You Can Be Confident in Christ

Introduction

This week was a long week but it was also a great one as we had our annual SBC meeting in Dallas, Texas. We prayed. We praised Jesus. We heard the Word preached. We voted. We debated. It was a great week as we commissioned 58 missionaries, heard encouraging reports from seminaries and mission organizations. Imagine over 18,000 people - nearly 11,000 messengers there to vote - gathered for a business meeting. You have a lot of different types of people. There are always some moments that are a little on edge because of conflict. Some of that conflict is minor - someone took your seat in the convention hall. Someone cut in front of you to get Chick-fil-a or a free T-shirt. But some of the conflict is pretty serious - sometimes we have to vote to disfellowship churches that aren’t in line with our statement of faith for a variety of reasons. We know what conflict is, don’t we? Many of us seek to avoid conflict, especially with people we love deeply. This morning, we arrive at a text in our study of Psalms that is full of conflict, and not just a little bit of conflict, but in Psalm 3 we find a son who wanted to see his father dead.

I pray that you haven’t experienced that one before! But on a day like today, Father’s Day, this is where we’re at - we’re going to see a situation that is less than ideal. But before we do that, on the front end, we want to affirm that the Bible says that being a man is a good thing. Being a father is a gift from God! There is a trend in our world to want to redefine masculinity and femininity and that’s not a Biblical endeavor as the Bible says that God created male and female and it is a good thing that we are different. If you didn’t have an example of a good, Godly father - today know that there is a Heavenly Father who is perfect and today, through faith in Jesus, He can become your forever Father. If you did have an example of a good, Godly father, give God thanks for that man and tell him that while he’s still around. Let’s look today at Psalm 3 and see how in a time of conflict, David found confidence in the Lord and how in our times of conflict, we too can be confident in our Christ!

Psalm 3 CSB

A psalm of David when he fled from his son Absalom. 1 Lord, how my foes increase! There are many who attack me. 2 Many say about me, “There is no help for him in God.” Selah 3 But you, Lord, are a shield around me, my glory, and the one who lifts up my head. 4 I cry aloud to the Lord, and he answers me from his holy mountain. Selah 5 I lie down and sleep; I wake again because the Lord sustains me. 6 I will not be afraid of thousands of people who have taken their stand against me on every side. 7 Rise up, Lord! Save me, my God! You strike all my enemies on the cheek; you break the teeth of the wicked. 8 Salvation belongs to the Lord; may your blessing be on your people. Selah

When David was at rock bottom, God was there. He was present. He provided. He didn’t abandon him. Today, whatever you’re going through, you can have full confidence in your Heavenly Father! You can be surrounded, sick, suffering, or scared… but God is your refuge. He has saved you and He will sustain you. Let’s thank Him for these truths today

Man’s Dilemma (1-2)

From the get go in our passage we see a problem - but in order to see that problem, we need to go backward before we go forward. Psalm 1 and 2 have been a joy to look at as we’ve seen that the first 2 Psalms begin with the importance of God’s Word and how there are 2 ways: refuge or ruin. That’s heavy, but it’s important to see! This is the songbook of the Israelites and it begins with the centrality of Scripture. Who God is. Who we are. What we must do - “pay homage to the Son.” We all face a dilemma and that dilemma is the fact that we live in a broken world where evil exists and at times, evil flourishes. We’re not talking about the evil of your family BBQ getting rained out or of the store being out of your favorite type of ice cream or biting into something you weren’t expecting… we’re talking about the fact that there are things that we see and have experienced that truly break our hearts. Let me give you just a few stats given that today is Father’s Day

Over 18 million, or nearly 1/4, American children live without a father figure in their home

60% of teenage suicides are by teens living in a fatherless home

70% of high school dropouts grew up in fatherless homes

85% of youth in prison grew up in fatherless homes

This blew my mind: 85% of children who exhibit behavioral disorders come from fatherless homes

On the other side of things, I came across this troubling stat - 1/4 adult children have either no or limited contact with their parents. Friends, these stats break your heart! Do you see how we live in a broken world where things are not as they should be? What is God’s good design? We see in the Garden that marriage was instituted before sin entered the world

Genesis 2:24 CSB

24 This is why a man leaves his father and mother and bonds with his wife, and they become one flesh.

This week in Dallas at the SBC annual meeting, we passed resolution 5 which was entitled, “Restoring Moral Clarity through God’s Design for Gender, Marriage, and the Family.” In this resolution, we as Southern Baptists voted to say the following

God created the world with order, meaning, and purpose, revealing through both Scripture and creation enduring truths about human life, marriage, sexuality, and the family

God made every person in his image as either male or female in accord with his good design for humanity, equal in worth but different by design, and this difference is not accidental or arbitrary

Marriage is a lifelong covenant between one man and one woman, designed by God for love, faithfulness, the raising of children, and as a picture of Christ’s love for the church

What problems do we see in our world? We’ve gone from order to disorder. From clear to confusing. Marriage isn’t treated like a covenant… it’s treated like a contract. You provide this, I provide that. Once you stop providing this, once you stop making me happy, once you stop looking a certain way or making a certain amount of money, then I stop. Many treat marriage like a contract, but this isn’t how it was designed to be. It was designed to be a man and a woman coming together, with God being the focus, and covenanting together to say “I’m yours and you’re mine until God calls one of us home.” We don’t see this today. And because marriage has become devalued and redefined, we see that the nuclear family is being destroyed in the process. Parents are roommates. Children rule the roost. What have churches done? Many seek to attract children, because the thought process is that if you can engage the kids, then you’ll catch the family. If the kids are happy, then the parents will be happy. This isn’t the God-given order of things, and it’s not even accurate! Look at this stat - when a child comes to faith in Christ, you have a 3.5% chance of the family following. When mom comes to faith in Christ, you have a 17% of the family following. When dad comes to faith in Christ, you have a 93% chance of the family following.

Another study put it like this. In homes where both parents attend church regularly, 75% (33/41) of the time, their children attend either regularly or irregularly. In homes where only the mom attends regularly and the dad doesn’t, less than 40% (2/37) attend regularly or irregularly. Dad’s, the world might say you’re outdated and irrelevant, but Scripture and experience tells us that you have a role and you matter!

Just because you’re saved doesn’t mean that you’re perfect. We see a perfect example of a fallen dad this morning - but what South Gate needs, what our families need are fathers who readily admit they’re not perfect and who point their families to their Heavenly Father who IS!

David was many things. Shepherd. Musician. Author. Warrior. Leader. King. Husband. Father. Today, he’d be called a Renaissance man - someone who excels in multiple areas. But for all that he had going for him, Psalm 3 tells us that he had his flaws. Notice the superscript above Psalm 3 - A Psalm of David when he fled from his son Absalom. The father, the king, fled from his own son. This is not how things are supposed to be! But David’s dilemma wasn’t just that he was fleeing from his own son, David’s dilemma was much of his own doing. These events can be read in 2 Samuel 15-18 as his kingdom was nearly taken from him as people rallied to support his son Absalom and destroy David. Do you remember what happens just before all of this in David’s life? in 2 Samuel 11-12 we see David’s sin with Bathsheba. How David stole another man’s wife, covered it up, and then had her husband killed, all because he wasn’t where he was supposed to be.

2 Samuel 11:1 CSB

1 In the spring when kings march out to war, David sent Joab with his officers and all Israel. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah, but David remained in Jerusalem.

He wasn’t where he was supposed to be. He wasn’t fulfilling his responsibilities. His eyes wandered. His heart wasn’t focused on the Lord.

Taking your eyes off of your God-given responsibilities will prove costly not only for you, but those around you! As Christians, it’s a joy to know that our sins are forgiven in the sense that they will not separate us from God for all eternity. But we do know that often times there are consequences in this life for our sinful actions. What happened to David in the aftermath of this situation? We’re told that he lost a son, another son assaulted one of his daughters, and that son was murdered. Now, another son wants to take his life and his throne. We see the dilemma David is facing and it’s the result of his own doing as the prophet Nathan said that

2 Samuel 12:10 CSB

10 Now therefore, the sword will never leave your house because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hethite to be your own wife.’

David has foes all around him. People who used to have his back are suddenly fighting against him. In fact, Absalom had 12,000 of David’s soldiers convert to his side and chase David all through the night. Thousands of Israelites died in this civil war. To a bystander, it would be easy to say that this was going to be David’s demise. That there is no help for him in God. God has abandoned him. He has no where to turn. His end is here! He had fallen too far. He had sinned too big. However, God made a promise with David. A covenant, in fact, and God keeps His covenantal promises. Sometimes we believe that we have sinned too much for God to forgive us. Someone on the outside is looking at what’s going on and they say, “There’s no way this person can be redeemed from what they have done!”

God knew David’s shortcomings whenever He called him to be king. God knew the sin that David would commit. Yet, God still made a promise in 2 Samuel 7, before these events, that from David would come the True and Better King Who would rule and reign on the throne forever! God’s promises stand, friends. David pens this Psalm and he shares the hopelessness he is facing. Have you been there? Isolated. Abandoned. Hopeless. Helpless. What does David do? Verse 1 shows us that he brings this to the Lord. He prays. God knows the situation. God knows the resolution. God knows the end of the story! Yet, David settles it in his heart when he’s at rock bottom to bring this situation to the Lord. He acknowledges the problem and gives it to the Lord. He knows the only hope he has is if the Lord intervenes. Have you been there? See, the Bible isn’t always happy news. The Psalms, the songbook of the Israelites, aren’t always happy songs. This is why whenever we sing, we don’t always sing a happy song or a clap your hands song… and that’s ok because to only do that is to be fake. Because there are seasons in our Christian lives where we’re not clapping our hands because our hands are wiping tears off our face or because our hands are taking a knife out of our back because we’re fleeing from someone who wants to see us destroyed. If that’s a season that you’ve been in, breathe, rest in the Lord. This isn’t the end of the story! Bring your situation to the Lord. This is what David does in the Psalm, see Psalm 3 was a song. The word “selah” indicates a pause to reflect on what was just sung. Reflect on the hopelessness of verses 1-2 - I’m surrounded by foes, my former friends are against me and say that not even God can help me, I’m at rock bottom. It’s good and appropriate to reflect on those low times because it reminds us of what got us there… our sin!

See, sin will take you further than you want to go, keep you longer than you wanted to stay, and cost you more than you wanted to pay. Don’t give it an inch, because it will take far more! This is David’s dilemma. His sin has cost him his family. It looks like it might cost him his kingdom… and maybe even his life. So he prays. He lifts his eyes upward.

Divine Deliverance (3-4)

Whenever we face problems, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. We look at what we have, and what stands against us, and there are times when it feels impossible to make it through, to pay off a debt, to overcome an obstacle, to defeat an enemy. The Israelites often were outnumbered in battle and weaker in terms of strength compared to other nations in the Old Testament. In the book of Exodus we see that the Israelites are in slavery in Egypt, but because of God’s power and provision, eventually the Pharoah tells the Israelites to pack up and leave Egypt! The people celebrate, but in a short period of time the Pharoah changes his mind and sends his chariot army after them. The Israelites are stuck literally between a rock and a hard place. On one side is the Egyptian army closing in… on the other side is the Red Sea. An army or an ocean. That’s not a good situation to be in! I love what the this promise in Exodus 14:14

Exodus 14:14 CSB

14 The Lord will fight for you, and you must be quiet.”

The battle belongs to the Lord! God had promised to provide for His people. He had guided them with a pillar of fire and a cloud of smoke. He had led them to this point. He had been faithful to get them out of Egypt. He was still in control and Moses reminded the people that the battle is the Lord’s and that we must trust in Him. Y’all, there are seasons where trusting in the Lord comes more naturally than others. It’s easy to trust in the Lord whenever you’ve seen Him show up in a spectacular way. Whenever you’re seeing answered prayer after answered prayer. But what about when your life has catastrophically changed and you have no where else to turn? What do you do then? David, flaws and failures and all, gives us the answer: We remember what we know. Not what we feel. But what we know. David doesn’t have confidence in his circumstances. He doesn’t have confidence in his own power. But David is fully confident in His God! Look at what he says, “You Lord are a shield around me.”

Have you ever paused to think about all the things that you’ve avoided in life that other people didn’t avoid? When someone you know gets sick, and you don’t. When someone stumbles and falls into sin, and you don’t fall into that sin. When tragedy strikes someone you know, but you avoid it. I think of this often in my life as someone who was adopted at just a few months old… I could have been adopted into a family who hated Jesus or that didn’t believe in God’s Word - instead, God shielded me from that and I was adopted by a family that loves Jesus. It’s easy to chalk that up to luck or chance… but we know better as Christians p it’s not coincidence, it’s providence. David says the quiet part out loud - God is our shield. There are things that God keeps from us because He blocks it from touching us. He protects us from it. He is our shield. On Father’s Day, dad’s - you are the shield for your family. God has given you the task to protect them from harm. To provide for them. To lead them. Guess what? You can’t do this alone. You need the Lord’s help - you need Him to be your shield before you can be a shield for your family! David rejoices in knowing that the Lord is his shield and that if anything were to happen to him, it had to go through the Lord first. It had to pass through the shield to get to him. This gave him confidence because if it’s not God’s plan, then it won’t harm him. If it is God’s plan, then God has a purpose in it. God was His glory and the lifter of his head - at this time if a king captured another king, he would step on his neck to prove how powerless the other king was. David is confident that Absalom wasn’t going to triumph but that God would. That it wasn’t Absalom who would crush his head, but that the Lord would lift his head. This wasn’t just wishful thinking - this was remembering God’s promise in 2 Samuel 7. David’s confidence wasn’t in his power or faithfulness, but in the Lord’s deliverance. God had delivered his people from far worse situations before, and David believed that the Lord could and would do this again.

David cried out to God and God not only heard the cry, but God answered. Friends, whenever we are struggling with something, we can always go to God with confidence knowing that He will not only hear us but that He will answer us in the best way possible.

Philippians 4:19 CSB

19 And my God will supply all your needs according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

Just as God has provided before, He will provide today. As He provides today, I know that He will provide in the future. God delivers His people. God keeps His Word. God is eternally faithful. Whenever the situation looks impossible, whenever hope seems lost, we can come to God with confidence knowing that He hears us and answers in the best way possible for His glory and our ultimate good. He is our shield. He is our deliverer. At all times, we can find refuge and rest in Him!

Divine Dependence (5-8)

Think about some of the things that we require as humans. It’s said that a human can go about 30 days without food. 3 days without water. 3 minutes without breathing. I wouldn’t recommend trying any of those things… but that’s at least what the experts say. We also know that we desperately need sleep as humans. We know this after a long day of work, we need sleep to rest and recharge our brains and bodies! I couldn’t believe this whenever I saw it, but the record amount of time without sleep is just over 11 straight days - can you imagine? That’s crazy! As many as 1/3 American adults struggle with some sleep-related problem. As important as sleep is, many of us have a hard time getting the amount that we need. Think about the things that prevent us from getting sleep:

What we eat/drink

Health issues

Stress

Job situation

Family

Friends

Finances

The list goes on and on. I’ve heard this talked about at conferences before about the number of pastors who suffer from serious health issues because of a lack of sleep due to stress about situations at their church. Something so important and so simple, closing your eyes and sleeping, is also something that we realize that we can’t control. That we must depend on God for. Think back to your most stressful day - how well did you sleep the night before? Many of us, our answer is that we didn’t sleep very good! We were too busy thinking about the event. We were overwhelmed. We were playing it out in our head. Yet, here is David surrounded by thousands of rebels who have betrayed him. His own son seeking to murder him. What does David do? He sleeps and he wakes up because the Lord sustained him.

Psalm 121:3 CSB

3 He will not allow your foot to slip; your Protector will not slumber.

Aren’t you thankful that while you’re snoozing, your Savior is not? Back during the spring of 2021 I had a week streak of less than 2 hours of sleep each night. To this day, I don’t know what happened - but on a Saturday night I was getting ready for bed and my heart was racing and wouldn’t slow down. We go to the ER and everything comes back normal. Bloodwork? Fine. Heart levels? Fine. We go back home on Sunday and get ready for bed and I toss and turn all night, unable to sleep. This goes on for multiple days and the word insomnia gets thrown out by a doctor who believed that I had a panic attack on that initial Saturday. So, there Lindsey and I were. 24 years old. Newborn. Husband unable to sleep. That was a week that I’d never wish on anyone… but to this day, I remember those nights. I remember the places my mind went to. I remember the frustration. And, I remember my utter dependence on the Lord. I remember begging God for strength and rest. And Psalm 121:3 became a pillow for my soul. My Protector wasn’t asleep. He wasn’t bothered by my 2am prayers. Friends, in your sleepiness or sleeplessness, He is continuing to provide for you. He continues to protect you. He continues to sustain you. Say you sleep for 8 hours and your heart rate is at 60bpm. That’s 28,800 heart beats just while you slept! Were you actively telling your heart to beat during that time? No! If your heart had stopped beating, you wouldn’t be here! This is important stuff, friends, and the Bible tells us that God is our sustainer. He watches over us in the night. He provides us with sleep. He wakes us up. Ask yourself this: Will the same God who watched over me at night watch over me in the day? The answer is a certain YES! We can depend on Him! He is our shield. He hears our prayers. He sustains our lives.

Remember the promises of Romans 8? No condemnation. No separation. Friends, we don’t have to be afraid of what we face because God is with us.

Philippians 4:7 CSB

7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Today you can have peace as you depend on your Savior. David prays in verses 7-8 and we see these types of prayers in the Lament Psalms - asking God for deliverance, not simply because we need deliverance, but so that God’s power can be made known. Think about this - David’s enemies said that there is no help for him even in God. He is surrounded by enemies. He has no where else to turn! If David were to be delivered, what would be the only explanation? God did the deliverance. It wouldn’t be because of David’s power or might… but God’s. His only hope was divine deliverance. There are situations that we face today where we’re in the same situation - our only hope is divine deliverance. This doesn’t mean that we do nothing, that’s not wise. We are called to work hard and serve well. But we can lie down and rest and recognize that we are not God. We are not our own savior or deliverer. Instead of the dangers associated with “Let Go and Let God”, here’s a better one to practice, “Let’s Go and Trust God.”

Work hard. Serve well. Worship faithfully. And leave the result to the Lord because deliverance looks different for each person. Sometimes divine deliverance looks like David sleeping and waking up and the problem being taken care of… but sometimes, God’s people go to sleep and don’t wake up. Acts 12 is one of the best places to look at this as we see that Peter was rescued from prison, but just before this James was killed. Peter escaped persecution, James endured persecution - we’re tempted to think that the person who was not delivered had less faith or that God wasn’t faithful with them like He was for the other person. Often it seems like the darkness wins because we’re not delivered in this life.

So, where do we turn? We turn to the Greater King David, King Jesus.

David was rejected by his family… so was Jesus - John 1:11 says “His own didn’t receive Him.”

David was taunted by his enemies… so was Jesus - Matthew 27:43 says, “Let God deliver him now, if he desires.”

David laid down, slept, and woke up… Jesus died, was buried, and rose back to life. Death is nothing but a nap for God’s people. We will wake up from death. God saved David from physical death, God saved His Son through physical death, either way, church, God will deliver us today!

David loved his persecutors… so too did Jesus - Luke 23:34 says, “Father, forgive them.”

Again, the songbook of the Israelites is Christ-centered because all of Scripture points us to Jesus!

Your heavenly Father may not deliver you from every situation that you’re facing today, but you’re not going through them alone. He is with you. He is for you. He has a plan for you. Because of the Gospel, one day you will lie down, sleep, and wake up in glory because He sustains you. You can be completely confident in your Christ!

We see here that David wasn’t a perfect person - far from it. In fact, many of the problems that he faced in the events of this Psalm are the result of his own doing. It would be easy to blame others for this - just like we’re tempted to blame another person, our boss, our spouse, maybe even our dog for our sin and the consequences of our sin… but David knew that he was to blame. He sinned with Bathsheba. He brought this upon himself and his entire family. David flourished as King but floundered as a Father. One of the qualifications of a pastor/elder/overseer is for this man to “manage his household well.” David wasn’t a pastor - but we see the ramifications of getting this wrong. Church, we can do so many things well… but if we fail at the most important thing, we’ll have serious problems. So, as we think about our confidence in Christ and how to walk that out, let’s apply this by reorienting our lives to “win” the first time instead of stumbling into sin?

How Do We Win the First Time?

Set Your Priorities Straight

Determine today what you will and won’t do whenever temptation comes knocking because one day it will and if you fail to plan, you plan to fail! Look to Scripture and allow the Word of God to do the work of God in your life by aligning your priorities with Scripture. Settle it today that you will say no to lust, that you will not give an inch on cultural issues that go in opposition to God’s Word. Determine that today, so that you’re ready for tomorrow.

Relish Your Role

God gave you a role to play! Dad’s - your job is to provide for and protect your family. David’s loved his role as king and flourished in it… but he floundered in his role as a father. Dad’s, if you flourish in your job as a coach, employee, leader, but fail in your job as a husband or father, it’s not worth it. Relish the primary role the Lord has given you and that - your family. Prioritize that. Rejoice in that. Father’s, lead your family to look more like Jesus and realize that you are in many ways the spiritual thermometer of your household. If you’re on fire, chances are your family will be. If you’re lukewarm, chances are your family will be. God has a role for all of us to play - when temptation comes knocking, if we are complacent or not satisfied in the role God has given us, we will stumble. Don’t regret your role and request another, relish what God has called YOU to do and do it for His glory!

Sleep Securely

Just as God sustained David, God continues to sustain His children today. When temptation comes knocking and the waves of life look like they’re going to take you under, remember Psalm 3. Remember that God is your shield and protector and helper. Remember that He hears you. Rest fully in Him. He has been faithful before. He will continue to be faithful today and tomorrow. As Martin Luther once put it, “Sleep and let God worry.” He’s not worried - He’s got this and He’s got you!

We can be confident in Christ because salvation belongs to the Lord. He guides us. He blesses us. He has good plans for us. Today, do you have this confidence? Whatever you’re facing, do you trust that Jesus is greater? Do you believe that He is working all things for your good? Friend, today, you can have this assurance! Whatever is preventing you from having this hope, lay it down and talk theologically not emotionally to yourself. What do you know? God is good. He is able. He is faithful. He is my shield. He is my strength. He is my refuge. He has saved me. Trust in Him today!