you and loving you in this way. Amen. As the band comes forward to lead us in a song to close, there's a sense that David seemed to recognize, and he talked about that in Psalm 37, that he had to come to this place of stepping back from whatever the decision was, of slowing down the churning in his heart about it, and to just be still before God. And it's our prayer that when you come here and worship with us, that that gives you an opportunity to do that, to just kind of hit pause on all the stuff that's happening in life, and saying, "I just need to stop and be with God for a little bit." And it's our prayer that you would continue to do that, even during the week, to find a window of time, and whether you reread the story of David or Psalm 37 or another place, and you just pause and stop, and you are just quiet with God. And so as Johnny and the team lead us in this last song, it's just an invitation to remind us what Jesus invites us into to be with him as we face those difficult decisions that are in front of all of us. Johnny?