Learning the way
Notes
Transcript
Announcements :
Announcements :
Get connected. (Last growth community of the year.)
2. Graduate gathering.
3. HS Cedar point trip.
4. Summer camp.
Icebreaker:
Icebreaker:
“
How many of us in this room are good with directions by raise of hands?
How many of us get lost very easily…
How many of us in this room have a grown-up using a map like a physical map?
Tell the story of your parents using an app
Explain that if you had to use a map, you would struggle as a kid it wouldn’t work
You would need guidance direction and help
The moral of the story you can be given a tool that leads you to a good direction that can be used to guide you, but if you don’t understand how to use it how to apply it it’s no help…
Maybe even frustrating….
In our passage tonight and in our Bible study tonight, we’re gonna look at the way of the Lord, the path of the Lord
His Direction His road map…
And we see Three main things in this passage
David asks the Lord to direct him
And then to develop him
And then he rests in dependence on him
And we’re gonna break down what each of those mean…
But with that sad, let’s pray…
4 Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths.
5 Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long.
Direct
develop
depend
Lead me: “Direct me”
Lead me: “Direct me”
David cries out to the Lord saying lead me direct me in your truth…
Now I want to clarify something he’s not saying that there are multiple truths
He’s not saying that there’s your truth and my truth and his truth and her truth…
. He is saying there is one truth.
One thing that is true, and that is God… What God has revealed in his word is true for all time…
David is saying, Lord Lead me in truth direct me towards what your word says. It’s true.
And away from my flesh or my opinions say is true…
Now there’s a TV show I’ve watched a few times and there’s a quote in it. That says I want to be led when I’m in the mood to be a lead directed when I feel like being directed.
And that’s the opposite of what David is saying what David is describing his total surrender saying I don’t want to be in the driver seat please Lord you take the drivers seat of my life…
For us to know the way of the Lord, we must allow him to lead us in truth…
We must open our heart to the Lord and say direct me where you want me to go, not where I want me to go
Lord direct my steps towards what you have not what I want
Even better, Lord, direct my feelings to want what you want to desire what you desire
In order to follow this road map in order to listen to your God’s word we must start with this posture
We must ask the Lord to direct us, even if we don’t want to go that direction
So we must ask him for direction, but then we must ask him for development…
Teach me: “Develop us”
Teach me: “Develop us”
David wrights, teach me your ways… and further down he says… teach me for you are the God of my salvation…
Once again, we understand, the word of God is true, and we need to be directed in truth, but then we need to be taught as well…
We must be developed in truth…
We must continue to learn and to grow in our understanding of God’s word… In our understanding of the gospel of Jesus, the way he saved us…
You never outgrow the gospel… You never outgrow the basics. Everything else is built on these foundations.
We must not only ask the Lord to direct us, but to also develop us…
our knowledge of the our relationship with him…
In this room, have we asked God to develop us to grow us to Teach us?
Each and every time we open up the God’s word we should ask for him to show us his truth to teach us his ways
And when you need wisdom when you need this kind of help teaching and development who do you turn to?
Who is your first turn for wisdom
when you run into a passage of the Bible that you don’t understand do you turn to ChatGPT?
Do you turn into a leader or your parents?
Or is God your first turn ?
I’m not saying you shouldn’t have turned to your parents. I’m not saying you can’t research things online.
But I’m saying your first term should be to the Lord…
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
He’s willing he is ready to give us wisdom… and that doesn’t mean he can’t give it to us through our parents or through your leaders…
But our first turn for development must be his word it must be through prayer, asking him to do a work in our heart
Interpreting scripture with scripture and then bringing it to your parents and bringing it to your leaders for their wisdom as well
speak through them if you ask him to give you wisdom, he will give you what you need when you need
We must be dependent on him
Depending on God for him to direct for him to develop…
Now, depending on how you’re being raised, you might be being raised to be independent
To be able to be a productive member of society operating independently of anyone else and that’s good in a lot of ways …
But according to scripture weird designed to be dependent on God and by extension one another…
Our culture will tell you to be independent, but the Bible will tell you to be independence on God…
To be dependent upon the Lord for everything
And we see this in Matthew six…
Pray then like this:
“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
Our daily bread this means our income this means our needs…
And maybe you’re a middle schooler and you’re like I don’t have a job that’s illegal
Maybe your high schooler about to head to college and you’re trying to figure out how to make money how to pay for college. How do you care for those around you how to buy a car
No matter your situation, there are things in your life that you need and that you should be asking God to take care of
Asking the Lord to provide for you in the way that he sees fit…
When I was a kid, I would pray the Lord and I would try to be like I just want this car and it was a jeep Wrangler or it became a BMW
But the Lord provided for me a car that was below $1000 a Toyota Camry
And honestly, I wish I still had that Toyota Camry. It was such a good car for such good care of me….
Asking the Lord for every physical need asking the Lord for every spiritual need and emotional need is what we are called to do
He is supposed to be our first turn
I will wait: “Depend”
I will wait: “Depend”
David says:
“for you I will wait all the day long”
He sees his need to be directed. He sees his need to be developed, and he sees his need to be dependent.
Do we see that need???
An exercise you can begin doing is if you’re worrying about it you should be praying about it…
If it’s bringing you down, you should be bringing it up to GOD…
To spiritually, emotionally and physically, depending on God requires surrender…
Requires patience, resolve that even if it takes all day long, you would rather wait on the Lord then do it yourself
In the Old Testament, there was a king named Saul the king just before David, who wrote this passage
And Saul would not wait on the Lord there was a battle, and the priest hasn’t come to sacrifice and pray to bless the battle
So King Saul takes matters into his own hands, and he performs a sacrifice and performs the prayer and they go to battle
And because he would not wait on the Lord and because of his pride because of his arrogance, the kingdom was ripped away from him and given to David
Wait on the Lord… depend on the Lord… it doesn’t mean your life will be perfect.
It doesn’t mean that God’s gonna make you president or give you a kingdom,
but it does mean that you will be within his and he will be able to bless you with things that he couldn’t, if to be independent of him.
So what we have learned from David is this… we need God to direct us. We need God to develop us.
And in order for God to develop and direct us, we must be dependent on him…
He must be our first turn… we must believe and have faith in him
To the point where we would wait all day long for his decision for his lead leading for his teaching
for his direction and development
I want to remind you that this is a road map… God can and will use it to direct you to develop you if you are dependent on him
But if you don’t ask him to direct you, you don’t ask him to develop you. You don’t seek to be dependent on him.
This is gonna be just another book on your shelf
This will be like a map if you gave it to me when I was a kid…
If we go back to when I was a kid and I was stranded in the middle of nowhere, but I had a map I would still be just as stranded as if I didn’t…
There would be no chance… no hope that I’d find my way home
because I had not been developed. I had not been directed in how to read a map in how to use a map…
Because I was not willing to be humble, I was not willing to depend on someone else to teach me…
So tonight I wanna ask you, will you depend on the Lord to direct you and develop you in your faith in your relationship?
Will you depend on the leaders and the people of this church the people in your life to develop you and direct you in the word of God?
Will you allow God to use them in your life or will you allow pride, stubbornness and maybe embarrassment to keep you from the truth?
Tonight my prayer is that you will turn to the Lord you will open up to your leaders. You’ll be dependent upon God so that he can direct you and develop you.
And if you’re in this room, and you don’t know the Lord, you don’t have a relationship with him. You have no dependency you have no direction you have no development. I want to encourage you to believe in him today.
Romans 10 nine says
9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
The Bible says today is the day of salvation. Today is the day to become dependent on God ask him to save you and he will.
Let’s pray…
