God is Not Finished with You Part 2

Pastor Ed Taylor: If you will remember from where you have fallen and you will repent, that's often the step that's missed. You just recognize my personal condition, where I'm at now, the distance from God. While God will receive me back, I've broken the heart of God. I've brought the name of Christ into some blasphemy. I've given people a chance to blaspheme. I've brought a bad witness of the name of Jesus in my life just to the people that are close to me. I've defiled people. There needs to be repentance, a sense of, man, God, I am frustrated, but I need to be brokenhearted over my sin.
Announcer: The only man who never makes a mistake is the man who never does anything. Theodore Roosevelt said that, and how true it is. Since we all fail from time to time, it becomes necessary for us to learn from those experiences and respond appropriately after it happens. As we continue our study of First Samuel today on Abounding Grace, we find David in an embarrassed situation. Though he fails miserably, he learned from it, and God granted him well over 40 years of ministry after the incident. There are some valuable lessons in all of this for us, so let's join Pastor Ed Taylor and discover there is hope after personal failure. We'll start off in Psalm 34.
Pastor Ed Taylor: Psalm 34. Let's start at the title. Where it says Psalm 34, we hardly ever pay attention to that, but let's look at that. Do you see that in your Bible? And then some of your Bibles may say under it, "Seek the Lord." Do you have that little small heading under there? And then under it is a couple of sentences. Mine says, "A Psalm of David." Does yours say this? "A Psalm of David, when he pretended madness before Abimelech, who drove him away and he departed." Abimelech is a generic word for king. When was Psalm 34 written? Around this time. It fits right here in First Samuel chapter 21. Notice in verse one, "I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make its boast in the Lord. The humble shall hear of it and be glad. Magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together. I sought the Lord and he heard me, delivered me from all my fears. They looked to him and were radiant and their faces were not ashamed. This poor man cried out and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encamps all around those who fear him and delivers them. O taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who trusts in him." "O fear the Lord, you his saints. There is no want to those who fear him. The young lions lack and suffer hunger, but those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing. Come, you children, listen to me. I'll teach you the fear of the Lord. Who is the man who desires life and loves many days that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking guile. Depart from evil and do good. Seek peace, pursue it. The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous. His ears are open to their cry." "Verse 16, the face of the Lord is against those who do evil to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. The righteous cry out and the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart and saves such that has a contrite spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, verse 19, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. He guards all his bones and not one of them is broken. Evil shall slay the wicked and those who hate the righteous shall be condemned. The Lord redeems the soul of his servants and none of those who trust in him will be condemned." Wow, that's a significant Psalm. It doesn't sound at all like First Samuel 21. But you see, he's still in an up-and-down. Do you ever feel like you're up and down? Do you ever feel like you're making progress and taking a few steps backwards? Do you ever feel and seem as if your actions are lagging a little bit behind your emotions or vice versa? This is a powerful Psalm. It's interesting that David wrote Psalm 34 when he left. After he left and the King of Gath drove him out, that's Psalm 34. I wonder what he was feeling when he was clawing at the gates. Anybody wonder? I'm glad you asked. Turn over to Psalm 56. Psalm 34 is this hymn of praise after God delivered him. But notice Psalm 56. The subtitle in my Bible here is "The Fears in the Midst of Trials." And then the little title there, it says, "To the chief musician, set to the silent dove in the distant lands, a Michtam of David when the Philistines captured him in Gath." "Be merciful to me, O God, for man would swallow me up. Fighting all day, he oppresses me. My enemies would hound me all day, for there are many who fight against me, O Most High. Whenever I'm afraid, I will trust in you. In God, I will praise his word. In God, I have put my trust. I will not fear. What can flesh do to me? All day they twist my words and their thoughts are against me for evil. They gather together, they hide, they mark my steps and when they lie in wait for my life, shall they escape by iniquity? In anger, cast down the peoples, O God." "Verse eight, you number my wanderings. You put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book? When I cry out to you, then my enemies will turn back. This I know because God is for me. In God, I will praise his word. In the Lord, I will praise his word. In God, I have put my trust. I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? Vows made to you are binding upon me, O God, and I render my praises to you. For you have delivered my soul from death. You have not delivered my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living." There's a battle going on in his life. A wrestling, a struggling. It's clear that David's frightened in Gath. It's very clear that he's going back and forth from the fear of God to the fear of man, the fear of God to the fear of man, and he's sustained in the midst. Everything's not so cut and dry in your walk with the Lord. Everything's not so black and white. David is living out a real... and I'm so grateful that he wrote... a lot of the Psalms we often refer to as the songbook, but it's also the diary of David. How would you like it if your diary was printed in the Bible for everybody to read for thousands of years? What you were feeling on your worst day, or what you felt like after victory, and then somebody that was in your life at the time going, "Whoa, wait a minute, that's not how I remember it." That's because you were carrying stuff in your heart. You were wrestling in prayer. You were desperate for the presence of God and you were going back and forth just so quick. I'm trusting in the Lord, I trust... oh, I don't know what's going to happen. Can you imagine writing that down and having it published? David's a real man and he's dealing with the fear of man. It's a trap. We find that he succumbed in that. That's what led him to feigning like a madman. He succumbed to the fear of man and somewhere along the way, it's like, "Lord, you're so good. You're so good. Even though I blew it, you're so good." At the end of chapter 21, I think if this was the way David's life ended, it would be very easy to just write David off and say he made a mistake with Saul. Let's not make the same mistake with David, but we would have been wrong. There was a lot going on behind the scenes. The Psalmist shows us that you read one thing and then you find out what's going on in a man. I wonder how many people we've written off because they're in Gath right now, gnawing on the gates and slobbering over their beards and taking things into their own hands on the run. They've got fear in one hand and a sword in the other and they're in Gath, withdrawn from fellowship. They're just in a season of acting crazy. I believe there's a lot going on behind the scenes. David here reminds me not to give up on anyone, committing them to God who is faithful. Lord, help us to trust you even when we see what we see. We're reminded to learn from David's mistakes in our own personal life. Here he is, as we so often are, resorting to the flesh and yet calling upon the Lord, seeking the Lord, then resorting to the flesh. Such a battle as Paul would declare it in Galatians that the spirit lusts against the flesh and the flesh lusts against the spirit. The two, it says, are contrary to one another so that you do not do the things that you wish. We see it lived out in the life of David right here. May we just come back to a simple faith trusting in the Lord at all times. I thought of it when my kids were little. We went through a lot of things when my kids were little. Marie and I went through a lot of financial things. We went through a lot of personal things when Eddie was little and Josh and Caitlyn, probably Eddie more than anything. But Eddie didn't stress out about it. He just trusted us. He probably tripped out on us if this is my first experience in family and it's kind of crazy, but he wasn't clawing on the walls and saliva on his beard. He didn't have a beard at four years old, but saliva on his beard. My kids, as I've seen them grow up, as they get older and they start to carry the burdens of life, I've seen them change over time like you and I have. But when we were kids, we just trusted that we'll get through it. Yeah, but you don't understand. That's probably good, Mom, I don't understand. We'll get through it. We'll make it through. Doesn't the Bible remind us to have the faith of a child? To just trust that God is going to take care of it? It's in your hands. I praise you in the good times. I'm going to praise you in the bad times. God, give me the strength because I have the chance right now to take things into my own hands and I just know that the result will be bad, but it'll feel really good if I take things into my own hands. I'll have more confidence than I've ever had and whatever happens down there, I'll deal with it when we get there. No, no. How careful we need to be just to commit our ways completely unto the Lord, just knowing that God will work things out for his glory. Turn over with me to Proverbs chapter three. Proverbs chapter three. It's one of the first scriptures I've ever memorized. That and Galatians chapter 2:20. Those were the two verses, two sections of scripture that I memorized as a new believer. Proverbs chapter 3:5 and 6 is something I'll write when I sign a card and I'll write when I'm writing a letter. I just love this verse where it says in verse five, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he shall direct your paths." It's a great verse to memorize and it's a great verse to obey, but it's a very hard verse to follow through when you're tested. It's a great memory verse, looks good up on the refrigerator. It's great to quote, good to write on a card. I believe it and I love it, but it's very hard to live when you're tested. The temptation to take things into your own hands is very, very strong. I don't know how strong you felt it, but as strong as you felt it, it gets stronger. It gets stronger to trust in the Lord with some of our hearts. It gets stronger to lean a little bit on our own understanding. I say this especially to those of you that are not babies in Christ. You're not new believers. I find that within the body of Christ, the same thing happens as with kids. Kids want to grow up very, very fast. They just want to grow up. You ask a kid, if any of you brought your kids, anyone under eighteen, and I ask them their age, you know what they're going to say? If they're on the other side or even close to six months, they're going to say, "I'm twelve and a half." Twelve and a half? Yeah, yesterday was my birthday, so you're already halfway to thirteen? Yep, I'm twelve and a half. Parents sometimes will even describe that's my son, he's nine going on fifteen. And that's because he exhibits this desire to be a grown-up, I want more responsibility and I want more. I find it in the body of Christ as well as if the leap from new... as if it's a bad thing to be a babe in Christ. It's not a bad thing to be a babe in Christ. Learn everything you can as a new believer because you're going to need it the older you get. Because here's the thing: if you bring anyone in that's over thirty, how old are you? You're going to go backwards on your number. I'm thirty twice. What does that mean? Thirty twice? Nobody's ever come and said, "I'm sixty-seven and a half." It doesn't work that way. The reason being is as the older you get, the more you value the process and the journey. The more you value the growth that comes and the lessons that you learn. Let me just warn you the older you are in Christ, the more you think you know. The more you think you know, whether that's Bible study, whether that's scripture, whether that's the big narrative of the Bible, whether you can come today and say, "Well, I've read the Bible through 55 times." To me, that's fantastic. I hope you read it another 55 times. There's nothing wrong with that. But if you begin to think, "Well, I've read it 55 times and so I'm a lot more wiser than the guy that's read it once," you be careful. Because the more knowledge you have, the more you will tend to lean on your own understanding and you won't pray anymore. As a new believer, you're just like, "I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. What am I supposed to do?" And so you'll ask somebody, "What am I supposed to do?" And what will they do? They'll open up the Bible to you and go, "Well, that's normal. That's normal. So you look, this happened right here. It's normal. This is what you just wait and pray." What? Just wait and pray? Yeah, just wait and pray. All right. And then somebody's been walking with the Lord for 20 years, we don't wait anymore. We don't wait. We'll just take care of it. So be very careful to trust in the Lord because the temptation is to trust with a little bit of your heart. The temptation is to lean a little bit on your own understanding. The temptation in verse six is to acknowledge him in some of your ways. The temptation is to take your own understanding and make it fit into what you want so that the end will justify the means in your life. Proverbs chapter 3, verse 5 and 6, they stand the test of time and God is ready to direct your paths. He's ready to help you in your faith in him. He's ready. The Bible says in verse seven, "Don't be wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and depart from evil." It's so much better to commit our ways to the Lord knowing that God will work things out for his glory. Just committing our ways to the Lord. I just pray the Lord blesses you this week and encourages you that you will stand strong in his love. Your life might be right now between First Samuel 21 on one side and Psalm 34 and Psalm 56 on the other side. You're just like David. You're just in that same place. How long has it been since you've come back and just acknowledged that you need to trust in the Lord? How long has it been since you've acknowledged that you love the Lord and that you receive his love? Because you love him and because he loves you, you just want to commit your life to him. You just want to live for him. You want to do things his way. In deep love relationships, love wants a commitment. Love is often expressed through commitment. Love has a desire to make a covenant, to make an agreement. It desires the reciprocation of that covenant. It makes the bond of love even stronger. When's the last time you had that with the Lord? Just you and the Lord. I know you're in Bible study and that's great and I know you have a desire to seek him, great, but when's the last time you just verbalized your love for him? Verbalize and re-verbalize that covenant that you made with him when you surrendered your life to him? You were born again. Maybe some things have happened over the years. Maybe there's been a distance. Maybe there's a time where you've been leaning on your own knowledge and you've got things all together. At least what it looks like on the outside, but on the inside, there's so much more going on. I believe the Lord would have us just to renew our love covenant with him, just to express that to him, just to be reminded that you're not involved in some religious experience. You know how sometimes you get into those discussions at work and you just feel like you have to prove everything? You don't have to prove anything. Just love. Just enjoy the Lord. Just let your life be a shining example of the goodness of God. You get in those places where you feel like you're backed into a corner, the devil like a roaring lion going about seeking whom he may devour. How do you get out of that corner? You just move forward in the love of God and accept his greatness. Lord, you're so good to me. I do want to commit myself to you. I do want to surrender my life to you. I do want to give more of myself to you. I am holding back on you. I have been taking things into my own hands, Lord. And you know, when you saved me, I admitted I needed you more than anything. When I submitted my life to you, when my parents read the Bible to me at night and I finally made that decision myself, man, I was so excited to worship the God of my parents. When I walked into that church just thinking, "What am I doing in church? Why am I here?" and your love, God, was displayed to me and I understood it and you opened my eyes and I realized that I didn't need to follow you religiously. That it wasn't about some religious activity. It was just the love of God. I commend you today to the love of God. It'll get you out of a lot of jams. It'll give you direction. It'll give you clarity. It'll give you insight. It'll draw out... you know, the Bible says that God draws us to himself with cords of love. You might be frustrated today and you might be really just upset with the condition of your life and it could be that your decisions have led you down a very frustrating path. The Bible says that the wages of sin is always death. It doesn't lead to life. It doesn't lead to lifeless existence. It leads to lifelessness. You're really mad and you're really frustrated today. The answer is to come back to that love relationship. Do you know the Bible actually tells us... John does, he says, "Keep yourselves in the love of God." Do you remember the church in Ephesus what their biggest mistake was? They had left their first love. And I believe today, like the counsel to the church in Ephesus, if you will remember from where you have fallen and you will repent, that's often the step that's missed. You just recognize my personal condition, where I'm at now, the distance from God. While God will receive me back, I've broken the heart of God. I've brought the name of Christ into some blasphemy. I've given people a chance to blaspheme. I've brought a bad witness of the name of Jesus in my life just to the people that are close to me. I've defiled people. There needs to be repentance. There needs to be a sense of, man, God, I am frustrated, but I need to be brokenhearted over my sin. After David leaves in Psalm 34, what does he say? "Hey man, brokenness and a contrite spirit, God will not resist." And in that repentance, it's just going to draw your heart back to the Father, to the very Father heart, Father love of God, his heart toward you and me. Remember from where you have fallen, repent, and then go back, repeat. Go back and repeat the first works.