Sermon Title: “Being Confident during my Crisis”(Click Here to watch full sermon)
Pastor Dennis Martin
Scripture Reading: Psalm 17:1-9 NKJV
Many times we go through crises in life. David is a prime example of these things. This Psalm fits everywhere in David’s life. He was wrongly accused and looking for justice from the Lord. The person that David would always go to was the Lord. David says, “Hear a just cause”. David doesn’t believe he’s bringing anything small to God. He believes this is worthy of God’s ear. One of the psalms says we are blessed because we have God’s ear. We have to have the confidence to believe that we can bring our problems to God. Everything God does, He cares about us. A man wanted a vineyard and sowed a couple of seeds according to a parable the Bible tells us (Matthew 13:24-30). Tares look like wheat but they are not – they are deceptive. When the reapers came and saw that there were weeds in the garden they said “Should we pull the weeds out?’ The Owner of the vineyard who represents God said “No, no no, don’t pull out the weeds because if you do so, you’ll pull out the wheat too”. God always has us in mind.
David didn’t bring “pretty prayers” to God. The pretty and cute thing about Christianity will only get you so far. What if the case is that you just haven’t prayed hard enough? There were times when there were demonic things happening in scripture and Jesus told His disciples that regular prayer wouldn’t succeed but it had to be by prayer and fasting (Matthew 17:21). David made it clear he wasn’t being cute about it “Attend unto my cry”. God hears our cries. Parents reach out to their crying child. Sometimes if you cry enough it will move God. Sometimes it happens in saying, “In Jesus name”. But there are some things that will only happen by prayer and fasting. The name of Jesus is a powerful name but the Word of God will always reign supreme. Many things will pass away but God’s Word will remain. When you’re going through your crisis, you can’t be cute about it, you have to cry out to God. David said “Hear a just cause”. He cried out to God.
David also called out his lifestyle. How many people understand today that how you walk is so important in regards to how God will move and how much God will hear? If we don’t regard the iniquity in our heart, God will not hear us (Psalm 66:18). David said, “God You can hear my prayer which is not from deceitful lips”. Search me, and know my heart; try me and know my thoughts; and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting (Psalm 139:23-24). God knows there are wicked ways in us but David was confident that God would hear his prayer because his lips were not deceitful. David always chose the high road. We ought to too as children of God. When the world is going through their problems, they know how to work their system. We as people of God need to do so as well. As long as we are not deceitful, God will bless. Let’s not be people that have “Jacob’s voice” but “Esau’s hand” – trying to deceive. When David could have killed Saul, he took the high road and chose not to. When we choose the high road, God will hear our prayer. This is why when Hezekiah was on his deathbed, he knew he could go to God. He brought his lifestyle to God and God honoured him. We have to have the confidence to believe that God will hear our prayer. There are some things that are worth shedding a tear for. Not for anxiety, wondering if God will hear you. You need to believe God hears you. You have to believe that your mouth is not deceitful. You have to have confidence in your crisis.
David required God to be his vindicator. He wanted no one else, including himself to get him out of the crisis or to be his defender. Sometimes people can do some harmful things to us. Sometimes they are the origin of the problem. Going for an eye for an eye will leave everyone blind. Stand still and see the salvation in your life (Exodus 14:13). David was going through a crisis though it isn’t clear what it was in this text – David had confidence in the Word of God – not really in himself. His hope and trust and confidence was in God. Verse 3-4, “You have tested my heart, You have visited me in the night, You have tried me and found nothing, I have purposed that my heart shall not transgress concerning the works of men, by the Word of Your lips You have kept me from the paths of the destroyer.”
Ask yourself:
- Do you allow God to test your heart?
- Can you be corrected?
- Will you listen to others when they tell you that you might be wrong?
What happens when you are the origin of a problem? Natural proclivities to sin? Sometimes things happen in life because of what we’ve done. When we are trying to get out of crises, we don’t want to hear from people. But David said, “You have tested my heart”. When was the last time you’ve measured your heart according to the Word of God? We need the confidence to know that God tested our hearts, tried us and found nothing. It is through the Word of God that gives us direction and it is the grace of God that keeps us where we need to be going. It’s not that God found nothing wrong with David and even with us but it is because of the grace of God why we aren’t consumed or deceived. God will allow us to go through crises to show us how strong He is, to show us He is the God over the grave and calamity.
“I conditioned my mouth so that I would not transgress concerning the works of men”. It is the Word of God that keeps our mouths and keeps us from behaving like certain people that we don’t aspire to be like. David was on the run having to protect himself and family from Saul while trying not to BE like Saul. If not for the Word of God, who knows who David would be like. If it wasn’t for the Word of God, who knows what we’d do or where our mind would be in the midst of crisis and trouble. The Word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path (Psalm 119:105). We need to embrace the Word of God amid our crisis. In verse 5 of Psalm 17 it says that, “[God] upholds our steps in His paths that our footsteps might not slip. While we are going through a crisis, sometimes we think our lives are messed up and that God doesn’t have a plan for us. David is trying to say the path is good, the problem is the conditioning of his feet. The issue with our lives is that sometimes our steps, how we move makes us slip. The path that God has laid out for us is a good path, not always comfortable, not always happy, not always smooth but good. The issue is sometimes us, not the journey. The best cause we could bring to God is for Him to fix us. In a crisis, we need God to fix us, to keep us under His umbrella. We need to have that confidence in God, the path that we are on is for His name’s sake. Therefore, He wouldn’t want us to fail. We need God to bear us up so that the good path we are on we won’t abort it with our natural proclivities. The path we are on is a great path, the journey is great but sometimes the crisis makes us slip. We have to be confident that God hears us. We have to be confident that the lips we use are pure.
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight (Psalm 19:14). Despite the discomfort, the journey God allows us to go on is a great journey, the problem is that we have a tendency to make mistakes. The worst crisis we can be in is where the enemy wants to take us. Jesus overcame the world and death. We need to overcome the crisis of the enemy trying to take our lives. The greatest crisis we are in right now is that the devil is trying to rob us of everything God desires us to possess. Any situation we are going through, we ought to bring it to God. “Hear this just cause, attend unto my cry”. There are some issues we can’t be cute about.
David said, “Keep me as the apple of your eye”. Do you know how protected God made your body so that your eye stays protected? David is saying, “Keep me protected within this crisis.” God’s allowance of a crisis will forge the believer. His fire will forge them into who He intended us to be. God wants to give us more than loving kindness, the Bible talks about marvellous loving kindness by His right hand (Psalm 17:7). God wants to give us marvellous loving kindness and He wants to keep us as the apple of His eye. Trust that He is assessing us day by day. God is building us, sometimes He will use crises to build us. Trust the hand of the Potter, understand that we are still the apple of His eye. That is the most protected part of our body. As much as we protect our eyes, God will protect us. We don’t even know we have enemies around us. If we have confidence in our crisis, God will move on our behalf. Sometimes we slip and we need God to protect us. When other people are in our ear telling us to kill Saul, God’s Word keeps us and sustains us.
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