Good News for Bad Times

This podcast is the Ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church.

For more information in our church, please visit grandparkway.org.

Amen.

You can have a C.

If you've got a Bible, I invite you to take it and open it up to Psalm 32.

Let me introduce myself.

My name is Neil, and I'm your pastor.

Yes, yes, I see that.

And I got a haircut.

Just on a whim, I was coming out of Kroger and I walked in.

I was sweating profusely because it was like the first part of June.

And I just walked in.

There's a place next door.

It said$5 haircuts.

And I said, I must have cut it all off.

She said five dollars.

I walked home and I can't repeat what my wife said.

Anyway, no, she's not that kind of woman.

My wife has said, You are like a middiot.

And I'm like, what?

She goes, that's like an idiot wrapped in a moron.

What did you do?

And then after about a month or so, I think it started growing on her.

And now when I run, I whistle.

Shh.

So there you go.

If you're our guest today, I've been on sabbatical, or as you all call it, vacation.

And so uh I today's my first Sunday back.

I'm not sure I remember how to do this, so pray for me.

Uh Wade's over here in case I get stuck, he's gonna get up and finish the sermon, okay?

Uh he's my spotter today.

But I want to talk to you.

Here's one of the things about uh I traveled a lot, uh just some of just hanging out with my family.

Uh some of I spoke at a couple of camps, but everywhere I went, I kind of ran into people that are kind of going through something.

They just kind of and so I want to talk to you this morning about good news for bad times.

Good news for bad times.

And uh in the 30-second psalm, let me just give you kind of the context for the 30-second psalm.

It's kind of it's one of the penitential psalms.

You say, what say what?

The penitential psalms are the psalms that David usually wrote most of them, and he's kind of lamenting.

It's right after he kind of messed up.

You ever sinned and done something wrong, and then you don't know how to be towards God, you're kind of like, uh, are you mad at me?

Uh then the penitential psalms are something you might want to read.

I'll just list them if you're given to writing notes.

There's like seven of them.

There's Psalm 6, Psalm 32, which we'll read this morning, Psalm 38, 51, 102, Psalm 130, and Psalm 143.

It's people kind of writing, hey, this is kind of my heart back to you.

And and Psalm 51 is a psalm of confession.

A lot of people think that Psalm 32 is the same thing, and really it's not.

It's a psalm of instruction.

That's why at the beginning there it says, a masculine, M-A-S-K-I-L, a masculine of David.

And in Psalm 51, about verse 13, actually about verse 12, uh, David says, Return to me, O Lord, the joy of my salvation.

Because he basically, when he had sinned, he was like, I don't really enjoy my salvation very much because I kind of screwed up and I feel goofy.

But he says this, return to me, O Lord, the joy of my salvation.

And in the next verse, verse 13, he says, And I will teach transgressors your way.

I will teach people who screwed up how to get right with God once you're screwed up.

And so some of you, and you say, Well, is this a message about screwing up?

No.

So some people, you didn't mess up, it's just life just overwhelmed you.

It's just kind of like the flood waters are up to your eyeballs, and you're like, I can't take anymore.

So he stopped me after the first service, and she said, Yeah, my husband was out of town on business, and I walked out one night at 6.05, and water is dripping out of our ceiling.

And she goes, I just can't, you yes, I'm ready for summer to be over.

And I was like, Yeah, if that's you, the Bible has something to say to you today.

Psalm, by the way, Psalm 32 is Augustine, the great church father, his favorite psalm.

He when he was dying, he took a pencil and wrote it on the wall beside his bed so he could meditate on it, because he said, To know yourself, one must know yourself to be a sinner.

And he wanted to know himself.

The Bible says this this is good news for bad times.

Psalm 32, verse 1 Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.

Psalms 32:1

Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

For when I kept silent my bones wasted away, and through my groaning all day long.

For day and night your hand was heavy upon me, and my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.

Say la five I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity.

I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.

Say la.

Therefore let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found.

Surely in the rush of great waters, surely when everything is breaking out all around me, they shall not reach him.

You are a hiding place for me.

You preserve me from trouble, you surround me with songs or shouts of deliverance.

Say La.

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go, I will counsel you with my eye upon you, be not like a horse or a mule without understanding, which must be curved with bit and bridle, or it will not stay near you.

Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the Lord.

Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart.

Psalm thirty-two is written after Psalm fifty-one.

They're not written in sequential order, and David is making good, he's fulfilling this vow where he says to God, Hey, I'm I'm gonna teach people who come after me that there's some things they need to know.

And there's four words or four phrases that David kind of gives us.

I just want to point out, and the first one is that there's an invitation in here.

There's an invitation in here, and it's really in the first couple of verses where David begins both those first two verses with the word, blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven.

And blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity.

Now he uses three different words for sin, and I won't get all technical.

And by the way, let me acknowledge, usually we have an outline up here on the uh on the screen.

We don't have that today because I just told Marcus I don't want to write an outline.

I kind of one of the things I went to church some, uh, not a lot, by the way, uh, and that is intoxicating.

Uh no, I went some, but it just made me a little bit depressed and a little bit angry.

Uh, because there's some kind of phrases that you we've kind of lost in the American church.

One of them that appear in the Bible, like one of them is, what must I do to be saved?

You notice no one's asked you that lately?

Another one uh that I just kind of had a running list in my head.

Another one was uh uh was here am I, send me.

Uh I guys found out I was on sabbatical buddies of mine all over the country, and and they're like, hey, uh, you know, one guy called and said, Hey, I've been at my church about nine years, and uh I think it's about time for me and my wife to move back close to our family.

And I said, Where do you get that in the Bible?

Where do you get that God owes you proximity to your family so you can get free babysitting?

We've lost that.

Here am I, send me.

But the other one that we've kind of lost more than that really that I was really struck by was when Jeremiah said, It is like fire in my bones.

We don't have many men in the church that stand up and it's like, man, I got something in me and it's gonna burn me down if I don't get it out.

I saw some polished speakers, I saw some smooth services that started and ended on time.

I saw one that even had a smoke machine.

And I was just like, oh, wow.

And so, so, so usually next week we'll have all that, but I just got some fire in me.

Uh yes, you're indubitably.

Uh, but but but but I got some fire in me.

I just got to get it out of it.

My wife is so glad today is here.

She's like, Can you just go outside and preach to the barbecue grill, okay?

You're about to wear me out.

Uh and and and so no, no one's somebody came up to me this morning and said, I'm so glad you're back.

And I said, Not more glad than my wife is.

But anyway, uh, there's an invitation in here.

There's an invitation, and and David uses these two words, blessed, blessed, and it's really blessedness.

And you say, What do you mean?

There was a time in David's life that he would not have used that word to describe his life.

He would not have said, David, how are you doing?

Blessed.

Not at all.

But now, after the fact, he kind of looks and he says, Hey, let me just tell you, let me instruct you, let me, if life is overwhelming you, and by the way, this is the life God calls us to.

If you read all through the Bible and you say, How would I describe the Christian life?

It's really blessed.

God calls you and I to a life that can only be described with one word, and that one word fits every person in this room, if you let it.

If you just believe it and let it in, it's not dependent on your circumstance.

Like we had a summer that was bizarre.

We just hemorrhaged money this summer.

You ever get on a roll and stuff starts breaking and this breaks and then that breaks and then that breaks?

Well, for us, the first thing that went out was our dryer.

I noticed our dryer would like run all the time, and I was like, hello, are we like what are we like drying clothes for the neighborhood?

And so the thing wouldn't work.

And my wife said, Well, it's not, it takes, I have to run it twice.

And I was like, Well, let's get a new dryer.

Well, you get to Lowe's, and they have these new high-efficiency dryers, and right next to them they have a new high-efficiency washer.

They make washers now that doesn't have that thing in the middle of it.

That agitator thing, it's like a big cave.

You come to my house and play hide and go seek, you can hide in there.

Because we got there, and the guy said, What about your washer?

And I said, It's fine.

And my wife said, Well, it's, you know, it doesn't.

And I was like, excuse me.

Well, you know, they need to match.

Why do they need to match?

They're in, they're behind doors.

No one sees them.

No one's gonna come to your house today and go, Hey, can I see your washer and dryer?

Do they match?

We got a new washer and a new dryer.

Yeah, and I just, for all my talk, I was like, okay, good, good, and it is sweet.

It's like a car.

It's got a computer in it and everything.

And so I was like, okay, that's kind of our big purchase for the summer.

No, my wife comes home a couple weeks later.

Hey, I got the spot on my temple right here.

It's skin cancer.

She has to get that thing taken off most procedure.

And then I got an injection in my hip.

Whoo, yeah.

I limped in and walked out.

I was like, does this come in six packs?

And then we got that.

I got that.

I mean, every time I got afraid to go to the mailbox because every time I was like, what bill's coming now?

And then my wife was kind of like, hey, you need to go now.

You shaved your head.

Why don't you go to my dermatologist and get them just to look at your scalp and make sure everything's good?

Let me tell you something.

If I wasn't married, I wouldn't have life insurance.

I would never go to the dentist, and I would not go to a dermatologist.

And I would never take my dogs to the vet, okay?

Because I grew up on a farm, our dogs didn't need their teeth cleaned.

That's a lie from the devil's hell, okay?

Our dogs ate like chicken.

We would kill chickens and throw them down them dogs, just eat it up and then smoke.

Our dogs didn't eat special food that's refrigerated, they didn't need their toenails clipped.

And there's a conspiracy.

Somebody's getting over on us here, people, but I digress.

Anyway, I so I'm just like, oh, okay.

So I go to the dermatologist, the lady walks in, why are you here?

Because when I was little, I had a pet monkey.

She said, excuse me.

And I said, true story.

And I said, I had a pet monkey, a little squirrel monkey.

And she said, I'm gonna sit down.

This is gonna be good.

And she just sat down and she's like, Can I ask what you do for a living?

I would tell you, but you wouldn't believe me.

Try me anyway.

I pastor a church, you liar.

Okay, okay.

So, Jill, if you're here today, see, I really do pastor a church.

And so I'm sitting there and I said, I had a pet monkey, and he used to get on our shoulder and look through our hair and look for bugs.

And she's like, uh-huh.

And I said, and I grew up and I married that monkey.

And so my wife said, Hey, you got this little spot right there you need to get looked at.

And sure enough, basal cell carcinoma.

And she said, I need to clip this.

And and by the way, when they say clip it, what they mean is, here, here's a stick, gnaw on this, because we're fixing to cut your leg off, Gus, like in lonesome dove.

And so they clipped it and she sent it back.

She said, We'll just get it uh, what's somewhere?

We'll biopsy or whatever, we'll call you.

They called about eight days later.

Yeah, it's cancer.

You need to come in and have the most procedure.

And I was like, we just paid for one of those.

My wife had that thing on her side of her head, and so I had to go in, and they took a melon baller and scooped out my head and sewed it up, and I have sutures in there, and I was just kind of like, you know, what else can go wrong, okay?

We're fasting from getting the mail, it's gonna be another bill in there, okay?

You say, Well, I kind of relate to that in the midst of all that.

I'm laying in bed one night, just kind of chuckling because at some point you realize you were powerless over and like, hey, this is just life.

Sometimes it gets crazy.

And that still small voice said, Hey, you know what?

You're blessed.

And I laughed out loud and said, You're right.

And I've come to tell you that God has called all of you, just regardless of circumstance or situation.

And by the way, my summer was a piece of cake compared to some people I know.

There's people in our congregation that are shaking their head right now, kind of going, God, can anything else happen?

Please, Lord, just get let us catch our breath.

And the Bible says that God calls us to this life.

That can only be described with this word, bless.

That's why Psalm 1 begins.

How blessed is a man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, or stand in the path of the scornful, or set in the seat of the sinners, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night.

And he goes on to say, That man will be like the godliest person you've ever known.

That man, that woman will be like the godliest woman.

We don't have a frame of reference for that.

The Bible's very practical.

It gives you a frame of reference for what it's talking about.

He says, That man should be like a tree.

Ever seen a tree?

That man should be like a tree planted by rivers of living water.

It yields its fruit in due season.

By the way, I don't have time to go into this.

I got some fire in me around this.

Not every season is a fruit-bearing season.

You don't have to bear fruit all the time.

You don't have to go around going, oh, praise the Lord.

I love Jesus.

How about you?

I want to punch you in the neck.

I have to tell you how about me.

He says he'll yield its fruit in due season.

You see, the other three seasons is what makes the fruit come in due season.

Every day is not sweeter than the day before.

It's just not.

And I'm a very positive person.

I mean, I believe the Bible.

I just think there's this false sense of giddiness we impose upon people.

It yields its fruit in due season.

Whatever he does, he prospers.

The Bible calls us to that.

If you went to Harvard right now or Yale or some school you think is is really scholastic, and you ask the the ethics department what is the greatest uh uh ethics lesson in the history of humanity, most of them would tell you the Sermon on the Mount.

The Sermon on the Mount.

And Jesus begins the Sermon on the Mount nine times saying this one word blessed.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for they shall inherit the kingdom of God.

Blessed are the meek, so they shall inherit the earth.

Blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed.

It's all through the Bible.

See, and David is saying, after learning from his own situation, hey, this is there's this invitation here.

Don't miss this.

God is calling you too, or for some of us, he's calling us away from some things that we don't need to be involved in.

Why?

Because he wants our lives to be blessed.

Second thing David says to us is he kind of recounts, hey, good news for bad times is that you gotta be authentic.

You gotta be authentic.

Verse 3, for when I kept silent, my bones wasted away, and through my groaning all day long, for day and night, your hand was heavy upon me.

My strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.

Selah.

Selah is that little word that we don't read often, but it means pause and reflect.

Think about what you just read.

And what we just read was God, was David saying to us, by the way, I tried to cover it up and act like it was no big deal.

No one has to know about this.

God will just keep this between you and me.

But when I try to cover up and keep silent, God's hand was heavy on me, and my heart just kind of shriveled up like a raisin.

My spirit looked like that part of your yard that the sprinkler system doesn't reach, and it just kind of withered up.

He says, Day and night.

You say, What do you mean?

That sounds punitive.

Sound like God's mad.

Look at me.

God loves you far too much to let you live in sin and be happy.

He's never gonna do that.

You would not let your kids.

Some of you got kids that are old enough to date.

Some of you, when your your girl brings some guy home, your daughter, the first thing you think is, my, my.

This is the first and last time I'm gonna lay eyes on this fool.

Because you ain't gonna let your kid.

That mother bear rises up in you.

Some of you men go back and kind of like, I didn't tell you, I got a Glock.

40 cal, I got more knockdown power than a nine millimeter.

What'd you say your name was, son?

By the way, God's the same way.

He David says, Day and night, your hand was heavy upon me.

I read the psalm and I think of my dad so much because we used to be, when I was little, we'd go places, and my dad was old school.

You, you, you, you respected people older than you.

You said, Yes, sir, no, sir, yes, ma'am, no, ma'am.

We're standing in a feed store one time, and a man said, Son, you want some gum?

And I said, Huh?

I mean, sir, and my dad just reached over and put his hand on my shoulder.

And his hand kind of pushed down on me as if to say, Uh-oh.

I knew what that meant.

I got the gum, we got our feed, we got our range pellets, we got all our stuff, we got the horse and mule blend, we feed our horses, loaded in the truck, and my dad looked at me and said, Now, when we get home, you're gonna get a whipping.

Because he put his hand on me and let me know, hey, by the way, that ain't the way we do it.

Now, some of you are thinking, oh, your father was an abusive, overbearing man.

Go to the mall today and listen to the way teenagers talk to adults.

And then tell me about my dad being overbearing.

Yeah, what am I what am I saying?

I'm saying he calls us to authenticity, says, hey, hey, don't do this.

Don't be some religious phony that's kind of like, hey, I got, because day and night, God's hand's gonna get heavy upon you and your strength is gonna dry up.

He says, Salah, think about this.

Why?

Because God did not create you and I to live that way, to just fake it until we make it.

David says in verse 5, I acknowledge my sin to you, and I did not cover up my iniquity.

That's one thing I realized I met a lot of people who feel like their sin is somehow the biggest, baddest sin ever created, like they've sinned in a way they'd never sinned before.

Like I did a couple of youth camps, and I I can't do that anymore.

Whoo! Help me, Jesus.

Oh, and I but I did an adult retreat.

Well, I was like, oh no, okay, that's great.

A couple weeks ago in Missouri, lady came up to me and she said, I I think I can kind of trust you with this.

But and and long story short, she basically just said, Hey, I haven't really, I mean, my sin.

And I said, Well, let me ask you this.

I said, What do I need to know about you to really know you?

Because I feel like you want to tell me something, you're trying to tell me something, but you hadn't told me anything yet.

It's a bunch of ha yeah, I feel like I'm watching hee-haw.

We'll be right back, we'll be right back.

Just come out with it.

And then she put both her hands over her nose, which is the international woman sign for it.

This is a good messy.

And she started making noise.

And by the way, ladies, when you start crying, your husband just stops talking, okay?

Because that's your husband's way of saying, you win.

What am I gonna do now?

Just beat you up, and you always look at us and go, Don't stop talking.

It's a little overwhelming when your wife's crying and saying, Don't stop talking.

Well, see, my talking makes you cry.

See, my talking made the baby cry.

But she just and out it came.

And I said, Hey, do you you you you're kind of like going, you're like a kid at the swimming pool trying to hold the beach ball under the water.

That's gonna get away from you and break water.

See, authenticity, you gotta be authentic.

Why?

Because God already knows.

You think you're informing God?

Oh, by the way, I didn't practice real discernment.

Now, David says, My sin.

I said, You think you've sinned like a lot?

You say you're a bad sinner?

I'm really bad sinner.

You think like you're chief of sinners?

Yeah, no, you're not, because Wade Collier is.

I said, actually, Paul is.

Paul who said I'm the chief of sinners, and then there's Wade Collier, and then there's a guy named David in the Bible.

Here's my favorite part.

She goes, Who's David?

No, no, don't get self-righteous.

Oh, you know who David is.

I want people in my church who don't know who David is, okay?

She's like, David, I said, he's a guy in the Bible.

Well, what'd he do?

Oh, man.

People that don't know all the answers.

And I said, Well, he was a king, and uh, one night he looked over, and there was a Cialis commercial on the roof over there.

A lady was laying out in the bathtub.

My wife and I bathe out on our roof all the time.

And we hold hands, watch the sun go down, and drink wine.

And I said, Leigh was bathing, and David because his king sent for her, and they hooked up and got together, and she got pregnant, and David tried to cover up because, see, there's this sin where you do one thing and it's like throwing a rock in a pond and just ripped, don't take your hands down.

See, your sin is not like more than anybody else's sin.

So God's not like more mad at you than and I said, So it gets worse.

What else did he do?

Well, after he sinned, and and she said, By the way, I'm pregnant.

And he's like, Uh oh, he got her husband, Uriah, to come home from battle where David should have been leading by example, and and and but Uriah wouldn't go in and be with his wife.

He said, My men are at battle, they can't enjoy the fruit of marriage.

And so he said.

I'm going to sleep back on the porch.

She goes, Are you serious?

Yeah, Uriah was a better man drunk than David was sober.

And so David said, Because you got to just come up with bigger lies when you just live in sin and God's hand gets heavier and you get more desperate.

And so David said, Hey, here I'm going to write orders, put him out in front of the battle, out in front of the troops, and when they go into war, he'll get killed.

And that's what happened.

He murdered this guy's wife.

Oh my gosh, what kind of scumbag is that?

Worse than you.

Put your hands down.

The Bible says in Romans chapter 5, where sin did abound, grace did abound all the more.

Romans 5 · chapter mention

And so I looked at this lady and I said, You can't outsend the grace of God.

And I'm not saying go try.

I'm just saying stop living.

And like this, David says, When I acknowledged my sin, I said, Have you ever acknowledged your sin?

Who do you practice the discipline of confession with?

I don't think anybody would accept me.

God would.

Let's start there.

So let me say this to all of you assembled here this morning.

Regardless of who you are, what you did, when you did it, why you did it, the God of the universe knows and stands ready to forgive you.

If you'll just acknowledge.

David says, You've got to be authentic.

This is David.

Now, this is not Neil talking.

This is David saying, Hey, I tried all the things you're trying, okay?

Just be authentic.

Third thing he says is, be certain.

Be certain.

Look at verse 6.

He says, Therefore, let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found.

Surely, circle that word in your mind.

Surely, in the rush of great waters, they shall not reach him.

You're a hiding place for me.

You preserve me from trouble.

You surround me with shouts.

The literal in the Hebrew is songs.

You surround me with songs of deliverance.

Say la once again.

Pause and reflect.

He says, Hey, therefore let everyone who is godly pray to you while you may be found.

Why?

Because there's a time when you're going to feel like you're a million miles away from God because of what you've done.

And then David says, Surely, surely, in the rush of great waters, they shall not reach him.

One of the greatest sins that we commit in America, apparently, is being certain of anything.

Because the reason I can't do youth camps anymore is these kids kept coming asking me questions, and I'd say, Oh yeah.

Well, the Bible says blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Well, you just sound so certain.

Absolutely, because the Bible's certain.

God didn't stutter.

Well, you know, now we've got research.

I mean, it's kind of different now.

We know now what we didn't know back then.

Help you?

That's a quote.

It's a quote.

Well, we got researchers, you know, and they didn't know.

I mean, some genetically, I mean, people just debug were just kind of genetically disposed to certain behaviors.

The research has proven that.

And I don't think they knew that when they wrote the Bible.

And I was just like, oh, fire's gonna get him.

Oh no, no, don't let fire come out of me.

And I said, so what you're saying to me is it guys in lab coats with their names stitched on the pocket are smarter than God?

Well, yeah, I guess so.

Oh.

Oh.

Oh, I can't help you anymore, my man.

Well, why not?

You're can't be supposed to help it.

I can't help you.

See, my inner redneck is rising up right now, and he's gonna get out and get you.

That ain't good.

Just yeah.

The greatest sin we can commit is certainty of saying, hey, the Bible said this, and that settles the issue, regardless of whatever happens, regardless of what culture says, regardless, oh, well, we got it.

David says, hey, but in a different kind of way.

David says, hey, practice certainty in this way.

He says, Surely in a rush of great waters, they shall not reach him.

No, we gotta we gotta stop acting like every time we get in a situation, God has to prove himself all over again.

Let me say that again.

We've got to stop acting like every time we get in a situation that's hard or difficult, God has to all of a sudden prove himself all over again.

We used to sing the old hymn that says, Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him, how I've proved him over and o'er.

Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him.

Oh, for grace to trust him more.

When the floodwaters are rising all around you, you see, here's two things you gotta embrace and remember.

Number one, you're not alone in the midst of that.

You're not alone in the midst of whatever's going on around you.

It's not like you say, Well, what do you mean?

He's in that with you.

The 23rd Psalm, Yevel walked through the valley in the shadow of death.

I fear no evil.

Why?

Because you are with me.

Your ride and your staff, they comfort me.

You're not in it on your own.

Because when you start thinking, I'm in this on my own, then you start kind of conjuring up ideas and plans that are not from the heart of God.

David says, Surely, surely, as these flood waters rise, guess what's happening?

God, let me just read it in the Bible.

He says, Surely the rush of great water shall not reach him.

You're a hiding place for me.

You preserve me from trouble.

You surround me with songs of deliverance.

Say law.

Pause and reflect.

Now we don't have a frame of reference for this because we didn't got a lot of rain this year.

But at the retreat that I went and did in Missouri, they got 18 inches of rain in Hollister, Missouri in one week.

I was driving down the road and they stopped traffic.

They said, the bridge is out.

You got to turn around and go back.

I said, How do I get there?

Not my problem, son.

I love men that are old enough to call me son.

Man working for the Missouri Department of Transportation looked me in the eye and said, Not my problem, son.

I was like, Rock on, pound it right there, old man.

And I just backed up, went to a convenience store, and got a map and figured it out.

I couldn't Google it.

You know, there's some problems you can't solve by Googling.

You've got to use your noodle, not Google.

You've got to think a little bit.

Some of you don't know anybody's phone numbers either, by the way.

That's a sermon for another time.

Well, let me scroll here through my contacts.

Uh kick.

But, I mean, it was they said, hey, the flood knocked out four cell towers.

This is a first world problem.

People are to retreat, going, I don't get good cell reception.

I said, Life's hard on the mission field, isn't it?

One lady said to me, I haven't seen Facebook in two days.

Oh, Dahara.

She goes, Man, I'm having withdrawals.

She said, What do you think about that?

I said, just make sure you're as interesting in person as you appear to be on Facebook.

That bad?

Was it something I said?

Y'all are like, Where's Lance?

Can we just get could we just get some parables, some Jesus story, something going on?

Just, hey, in the midst of all this, here's what, hey, if the water is kind of up to your ears and you're standing on your tiptoes, kind of go, I can't take anymore.

Stop talking and listening because your sovereign God is announcing, he's singing songs of deliverance.

He surrounded you.

He's like, hey, hey, I'm not gonna get you out of this.

I'm gonna walk through this with you.

Because sometimes he pulls you out, and sometimes he leaves you in.

And he says, We're gonna get through this.

Stop talking and listening.

And you hear songs of deliverance.

Fourthly and finally, is what David says to us.

David says, Hey, live what you understand.

Starting in verse 8.

You notice we're all out of say laws now.

Somebody else grabs the mic like a drunk guy at karaoke.

I want to sing.

But it you never been there?

I was there.

I uh March and I went to some friends of San Antonio the first week I was on the first Sunday I was on sabbatical.

We were on the river walk.

We were walking around, went to this little place, they had a piano guy singing, and there's a table.

I think it was like a bridal party or something.

But let me tell you, bridesmaids and tequila, that don't go well together.

Because they were taking over the joint and they were singing and stuff.

And so David's been talking this whole time.

In verse 8, he says, I will instruct you.

Uh-oh.

Somebody else got the mic.

It's God talking now.

God says, I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go.

I will counsel you with my eye upon you.

There's nothing going on in your life, God says, that I don't see.

So I don't need you to pray with informing language to me.

You cannot tell me anything.

I know everything.

Prayer is not about informing God, it's about acknowledging God.

He says, I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go.

I will counsel you with my eye upon you.

Verse 9, be not like a horse or mule without understanding, which must be curved with bit and bridle, or it will not stay near you.

Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the Lord.

Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart.

I want to close by just drawing your attention to verse 9, where he says, Hey, don't be like a horse or a mule without understanding.

See, people that live without understanding must be reined in with corrective measures like a bit and a bridle.

A bit, we live in Sugarland, and some of you may live in the country, may say, Hey, we got that.

Not many people in my neighborhood own horses.

So we don't understand this.

But if you've ever been around a horse, the bit is this metal bar that goes in his mouth.

And the bridle is those leather straps that kind of attach to it.

That's how you control the horse.

Well, I grew up on a farm and we had chickens and horses and baby calves and we had a monkey and dogs and cats and everything.

But the horses we had were kind of like, we got them like out of the from the line at the glue factory.

They were just nags.

They're just beating down old horses.

And then we had some friends that lived down the road, uh, by the way, down a dirt road.

Have you seen a dirt road before?

You'd be better people if you if you at least drove on a dirt road sometime.

But our friends lived down, they had like horses, like could do stuff horses.

Like they had a barn and had a tack room.

I don't know what a tack room was.

It's where you keep the horse equipment.

And uh and it smelled like saddle soap.

My favorite smell as a little kid was saddle soap.

I'd go over and just I'd hyperventilate my dad, stop breathing so hard, boy.

It just smelled awesome.

It smelled like a big baseball glove on steroids.

And they would pull out their tag and they'd put it.

We got over there, they said, Y'all want to come ride a horses?

Like, yeah, we go over there, they're all, I mean, they got the saddles on them, they got everything.

And the guy looked at me and said, Get up on our boy.

And so I got up, stepped up.

By the way, you get on a horse from the left side.

You never get on a horse on the right side.

You know, they're like, You're kidding.

I'm not kidding.

It's like in the cowboy handbook.

And so I got up, and and because I rode their horses the way we rode ours for about a split second, and because I reached down and grabbed one of the reins and just pulled it real hard, that horse went, and the next thing I knew, someone grabbed me by the belt and threw me off the horse.

It was my dad.

Y'all were like, I see, that man's abusive.

I told you.

I hit the ground with a thud, and my dad said, Boy, you ain't got a neck rein at a horse like that and jerk him around.

And I was like, uh-uh.

And the man said, Oh, that's okay.

And he got up and he said, Now, son, these horses are trained.

You don't have to do that.

And my dad came up behind me and put his fingers in my mouth and said, How does that feel?

I was like, All right, got the real good.

And so my dad was just, huh?

You like that?

And so I went home that night like the joker.

Wait till they get a load of meat.

And I got back up on the horse and said, Okay, I'm ready now.

And the man just very patiently got owned the horse, walked over, and he said, Son, he said, This is a trained animal, okay?

He's gonna let you be in charge.

But here's what you're gonna do: take those two reins and put them together in your hand right there, rest your hand on the horn of the saddle.

That's that little knob there on the front.

And he said, now when you want to go to the right, just lift the rein up and just touch him on the left side of his neck.

And he'll turn and go that way.

If you want to go that way, just you ain't gotta jerk his head around like that.

What he was saying to me was, this horse understands.

And what David is saying to you and I, and what God is saying in this portion of the 32nd Psalm is, hey, don't be like a horse or a mule without understanding, which must be curved with bit and bridle.

Here's what this all leads up to, this next phrase, or it will not stay near you.

Then I V says, or it will not come to you.

Here's what I want you to understand about God today.

His desire is that you stay near Him.

Because our nature is to flee from Him.

Remember back in the garden?

Adam and Eve sinned and they hid, and God came and said, Where are you?

It is God's desire that you and I live in close proximity to him.

He doesn't want to discipline you.

How many of you are sitting here right now are thinking, I can't wait to get home and whip our kids.

I mean, that's weird.

Even saying that, y'all are kind of like, your mind is messed up.

Why do you think God's that way?

You kind of live with this sense of just any day now, He's gonna fly off a handle like my alcoholic stepdad and whack me.

No, he just says, hey, don't be like a horse or mule that doesn't have understanding.

See, God assumes that you understand some things.

You're smart people.

Now I say smart, I don't mean like, oh, I went to because some of you downplay, I'm not smart, I didn't go to college, but hey, there are a lot of people graduate from college that are idiots.

And I graduated from college.

I'm not making fun of that.

I'm gonna make my kids go to college, okay?

But just don't count yourself out.

This here is not about intellect, this is about willingness.

It's not about intellect, it's about willingness.

And God says, hey, if you're willing, I'm willing.

Stand to your feet, let me speak a blessing over you.

Hold your hands out.

You're the sons and daughters of God.

He knows you, he loves you, and he accepts you.

You don't have to pretend.

On your realest day you've ever had, your God didn't blink and didn't look away.

He saw everything.

Depart now.

Live in proximity to your Creator.

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Bless you.

You're dismissed.