Sermon Tone Analysis

6 Keys to a Joyful Life - Ps. 16

Psalm 16:1-11 “Keep me safe, my God, for in you I take refuge.

I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing.”

I say of the holy people who are in the land, “They are the noble ones in whom is all my delight.”

Those who run after other gods will suffer more and more.

I will not pour out libations of blood to such gods or take up their names on my lips.

Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup; you make my lot secure.

The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.

I will praise the Lord, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me.

I keep my eyes always on the Lord.

With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful one see decay.

You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.”

“Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth” – from the wise prophet Mike Tyson.

For those who don’t know Mike Tyson was a heavy weight champion boxer, and I never thought that I would put the words wise and Mike Tyson together in the same sentence but there you go.

Now, weather you like boxing or Mike Tyson those words do ring true don’t they.

We all make plans don’t we, weather it is financial plans, growing old with somebody, having a healthy body and mind, maybe it’s the retirement plan, or the wealth plan… we all plan.

So why do we plan?

We plan so that we can be secure or comfortable, or we like what the reward gives us, there is a payoff that is meaningful to us.

Ultimately, plans bring us some sort of enjoyment and a hope of something better.

However, what are you going to do when life punches you in the mouth?

When that money is stolen, lost, or spent, when that body gives out to injury or disease, like wise the mind, or when the loved one you were going to spend the rest of your life is gone, or when the security and comfort are taken away, what are you going to do then?

Collie Church of Christ, collectively you have been punched in the mouth hard, what are we going to do now?

The plan wasn’t to have the tragedy, suffering and pain that is being endured presently.

It certainly wasn’t the plan to have to cancel services because of Covid, but these things have hit.

Let’s make it personal, each one of you have either, or soon to have life hit hard.

For me I was smacked in the mouth a few years back and my well laid plans trashed.

To the point where I thought I would never minister again.

10 years of study, pain, missed opportunities and a hard slog as a minister at a church gone (it seemed).

It seemed like over night the one thing I had planned for and executed was brought to naught!

Now maybe you are more holy than me, or have more faith, or just more delusional.

But I questioned God, I got angry, sad, broken and did not know what to do next.

So, is planning wrong?

Is that that the answer….

No, plans help order and guide us.

Obviously if our plans become our idol, or the outcome of those plans do then yes.

It is what we do, or where our heart goes to those matters.

So, if you just walk down the main street of Collie, you will find answers.

The New Age shop down there has answers in self-belief and self-worship and the worship god of the day (Selfism), the pub and the local betting place has the answers to drown out your sorrows and the promise to make you forget (it doesn’t), There is the promise of peace with Buddha and of emptying yourself, there is the internet and all it offers.

But they are all false gods, offering cheap grace and very temporary fixes.

Why do people not turn to the church in times of need?

A lot, of the time the church at large looks like the world, act likes the world and engages in worldly practices instead if tapping into the real source of contentment, meaning, hope and ultimately a joy that cannot be stolen even in tough times.

It’s because we, Christians who have the answer don’t really understand it ourselves.

We think we know the gospel; we think we have intimacy with Jesus, but then we get smacked in the mouth and it shows us where we are.

That is not taking away form the grieving, asking of questions or an honest conversation with God (we see these happening in the Psalms).

But when we settle, we settle in him and his assurances.

Because he is the only one who is unaltered, and therefore his plan is never thwarted or changed.

To put it in an uncouth manner, Life nor anything else punches God in the mouth.

He is not caught unaware, so regardless of what happens our salvation and eternal life with him in the unsuffering kingdom of God can not be shaken, loosed or taken.

King David is someone with whom we can relate to.

He had it all, lost it all, had his grand plans thwarted and, in the end, couldn’t build God a temple (which was his grand plan) because of all the blood he had shed.

He also committed, to put it politely used his power and influence to have an affair with Bathsheba (This was not in his planning) and murdered her husband to cover it up.

Yet, he is known as a man after God’s own heart.

He pretended to be insane to escape death and defeat, his own son was planning to take his life, he was impulsive at times and lived through a lot of pain.

He is the poster child for life punching him in the mouth.

So, he is someone to listen to when it comes to living a joyful life in the here in now.

Here is 6 keys to living a joyful life amongst the pain and chaos.

Psalm 16.

1. Safe Life — I trust in Him (v. 1).

2. Surrendered Life— I belong to Him (v. 2).

3. Separated Life— I side with Him (vv.

3–4).

4. Satisfied Life—I find contentment with Him (vv.

5–6).

5. School Life— I listen to and learn from Him (v. 7).

6. Steadfast Life—I am engaged with Him (v.

8ff.).

1. SAFE LIFE & SURRENDED LIFE

Psalm 16:1-2 “Keep me safe, my God, for in you I take refuge.

I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing.”

When I was a kid, I had a tree house that was built high into a massive tree.

I could see the whole area from it, I even formed a gang with the gang numbers being only one… myself.

Tells you the kind of childhood I had.... sad.

I used to go there to feel safe, safe from the world when it became too much or when mum and dad were fighting.

It was my fort, but unfortuntaely I had to come home for dinner and go back into the wide world.

Given the state of the world with covid, the war in the Ukraine, the bubbling up of tensions between the power houses of the world and the seemingly insane people who are leading these nations, I want to go back to my treehouse and never come home again.

I am pretty sure I would have more than one in my gang now.

Can we ever feel safe and secure in this world?

Over the last several years, more bunkers and underground dwellings have been built than ever before and doomsdays preppers are growing.

I get it, so How can we have joy and peace in a world that is volitile and totally unsafe.

Well the Psamlist was in perilious times as well, David knew all to well the fragility of the world and the lack of safety it could bring.

King David was a military man and would have had military forts for protection and refuge, yet that is not where he said he felt safe and protected it was in the Lord.

Where do you find refuge? is it your home, family, your job security?

To have a surrended life we must understand what the word refuge means, and believe that the Lord can actually deliver it.

I would go one step further to say that the rest of the keys anchor into this.

In other words if we don’t belive that God can deliver refuge we will not live a joyful and content life.

Refuge: the state of being safe or sheltered from pursuit, danger, or difficulty.

So, as you can see we cannot surrender ourselves completely unless we feel safe and sheltered by all threats.

We of course say that we find refuge in Him, but do our lives, speech and actions convey this.

Are we troubled like the world or do we stick out?

When John Wesley was on a ship with some german believers and the ship began to sink, he witnessed the saints singing hymns and were at complete peace.

This is when he recognized he didn’t have what they had, which was that peace.

We should be different in times of trouble.

However, we will at times fail due to the fact that we are pratical people and we sometimes believe what we see as reality.

If we truly understand the splendour of the effect of the gospel, and the one who offers such refuge we too would look no where else for our protection, even when life punches us in the mouth.

Like a punch to the mouth it hurts when we are plunged into despair, physical and/or emotional turmoil.

Or when plans don’t go to plan or if the world decides to blow itself up.

Because of this safety we don’t have to turn to the worlds cheap flimsy poor excuses of refuge, like finances, relationships, houses and other assetts or world idealologies or other false religions rubbish.

Our God is safer than all the military bases combined, or anything else we can turn to.

We then can lead a joyful life in sweet surrender to Jesus.

We have this only when we whole heartedly (Head, Heart and Hands) Trust in him.

3. SEPERATED LIFE