Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / April 19th, 2015 | Hunter Ruch - The Folly of Self Confidence

Transcript

April 19th, 2015 | Hunter Ruch - The Folly of Self Confidence · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

0:00
SPEAKER_02: We'll try that again.
0:01
SPEAKER_02: Good morning.
0:03
SPEAKER_02: How are you?
0:04
SPEAKER_02: Folks here across the street, College Avenue building, good morning.
0:08
SPEAKER_02: And I have a friend with me here on stage.
0:10
SPEAKER_02: This is Jeb Graver, and Jeb is a faithful servant who serves both inside the walls of our church as well as outside, bringing people an understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
0:20
SPEAKER_02: And this morning, Jeb, my understanding is that you're going to talk to us today about an organization called the Gideons.
0:27
SPEAKER_02: So first of all, I have to ask, who are these people and what do they do?
0:31
SPEAKER_00: Thanks, Leonard.
0:33
SPEAKER_00: 1,995,000.
0:38
SPEAKER_00: That's the uh counter that's going on now on our website, gideons.org, the counter for the number of scriptures that we have distributed around the world.
0:50
SPEAKER_00: It'll cross the two billion mark this year.
0:54
SPEAKER_00: So uh that's what our ministry is.
0:57
SPEAKER_00: The Gideons are a group, an association of business and professional men and their wives in the auxiliary, and we are all about what this church is all about, and that is leading people to life in Christ.
1:09
SPEAKER_00: And we do it through a scripture distribution.
1:12
SPEAKER_00: Walk in my shoes here now this morning.
1:16
SPEAKER_00: We'll go to Washburn University Tuesday this week.
1:21
SPEAKER_00: We'll be there seven in the morning and seven at night, handing out New Testaments to the students and faculty, and we'll give out about a thousand of them that day.
1:32
SPEAKER_00: Walking with me to the Shawnee County Jail on Thursday nights.
1:36
SPEAKER_00: Two Gideons go in every Thursday night to share a Bible study with the men and one with the women.
1:43
SPEAKER_00: A couple weeks ago, I it was my turn, and so we went in and we had a Bible study going with the women, and all of a sudden this one gal shouted out, I get it, I get it, and she got it.
1:58
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
1:58
SPEAKER_00: And so we prayed with her to receive Christ, and that's what it's all about.
2:03
SPEAKER_00: Or walk with me.
2:04
SPEAKER_00: Shall we better fly with me to Columbia, South America?
2:08
SPEAKER_00: And there, uh, a couple years ago, we walked the streets of Bogota with hundreds of uh native Colombians who are Gideons there, and about 23 of us from different countries of the world, and we shared the scriptures in Bogota.
2:26
SPEAKER_00: A homeless man came walking towards me, and he was filthy on the outside, but he uh came seeking Christ, and so we led him to Christ, and he became pure inside.
2:39
SPEAKER_00: And this is our mission, and that's what we do, and that's who we are.
2:44
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's awesome, Jeb.
2:46
SPEAKER_02: So the question for us this morning is how can we help the Gideons accomplish their mission?
2:53
SPEAKER_02: What are some ways that we can participate?
2:56
SPEAKER_00: Yes, there are several ways that we'd like you to participate.
2:58
SPEAKER_00: Number one is prayer.
2:59
SPEAKER_00: We are uh we are foundational on prayer.
3:04
SPEAKER_00: We meet every Saturday morning for prayer.
3:06
SPEAKER_00: So uh this is something that's uh integral to our our ministry.
3:11
SPEAKER_00: Here in this uh bolton insert that you have, hopefully, we'll have the information that you can use to pray for the Gideons.
3:19
SPEAKER_00: And also go to our website, Gideons.org, and it has all the information about our ministry there.
3:24
SPEAKER_00: Then you can also join us.
3:27
SPEAKER_00: We are always looking for people who want to share the word of God around the world.
3:33
SPEAKER_00: Then we need you to purchase Bibles for us, and there's Gideon cards out in the welcome center that you can do that, and there's also today's donations we would ask you to give, if you would, please, to this ministry.
3:49
SPEAKER_00: It costs a dollar and a quarter for a New Testament, five dollars for a Bible, and every penny that you give will go to purchase, print, and distribute these scriptures.
3:59
SPEAKER_00: We'll have an offering afterwards, and we'll have a plate over here by the door, and I'll be back in the back there receiving your offering.
4:07
SPEAKER_00: Please make your checks to the Gideons and your cash.
4:10
SPEAKER_00: Uh, we gave out 12,000 cases of New Testaments in Columbia.
4:16
SPEAKER_00: That's 1,200,000 New Testaments.
4:20
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
4:20
SPEAKER_00: That costs over a million million dollars, about a million and a half dollars just for that one two-week distribution.
4:26
SPEAKER_00: So you can see that it's costly.
4:28
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Hunter.
4:29
SPEAKER_00: Appreciate it.
4:29
SPEAKER_00: Hey Jeb, thank you.
4:37
SPEAKER_02: We really have no greater privilege than to support the Gideons and what they do in getting the Word of God into the hands of people worldwide.
4:43
SPEAKER_02: If you've ever been to a hotel, stayed there, you open that drawer in the nightstand, and there's a Gideon Bible.
4:48
SPEAKER_02: And I can remember being in college and walking around the university, and those Gideon missionaries are there passing out New Testaments to college students.
4:56
SPEAKER_02: So we appreciate what you all do.
4:58
SPEAKER_02: And uh, like you said, here in the the Mulvane Building, we'll have an offering opportunity as you guys leave.
5:03
SPEAKER_02: And then across the street and college avenue, there should be an opportunity for them as well.
5:07
SPEAKER_02: So thank you very much for sharing.
5:10
SPEAKER_02: Well, we begin the message time uh with a story.
5:12
SPEAKER_02: I want to tell you a story uh about a young preacher, a young preacher who was vibrant, he had passion, and he had confidence.
5:21
SPEAKER_02: And he was getting ready to preach the sermon of his life.
5:25
SPEAKER_02: He was going to be ready to preach the greatest sermon that anybody in the world had ever heard.
5:31
SPEAKER_02: And he spent hours and hours, countless hours, preparing for this message.
5:36
SPEAKER_02: He left no stone unturned in the biblical text that he was preparing to preach.
5:41
SPEAKER_02: He knew it forwards and backwards.
5:43
SPEAKER_02: He spent hours and hours practicing and memorizing his message, practicing in front of a mirror so that he knew that he would look confident as he went up proudly to present the word of God to God's people.
5:57
SPEAKER_02: And as he ascended to the stage that morning, he was confident in himself that he was going to present the best sermon people had ever heard.
6:06
SPEAKER_02: And he began to preach.
6:08
SPEAKER_02: And after a few minutes, he began to notice the people in the back slowly disconnecting.
6:12
SPEAKER_02: And it's sort of like it was like a wave as he began to preach more and more.
6:16
SPEAKER_02: He noticed that more and more people in the middle began disconnecting.
6:19
SPEAKER_02: Some of them, even, believe it or not, going to sleep.
6:22
SPEAKER_02: I can believe it.
6:24
SPEAKER_02: And then before too long, even the people in the front, the very front, those who were under uh threat to stay that much more intention, pay that much more attention to him, began to nod off and doodle in their bulletins.
6:36
SPEAKER_02: And the man bethought that I just need to preach louder and with more passion and more fervor.
6:42
SPEAKER_02: But by the end of it, he realized that very few people had actually engaged and connected with him.
6:47
SPEAKER_02: And he was crestfallen.
6:49
SPEAKER_02: He was humbled.
6:51
SPEAKER_02: And as he walked off that stage down to the front of the church, where customarily people would come and greet and thank him for his sermon, very few people walked by to say thank you.
7:03
SPEAKER_02: And again, he was humbled.
7:05
SPEAKER_02: Until one uh elderly lady in the church walked up to him and she put her arm around him and she said, Son, the only advice I can give you is that if you stepped up to that pulpit with the same heart with which you stepped down, then your sermon would have been infinitely better than it actually was.
7:24
SPEAKER_02: And what he learned that day is that his self-confidence was a problem.
7:29
SPEAKER_02: And that his confidence needed to be in someone much greater than himself, much more infinitely gracious and a much greater provider than himself.
7:39
SPEAKER_02: Than in himself.
7:41
SPEAKER_02: And uh he learned the perils of self-confidence.
7:44
SPEAKER_02: Now, I tried to think across the spectrum of my life, and I'm sure if you think, you could probably come up with a lot of stories of times where you were totally self-confident in you and what you had done in all of your preparation, only to find out that you were met with an absolute failure when the results time came.
8:02
SPEAKER_02: Whether it was taking an exam and you knew I nailed that thing, and oh no, you failed that thing.
8:08
SPEAKER_02: Whether it was a date and you thought, man, that went so well, and no, it didn't go well at all, you never got a call back.
8:14
SPEAKER_02: Or whether it was trying to put together a children's toy, as I am known to do without the instructions, oh, this is easy.
8:22
SPEAKER_02: Whether it's trying to set up a new electronic device without the instructions, oh, this should be easy enough.
8:26
SPEAKER_02: Whether it's trying to put a recipe together, oh, this should be easy enough, who needs the recipe?
8:32
SPEAKER_02: Whether it's trying to find a destination when you're driving in the car and the lady on the GPS is saying, no, you need to go this way and say, Oh, I'm I'm confident it's this way.
8:41
SPEAKER_02: And worse off than that, is when that GPS lady happens to be your spouse, your wife.
8:47
SPEAKER_02: And you're, no, sweetie, this way.
8:49
SPEAKER_02: No, this way, and sure enough, you're wrong.
8:52
SPEAKER_02: Well, we find in all these situations, and they they spread across life, all kinds of everyday examples of how our self-confidence leads us into trouble.
9:00
SPEAKER_02: And what we're gonna find out this morning is that self-confidence is a really big deal to God and a really big problem, and one that grieves him and he takes very seriously when his people practice it.
9:12
SPEAKER_02: And we're gonna find that there's an important call for us not to be people of self-confidence, but Christ's confidence as we are people called by his name.
9:21
SPEAKER_02: And we're gonna look at a psalm this morning, Psalm chapter 30, and I'd like for you to turn there in your Bibles if you have them to Psalm 30.
9:29
SPEAKER_02: You can also uh fire up your tablet or your phone and you can flip open to that.
9:34
SPEAKER_02: And we're gonna look at the life of a man named David.
9:38
SPEAKER_02: I have been uh reading through the Psalms in my quiet times and my personal times of devotion with God, and I got to this psalm and I felt like this was something that the Lord would have me preach this morning.
9:49
SPEAKER_02: Um the message title is I Shall Never Be Moved, which comes to us from this text.
9:57
SPEAKER_02: And the question is, really?
9:59
SPEAKER_02: And we're gonna talk about the folly of self-confidence as we look at Psalm 30.
10:04
SPEAKER_02: And just to let you know, we're gonna find David in his own struggle with arrogant self-confidence.
10:10
SPEAKER_02: We're gonna see David turn from that, and then we're also gonna see God extend mercy and grace to him and bless David as a result of that.
10:19
SPEAKER_02: And I think what we're gonna find at the end of the morning is that you and I are a lot like David than we may realize as we read this Psalm.
10:27
SPEAKER_02: Now, some of you throughout this message are gonna go, I do not agree with that one bit.
10:31
SPEAKER_02: Well, I hate to tell you this, but you're probably the people that need to listen to this even more intently than the rest.
10:37
SPEAKER_02: And uh and I put myself in this category as I think about my own struggle with self-confidence.
10:42
SPEAKER_02: So I am not immune to this.
10:43
SPEAKER_02: I recognize how God continues to speak to me through this, and my prayer is that he will open your hearts and fill it with his word and uh lead you to a deeper understanding of him and who you are and who you need to be in light of who he is.
10:55
SPEAKER_02: And so an outline of Psalm 30 really goes like this: three parts.
11:00
SPEAKER_02: The first is that David is rescued from his distress, and the second part, David relents amidst his distress, and then finally David rejoices after his distress.
11:11
SPEAKER_02: But I want to give some, I guess, background to this from the book of uh 1 Chronicles.
11:17
SPEAKER_02: 1 Chronicles chapter 21.
11:19
SPEAKER_02: Now, this is not meant to be uh a root 66 message, it just so happens that next week Jim is gonna be preaching on 1 Chronicles, so maybe this is sort of an appetizer or I'm not sure how good it's gonna taste, but a lead-in or maybe a little teaser for the book of 1 Chronicles.
11:34
SPEAKER_02: But I'm just gonna explain to you what happens in this chapter, 1 Chronicles 21.
11:39
SPEAKER_02: David is in the twilight years of his career as king of this nation called Israel.
11:44
SPEAKER_02: We can set ourselves at about 960 BC or so.
11:48
SPEAKER_02: David has defeated his enemies, the terror threat level is green, things are easy, he's already been on the run years ago from Saul, and then towards uh at portions of his monarchy from his own son Absalom.
12:02
SPEAKER_02: But those times are in the past, and David has got it made in the shade.
12:06
SPEAKER_02: And he decides that he's gonna take a little glimpse around the kingdom and feel pretty proud in his accomplishments.
12:12
SPEAKER_02: And so he says to some of his commanders of the army, I want you to take a census of all the men in our fighting army, because I want to know how good we really are.
12:25
SPEAKER_02: And even Joab, one of his closest advisors, says, uh, King, I don't think that's a good idea.
12:30
SPEAKER_02: You know, this is really God's army.
12:31
SPEAKER_02: And you know, David says, Nope, I want to take him.
12:34
SPEAKER_02: And so they go out and they take the census and they find 1.57 million fighting men, which David takes a little confidence in.
12:43
SPEAKER_02: And it delights him to hear that number is so large, to see what he has done.
12:47
SPEAKER_02: Well, no surprise, we find that God is displeased with David's self-confidence and his tendency towards himself rather than looking to God as the provider.
12:57
SPEAKER_02: And he says, This is not pleasing to me.
12:59
SPEAKER_02: And David realizes his foolishness, and he says, Oh, please forgive me.
13:03
SPEAKER_02: Your servant has made a mistake.
13:04
SPEAKER_02: I realize it's about you, not me.
13:06
SPEAKER_02: And a messenger, kind of like a spiritual advisor, has a word from God.
13:10
SPEAKER_02: His name is Gad.
13:12
SPEAKER_02: And Gad comes to David and says, Hey, listen, God's been displeased, you know that, and here's the consequence.
13:18
SPEAKER_02: You have three options.
13:20
SPEAKER_02: Behind door number one, you're gonna have three years of famine across the land.
13:26
SPEAKER_02: Door number two, three months of being attacked by your enemies.
13:30
SPEAKER_02: And finally, door number three, three days of oppression and affliction from God Himself afflicting the people.
13:39
SPEAKER_02: And David kind of wrestles with this, and I guess maybe he looked at the times.
13:43
SPEAKER_02: Three days versus three months versus three years, and he said, Okay, I'd rather fall into the hand of God because he's merciful than the hand of other men.
13:51
SPEAKER_02: And it's a big mistake, David, because what happens is that God sends an angel of plague and death, and this angel wipes out within a short span of time 70,000 men of David's.
14:04
SPEAKER_02: I could almost guarantee you that 70,000 men would not have died at the hands of their enemies or even with famine over three years.
14:11
SPEAKER_02: And so uh we get to this point in the story where uh David continues to realize what he's done, and amazingly, God presses time out on the judgment and on the consequence.
14:23
SPEAKER_02: And the angel waits, sort of around the city of Jerusalem, waiting to attack at God's command.
14:29
SPEAKER_02: And it's at that point that David uh approaches this area right outside the city called uh the threshing floor of Ornan.
14:37
SPEAKER_02: And that's uh that's the name of a guy, he was a Jebuzite, and he was a citizen before the Israelites came in, who had simply owned this land on this mountaintop, a mountain named Mount Moriah.
14:47
SPEAKER_02: And he had a place where he threshed weed up there.
14:50
SPEAKER_02: And so the angel rests up there, and David goes up and he says to this man, Ornan, I will pay you 600 shekels, which is essentially$600,000 for this mountaintop land.
15:01
SPEAKER_02: Please, I need to build an altar to God in order to show him and express to him that I realize what I've done is wrong.
15:08
SPEAKER_02: And so the business deal is done, and even Ornan says, I'll give it to you at a discount.
15:12
SPEAKER_02: David says, No, I'm gonna pay full price.
15:14
SPEAKER_02: So he pays the money, he builds an altar, and uh at this point God takes a step back and he says to the angel, put your sword back in your sheath.
15:23
SPEAKER_02: Judgment is done.
15:25
SPEAKER_02: You can go.
15:27
SPEAKER_02: David, realizing what God has spared him and his nation from, breathes a huge sigh of relief and then says, On this site will be the temple dedicated to God.
15:40
SPEAKER_02: And that is the very site that Mount Moriah, that threshing floor, where the temple that his son Solomon would build, gets built.
15:48
SPEAKER_02: And so David decides to have a dedication ceremony to the start of the building of this temple.
15:53
SPEAKER_02: And that's where we find ourselves at the beginning of Psalm chapter 30.
15:59
SPEAKER_02: And as we walk through this text, I want you to again observe some things that talk about self-confidence and our need to turn from that into confidence into the Lord.
16:09
SPEAKER_02: And this is really uh the beginning of the Psalm is our first section.
16:14
SPEAKER_02: And it is David is rescued from his distress.
16:17
SPEAKER_02: And we can think about David for his readers in the present time speaking and writing these words.
16:23
SPEAKER_02: And we jump right in.
16:24
SPEAKER_02: At the very beginning of the Psalm, it doesn't say number one, verse one in your Bibles, but that very that that superscript or that area right above verse one is actually verse one in the Hebrew Bible, so we should understand that it's important to include these details.
16:39
SPEAKER_02: And it says, a psalm of David, a song at the dedication of the temple.
16:44
SPEAKER_02: This is following this great deliverance and mercy by by God to tell the angel of the plague and death to leave.
16:50
SPEAKER_02: And David says, This is the site of the temple.
16:54
SPEAKER_02: And he dedicates the temple with this psalm.
16:57
SPEAKER_02: Uh some people believe, according to some ancient Jewish writings, that the uh the celebration of Hanukkah, which is the Jewish, great Jewish celebration, a holiday that remembers God's deliverance from the hands of the enemies during an area called the Maccabean Revolt, that this same psalm was read when the temple was rededicated in 165 BC, following that great trial of the nation of Israel.
17:22
SPEAKER_02: And David uh goes into and describes uh how he rejoices in these words.
17:28
SPEAKER_02: He says, I will extol you, O Lord.
17:31
SPEAKER_02: I will extol you, Yahweh, the word that is used, the special name of covenant God of Israel.
17:38
SPEAKER_02: It's a term that's used nine times, a name that's used of God nine separate times here in 12 verses.
17:44
SPEAKER_02: So this should show you really where our focus and our confidence needs to come from from the start.
17:50
SPEAKER_02: I will extol you, O Lord.
17:52
SPEAKER_02: Why?
17:52
SPEAKER_02: For you have drawn me up.
17:54
SPEAKER_02: Think about being in a cistern and being drawn up.
17:59
SPEAKER_02: You have drawn me up and have not let my foes rejoice over me.
18:02
SPEAKER_02: In other words, my foes will not rejoice at my death.
18:06
SPEAKER_02: O Lord, my God, I cried to you for help, and you have healed me.
18:10
SPEAKER_02: O Lord, you have brought up my soul from Sheol.
18:13
SPEAKER_02: You have restored me to life from among those who go down to the pit.
18:19
SPEAKER_02: And so this makes sense to us as we think about the historical context that 70,000 men had already died.
18:25
SPEAKER_02: David was looking essentially up in the face of this angel that was glorious and ready to wipe out more of the city, and yet God pulls the angel back, and David realizes that his life and the lives of many more of his citizens are spared.
18:38
SPEAKER_02: And so he says, Oh, God, I I extole you.
18:42
SPEAKER_02: I was literally in the cistern, the pit.
18:45
SPEAKER_02: A cistern was used back then, kind of like a well.
18:48
SPEAKER_02: It was essentially a carved-out area of the ground that went underneath, and it would be filled with rainwater, and it would be used as a water source.
18:55
SPEAKER_02: And so sometimes a cistern reached the end of its life, and people would close them up and use them as prisons, and so they would put prisoners down in the cisterns, and the only way out is if someone put a rope down or a bucket and drew you out.
19:08
SPEAKER_02: And David says, I was basically at the point of death.
19:12
SPEAKER_02: I was basically in the ground, in the grave, in this place called Sheol, which is an Old Testament term that refers to the ground, the grave.
19:21
SPEAKER_02: Some believed it to be an underworld where people lived in a kind of conscious half-life where they couldn't experience a relationship with God, but they they looked forward to a day when they could.
19:32
SPEAKER_02: And so David says, I essentially was at the point of death, certain death, and you saved me.
19:38
SPEAKER_02: You drew me up.
19:41
SPEAKER_02: As a result of God's deliverance and his redemption, David leads his people in a song of praise.
19:48
SPEAKER_02: In verse 4, sing praises to the Lord, O you his saints, those who are part of the community of the redeemed, the covenant community of God.
19:58
SPEAKER_02: Uh, and give thanks to his holy name, praise and thanks to his holy name.
20:04
SPEAKER_02: For his anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime.
20:09
SPEAKER_02: Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.
20:13
SPEAKER_02: And this is a significant commentary about God and his nature.
20:18
SPEAKER_02: He says here in verse 5, his anger is but for a moment.
20:21
SPEAKER_02: And though, and the idea and the word there relates to the word to wink.
20:25
SPEAKER_02: Can you guys just wink, wink at me?
20:27
SPEAKER_02: Okay, I know I know what you mean.
20:29
SPEAKER_02: All right, and I'm just, it's okay.
20:30
SPEAKER_02: I used to have a friend named Tim, and I would accidentally wink because I have kind of a droopy eyelid.
20:35
SPEAKER_02: And you can go back to all of my pictures from like preschool all the way through my senior of high school, and I'm smiling, it's the same droopy eyelid on my right hand side.
20:42
SPEAKER_02: And I used to accidentally wink at my friend Tim and it would freak him out.
20:45
SPEAKER_02: Hey, what are you doing?
20:46
SPEAKER_02: I didn't mean it.
20:46
SPEAKER_02: So now when I say wink, you know that you know what I mean here.
20:49
SPEAKER_02: It's just a very split millisecond, a wink.
20:52
SPEAKER_02: That's God's anger.
20:55
SPEAKER_02: But yet it says very clearly, his favor, his good gracious favor is for a lifetime.
21:00
SPEAKER_02: The word there in the Hebrew is literally plural, meaning uh for lives, meaning on and on and on and on.
21:08
SPEAKER_02: Weeping may tarry for the night.
21:09
SPEAKER_02: The word here refers to a lodging, uh, like someone spending the night at an inn or a hotel.
21:16
SPEAKER_02: It says he's lodging there for the night.
21:18
SPEAKER_02: Weeping is, but in the morning, weeping is gone.
21:21
SPEAKER_02: And we have joy and rejoicing.
21:23
SPEAKER_02: That's the amazing nature of the grace and mercy of God that David experienced in spite of his sin of self-confidence.
21:33
SPEAKER_02: So we move from that, David being saved from his distress and rescued, to the second portion of the Psalm, which talks about David relenting amidst his distress.
21:44
SPEAKER_02: And this explains to us why he experienced the distress in the first place.
21:49
SPEAKER_02: Verse 6.
21:49
SPEAKER_02: And this is the crux of it all, okay, folks?
21:52
SPEAKER_02: As for me, I said in my prosperity.
21:57
SPEAKER_02: You could also translate that my ease, my comfort.
22:00
SPEAKER_02: Comfort.
22:01
SPEAKER_02: David had become a little proud in what he saw when he looked around his nation.
22:06
SPEAKER_02: Maybe the same is true for me and for you when we look around our nation, our family, our church, our business.
22:15
SPEAKER_02: I don't know what it is, but for David, he had become proud in what he saw when he looked around.
22:21
SPEAKER_02: And he said these words, I shall never be moved.
22:27
SPEAKER_02: Human strength, what I see as the result of my work, I am now secure for the rest of my life.
22:34
SPEAKER_02: The word never there literally is translated unto eternity.
22:38
SPEAKER_02: So what he's saying is, I will not be shaken unto eternity.
22:41
SPEAKER_02: I will not be shaken forever.
22:45
SPEAKER_02: And what we find in this is the problem.
22:49
SPEAKER_02: This is where David fell short.
22:52
SPEAKER_02: Peter Crage, who is an Old Testament commentator, writes these words.
22:57
SPEAKER_02: He says, Of David, in his health and prosperity, he had come to a position of self-confidence, thinking that what he had was a consequence of his own achievement.
23:07
SPEAKER_02: This is sounding a lot like me, maybe like you.
23:10
SPEAKER_02: In the context of the Hebrew covenant, self-confidence could be one of the most fundamental sins, for it assumed that health and prosperity were a consequence of human achievement rather than the gift of the God of the covenant.
23:22
SPEAKER_02: This was a problem, David.
23:24
SPEAKER_02: It was a problem for him.
23:26
SPEAKER_02: It's a problem for us.
23:28
SPEAKER_02: And he realized that.
23:30
SPEAKER_02: And he confesses here in verse 7 By your favor, O Lord, by your good grace, you made my mountain stand strong.
23:37
SPEAKER_02: He finally understood that.
23:38
SPEAKER_02: It wasn't him, David, it was him, Yahweh.
23:42
SPEAKER_02: And here's what God did in order to get David's attention.
23:45
SPEAKER_02: And this is terrifying, by the way, guys.
23:47
SPEAKER_02: He says, You hid your face.
23:49
SPEAKER_02: I was dismayed.
23:51
SPEAKER_02: I was terrified.
23:52
SPEAKER_02: What David is saying is probably one of the most frightening things that any Christian could ever experience, which is the turning of God's face from his people even for a moment, just so that they will recognize and be humbled and brought to a deeper place of dependence upon him.
24:09
SPEAKER_02: God said to David, You think this is the result of your own efforts?
24:12
SPEAKER_02: Let me remove myself, my presence for just a moment, so that your fellowship with me is discontinued.
24:18
SPEAKER_02: For just a moment, so you'll really feel what it's like, David.
24:22
SPEAKER_02: And I'll tell you, as a Christian, that is one of the most frightening things that I can imagine.
24:26
SPEAKER_02: Is God for even just a moment removing himself and his presence from me so that I recognize just how deeply dependent I am on him.
24:36
SPEAKER_02: David realized it finally.
24:38
SPEAKER_02: And this is likely the prayer that he prayed in that moment when God turned his face from him.
24:45
SPEAKER_02: He said, To you, O Lord, I cry, and to the Lord I plead for mercy.
24:51
SPEAKER_02: He pled for mercy because he essentially felt that the resource of his life and his sustenance drawing away.
24:58
SPEAKER_02: There is a 17th-century Puritan preacher named Thomas Brooks, and he writes these words.
25:03
SPEAKER_02: He said, David was like a withered flower that had lost all its sap, life, and vigor.
25:10
SPEAKER_02: As in an eclipse of the sun, you can imagine the sun being blocked out.
25:14
SPEAKER_02: There is a drooping in the whole frame of nature.
25:17
SPEAKER_02: So when God hides his face, gracious souls cannot but droop and languish and bow themselves before him.
25:25
SPEAKER_02: And that is what David did.
25:27
SPEAKER_02: Maybe you've had moments in your life where God has, for a moment of discipline, removed himself from you so that you will understand your deep need for him each and every moment of your life.
25:41
SPEAKER_02: David continues in his prayer.
25:56
SPEAKER_02: And if I go down there, you won't receive praise.
25:58
SPEAKER_02: But I understand what I've done wrong, and I turn to you and I appeal to your mercy and forgiveness.
26:04
SPEAKER_02: Hear, O Lord, verse 10 says, And be merciful to me, O Lord, be my helper.
26:10
SPEAKER_02: This is common language for David.
26:12
SPEAKER_02: He had hit the crisis.
26:14
SPEAKER_02: And for him, it was this angel of death essentially looking over his nation, his city, to take it out.
26:20
SPEAKER_02: David said, I know that I am a sinful man.
26:23
SPEAKER_02: Please God.
26:26
SPEAKER_02: Maybe for you there have been times in your life where you have been at your rope's end and you have realized that you have been running the race of life on your own resources for far too long, depending on your own smarts and your own wits and your own intelligence and your own strength for far too long.
26:43
SPEAKER_02: And God has brought you to a point.
26:45
SPEAKER_02: Maybe you're here this morning and you're at that point.
26:48
SPEAKER_02: Whether it's family-wise, career-wise, health-wise.
26:54
SPEAKER_02: And God just says, Hey, you cannot do this without me.
26:58
SPEAKER_02: The amazing thing, and this is where the encouragement comes, is the final portion of this psalm.
27:04
SPEAKER_02: And this is David rejoicing after his distress.
27:08
SPEAKER_02: Because we know and we understand that David was restored and that God did extend to him grace and mercy.
27:14
SPEAKER_02: And David writes these words You have turned for me my mourning into dancing.
27:18
SPEAKER_02: You have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness.
27:23
SPEAKER_02: This is a significant, this is a changing of a changing of apparel.
27:27
SPEAKER_02: David said, I was wearing the garments of grief, the garments of sickness, the garments of imminent death.
27:34
SPEAKER_02: And now you have put something new on me, something in which is the garment of rejoicing.
27:39
SPEAKER_02: It's like taking a prison garment and exchanging it for a wedding dress or for a graduation gown, instantaneous transformation as we experience the grace of God and his renewal and his redemption.
27:53
SPEAKER_02: The great British preacher Charles Spurgeon, who pastored and preached at the London Tabernacle for many years, writes these words about when we experience the great redemption and the great renewal and restoration that God gives to us when we turn to him, when we humble ourselves before him, and when he lifts us up.
28:14
SPEAKER_02: And maybe again you're at that point this morning.
28:16
SPEAKER_02: He says, uh, he clothes us, and how?
28:19
SPEAKER_02: With some common dress, nay, that's the old British way for saying no.
28:24
SPEAKER_02: Um, but with that royal vestment, which is the array of glorified spirits in heaven.
28:30
SPEAKER_02: This is better than to wear garments of silk of claw of cloth or uh cloth of gold, be dight with embroidery and be spangled with gems.
28:39
SPEAKER_02: And because I'm like 21st century American guy, simple intelligence, I had to look those words up.
28:44
SPEAKER_02: Be dite and be spangled.
28:46
SPEAKER_02: You know, what does that mean?
28:47
SPEAKER_02: And essentially it means to be embroidered or decorated with these wonderful jewels.
28:53
SPEAKER_02: This is a great glorious gown and dress that we can now wear when we've been restored and redeemed.
28:59
SPEAKER_02: Have you ever experienced that from God in your experience, in your spiritual life, in your physical life?
29:05
SPEAKER_02: There's nothing quite like it.
29:07
SPEAKER_02: David concludes with verse 12.
29:10
SPEAKER_02: He says, You have turned my morning and dancing, that verse 12, my glory may sing your praise and not be silent.
29:18
SPEAKER_02: O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever.
29:22
SPEAKER_02: Praise and thanks, just like verse 4 mentions praise and thanks.
29:26
SPEAKER_02: This is included in all of what David wants to say.
29:28
SPEAKER_02: This is the only proper response that he has and that you and I can have when God brings us from the place of despair, the place of death, into a place of renewal and life.
29:41
SPEAKER_02: What's fascinating to me is you remember what David said back in verse 6?
29:47
SPEAKER_02: I shall never be moved.
29:49
SPEAKER_02: That Hebrew term there, never, which means unto eternity.
29:53
SPEAKER_02: He concludes with the same Hebrew term here in verse 12, except the focus is no longer on David.
30:00
SPEAKER_02: The focus and the confidence is now in Yahweh, as he says, I will give thanks to you forever unto eternity.
30:07
SPEAKER_02: Same term.
30:07
SPEAKER_02: So you see the shift as David has moved.
30:11
SPEAKER_02: Well, as we kind of think about wrapping this up, what are the ways that we uh you know we apply this to our lives?
30:18
SPEAKER_02: And there are there are several.
30:19
SPEAKER_02: I'm just gonna mention three, and then we'll be on our way.
30:23
SPEAKER_02: And the first is especially you know, for those of us who have trusted Christ as our Savior, we need to keep this in mind.
30:28
SPEAKER_02: And this is the first portion of application.
30:30
SPEAKER_02: That is that we must remember that we have also been rescued.
30:35
SPEAKER_02: We have also been rescued.
30:37
SPEAKER_02: Do you realize that?
30:38
SPEAKER_02: Do you realize, men and women?
30:40
SPEAKER_02: Boys and girls, that if you've trusted Christ, you have also been at a point not just close to death, but as Scripture tells us, actually spiritually dead.
30:50
SPEAKER_02: Ephesians 2.
30:52
SPEAKER_02: Verses 1 and 2 and 4 and 5 mention this.
30:55
SPEAKER_02: As Paul writes to the Ephesians, and you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked.
31:03
SPEAKER_02: And here's the amazing thing.
31:04
SPEAKER_02: But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he has loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, he has made us alive together with Christ.
31:14
SPEAKER_02: By grace you have been saved.
31:16
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
31:17
SPEAKER_02: That is the good news of the gospel.
31:19
SPEAKER_02: Just like David was at the point of death, we were even worse off because we were actually dead, the scriptures tell us.
31:25
SPEAKER_02: And God reached down and he drew us up out of that cistern, out of that grave, and he breathed new life into our lungs spiritually.
31:34
SPEAKER_02: Because last time I checked, a dead man can't do that to himself.
31:38
SPEAKER_02: And that's the amazing message of the gospel is that Jesus Christ was the one who died in our place because we had offended the Holy God.
31:47
SPEAKER_02: We had said to him in our self-confidence, I don't need you.
31:51
SPEAKER_02: I've got this.
31:52
SPEAKER_02: And yet Jesus on the cross took care of our problem of sin, paid our debt.
31:58
SPEAKER_02: And amazingly, he was not left dead because he was raised to new life on the third day at the resurrection, which is Easter, which is the reason why we have hope.
32:08
SPEAKER_02: I just want you to know that when it comes to self-confidence and the gospel, self-confidence and the gospel do not mix.
32:18
SPEAKER_02: In no way, shape, or form, okay?
32:21
SPEAKER_02: Self-confidence and the gospel do not speak the same language.
32:24
SPEAKER_02: They miss each other because they are not on the same page.
32:27
SPEAKER_02: Self-confidence says it's all about me.
32:30
SPEAKER_02: The gospel says no, it's all about Christ and Christ's confidence.
32:34
SPEAKER_02: And that's where God wants us to move, to recognize that it is all about Him, it's not about us.
32:40
SPEAKER_02: Well, the second application is this so we must relent from our sin of self-confidence.
32:46
SPEAKER_02: And some of you have to understand that in order to relent or turn from a sin, you have to recognize that it's there in the first place.
32:52
SPEAKER_02: And this is hard for us as Americans.
32:54
SPEAKER_02: I really believe.
32:56
SPEAKER_02: It's hard for us because we grow up in a culture that we're told, you know, from the time we're young, you can do anything you want.
33:01
SPEAKER_02: And you know, I believe that, but I believe that that statement, as we encourage your children to accomplish their goals and their dreams, I believe that that needs to be clothed in the outer garment of humility to recognize that, hey, by the way, you can do whatever you desire, but make sure you understand that that ability even to do that comes from God Himself.
33:25
SPEAKER_02: We oftentimes look to our own resources, our own accomplishments, our own smarts, and we fail to realize that God is the provider and the sustainer for all of that stuff.
33:34
SPEAKER_02: That's why the self-confidence is foolish and it's fruitless.
33:38
SPEAKER_02: But it's so easy to fall into.
33:39
SPEAKER_02: And I will tell you, even in ministry, it's very easy to fall into this sin of self-confidence.
33:45
SPEAKER_02: Some of you understand.
33:48
SPEAKER_02: We have to see that our success and our sufficiency all comes from Christ.
33:53
SPEAKER_02: And it all starts with him, and it's all finished by him.
33:56
SPEAKER_02: We're just along for the ride.
33:58
SPEAKER_02: We're just vessels to be used for him.
34:00
SPEAKER_02: Philippians 2, 12 and 13.
34:03
SPEAKER_02: Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence, but much more in my absence.
34:10
SPEAKER_02: Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
34:13
SPEAKER_02: Okay, I get that.
34:14
SPEAKER_02: There's hard work involved.
34:15
SPEAKER_02: But recognize verse 13 says, It is God who works in you, both to will and to work his good pleasure.
34:22
SPEAKER_02: It's about him.
34:22
SPEAKER_02: It all starts with him.
34:24
SPEAKER_02: Similarly, 1 Corinthians 15, 10.
34:27
SPEAKER_02: But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain.
34:32
SPEAKER_02: On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them.
34:36
SPEAKER_02: There's hard work, that's good.
34:38
SPEAKER_02: But it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.
34:42
SPEAKER_02: Paul realizes I work hard, but it's all about God, confidence in Christ.
34:47
SPEAKER_02: 2 Corinthians 3 5.
34:48
SPEAKER_02: Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything is coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God.
34:56
SPEAKER_02: How utterly un-American, right?
35:00
SPEAKER_02: Is our sufficiency from God?
35:02
SPEAKER_02: You know, we love to talk about Christian values in our country, but yet humility, putting self-confidence aside, that is one that's very difficult for us as Americans, isn't it?
35:13
SPEAKER_02: Because we're proud, we're self-made people.
35:16
SPEAKER_02: And God says, hey, in a moment, I'd be taken away from you.
35:22
SPEAKER_02: You know, my daughter came to me last night as I was looking over my notes, and she said, Um, what are you preaching on?
35:28
SPEAKER_02: I said, Well, I'm preaching on how we're not supposed to be self-confident, which who says that to their kid?
35:36
SPEAKER_02: And she got this puzzled look on her face.
35:39
SPEAKER_02: Well, so what does that mean?
35:41
SPEAKER_02: We're not supposed to be confident.
35:42
SPEAKER_02: I said, Okay, here's the deal.
35:44
SPEAKER_02: You know, we're supposed to be confident in who God is and who he's made us to be.
35:48
SPEAKER_02: And a lot of times we just think that we're great, but we need to see he's great.
35:51
SPEAKER_02: And so she summarized it well, and I wrote it down.
35:54
SPEAKER_02: She said, Okay, so we shouldn't have confidence in ourselves alone, but we should have confidence in Jesus.
35:59
SPEAKER_02: And I said, Yes, that's right, because it all starts with him and it's all about him.
36:04
SPEAKER_02: But too many times we think that it all depends on us.
36:07
SPEAKER_02: Now you may be saying, Well, sure, in the spiritual life, I understand it's all about Jesus, but the everyday life, we we got that.
36:13
SPEAKER_02: That's where we take control.
36:14
SPEAKER_02: And I'll say, no.
36:17
SPEAKER_02: Everyday life matters, our spiritual matters, because our spiritual life permeates every aspect of our everyday life.
36:25
SPEAKER_02: Okay?
36:26
SPEAKER_02: I mean, for David wasn't counting his military strength, that was an everyday matter, that was a worldly thing, but God was displeased with his approach.
36:33
SPEAKER_02: God wants his people to have this perspective.
36:36
SPEAKER_02: Jeremiah 9, 23 and 24.
36:39
SPEAKER_02: Thus says the Lord, let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth.
36:54
SPEAKER_02: For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.
36:57
SPEAKER_02: Folks, we cannot be the people that we are meant to be.
37:00
SPEAKER_02: We cannot live the life we are meant to life, if uh live meant to live if we think that it all depends on us.
37:07
SPEAKER_02: Our boasting and our source of confidence needs to come from God alone and God first.
37:13
SPEAKER_02: Charles Spurgeon uh summarizes it well as he looks at David's life.
37:17
SPEAKER_02: And I don't know about you, you didn't you don't count your military strength maybe, but maybe you count the dollars in your bank account, or the people at church, or the people in your business, or the people that you know, or the salary that you make, or the pride that you take in anything.
37:33
SPEAKER_02: The prosperity you experience.
37:34
SPEAKER_02: Well, Charles Spurgeon writes this prosperity had evidently turned the psalmist's head, or he would not have been so self-confident.
37:41
SPEAKER_02: He stood by grace and yet forgot himself and so met with a fall.
37:46
SPEAKER_02: Reader, is there not much more of the same proud stuff in all our hearts?
37:52
SPEAKER_02: Let us beware lest the fumes of intoxicating success get into our brains and make fools of us also.
38:01
SPEAKER_02: I'm so glad we have words like that.
38:03
SPEAKER_02: They don't get written nowadays.
38:06
SPEAKER_02: We need to make sure, like David, that we understand our self-sufficiency has no place in our lives.
38:13
SPEAKER_02: It's all starting with God and it's all sustained by God.
38:16
SPEAKER_02: So finally, as we conclude, the really final point of application is that we must respond to God's forgiveness with praise and thanks to Him.
38:23
SPEAKER_02: And this is the good news because when we humble ourselves before God and we say, God, I I get it now, I have I'm so proud, I'm so self-sufficient, it all comes from you.
38:33
SPEAKER_02: By the way, did you know that the Bible even says it's God's will that we would even live to see today and breathe breath in our lungs?
38:39
SPEAKER_02: And we realize, God, forgive me.
38:42
SPEAKER_02: The scriptures are so abundant with verses like Psalm 103, 8 and 9 that says, The Lord is merciful and gracious and slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
38:51
SPEAKER_02: He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever.
38:56
SPEAKER_02: Man, that is good news.
38:57
SPEAKER_02: We have a gracious God who responds to us with mercy and forgiveness.
39:01
SPEAKER_02: And it's appropriate, like David did, that we respond to that with rejoicing and praise and thanks.
39:07
SPEAKER_02: That's why we gather, right?
39:09
SPEAKER_02: And maybe the more that we think about it, our worship and our praise will be fueled by this understanding that indeed we are weak, that we are sinful, and that our self-sufficiency is a bad foundation upon which to build our lives.
39:24
SPEAKER_02: It's all about Christ and sufficiency and confidence in Him.
39:29
SPEAKER_02: Really, uh what I'm gonna do is I'm just gonna close and then uh Jeremiah and Amanda will come out and sing a closing song, Enough that we sang before the message.
39:38
SPEAKER_02: And all of you is more than enough for all of me.
39:41
SPEAKER_02: And uh so let's pray now and ask God to continue to humble our hearts as we seek him.
39:47
SPEAKER_02: Thanks so much, Father, that you are gracious and God forgive us.
39:51
SPEAKER_02: Some folks are out there this morning thinking, you know, this doesn't apply to me.
39:54
SPEAKER_02: God, I've been at that point at certain parts of my life, and we know that in the end you just want us to have total confidence in you.
40:02
SPEAKER_02: And that is hard because we are a proud people.
40:05
SPEAKER_02: But yet we ask and implore that you will continue to humble our hearts, give us hearts that rejoice when we experience your grace and forgiveness.
40:13
SPEAKER_02: Let us understand that you have brought us from the pit, being dead in our sins, and that should be the foundation of the gospel for our lives.
40:19
SPEAKER_02: And we pray these things in Christ's name.
40:21
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
40:43
SPEAKER_01: Oh my god.