I Can Trust Jesus No Matter What | Dave Walters | Calvary Church

And so if you have your Bibles with you

here today, you can turn to Psalm 56.

And I'm just going to be focusing in on

a couple verses here uh with you here

this morning in the time that I have.

And we're going to start in verse three.

So I'm going to read verse three, verse

4, and then the last verse of the

chapter, verse 11.

Starting in verse three, David writes,

"When I am afraid, I will trust in you.

In God whose word I praise, in God I

trust. I will not be afraid." And then

skipping down to verse 13, "For you have

delivered me from death and my feet from

stumbling that I may walk before God in

the light of life." Let's pray. Lord,

just thank you for your word and for

your promises and the fact that we can

trust you no matter what. I pray that

you would uh help us to hear what you

want uh us to learn today and uh just be

with us this day in your name. Amen.

All right. So, we hear that David is

writing this Psalms. And to give you a

little bit of background on where David

is at at this particular time, David is

being pursued by King Saul. You see,

David was anointed as king and King

Saul, well, he was still king and he

didn't like that very much, right? He's

like, "Whoa, what's going on?" And so,

God protected David and sent him out to

get away from King Saul. So, King Saul

is pursuing David and he ends up in this

town, David does, in this town that's

controlled by the Philistines. And let's

just say David's had a runin or two with

the Philistines, right? And so when they

found out that David was with there,

they captured him and was threatening

him. And so David is in the midst of

this really terrible situation. On one

hand, he has the king of Israel chasing

after him. And on the other hand, he has

the whole Philistine nation looking to

get rid of him. And in the midst of

that, he writes out this psalm, this

prayer to God. Right? And I love verse

three because he says when I am afraid.

Now he doesn't sit there and go ah if

I'm afraid. He's addressing it's like

when I am afraid. And I started thinking

I was like ah man when I was a kid what

was I afraid of when I was a kid. Ah

yeah thunderstorms right the the the

loud noises of thunderstorms and and the

dark. Definitely I was afraid of the

dark when I was a kid. And especially if

we had a thunderstorm in the dark,

right? That was terrible. And you know

what? One of the things I was really

afraid of those little bugs that got all

the legs. We used to call them thousand

leggers that crawl from your basement,

right? No, nobody likes that, right?

Everybody's afraid of that. But now that

I'm an adult, right, I my fears are

different. I have different fears. I

think about a lot. I worry about my

finances and I and I worry about my

family, right? And I worry about my

future. And I think about my daughter

Laura who's going into her senior year

of high school this year. And we're

already on college visits and ah

[screaming]

a lot of fear

right there. And David addresses that

when I am afraid. How many of you out

there have ever been afraid?

Yeah, you're lying if you didn't put

your hand up. Right. All right. And I

know who you are. More importantly, God

knows who you are. Just kidding. All

right. When I am afraid, what does David

say next? Does he say I go and hide in a

cave? Does he say I try to ignore it so

I I don't acknowledge it like I just

don't answer anything? Does he say I try

to fight it with all of my strength? No.

What David says in verse three is he

says I put my trust in God.

I put my trust in God. What a great

lesson for us to learn, right? And

remember those themes I was talking

about. Jesus sees me, Jesus saves me.

And Jesus loves me. Well, the the last

couple verses here that we see in this

psalm kind of address that very thing.

In fact, in verse four, we can see where

Jesus or where God sees David, right? In

verse four, it says, "In God whose word

I praise, in God I trust." And so, I'm

like, "Well, that's kind of interesting.

In God whose word I praise." What are we

thinking about? how God can see David in

the midst of his fear, in the midst of

his struggles, in the midst of his

chaos, in the midst of all the things

that are going on. How can God see David

in that? And David, as he sits there and

he's thinking about how he's going to

trust in God no matter what, he says, "I

can praise God because of his word." And

I'm thinking, what word does David have?

Well, David has the whole history of the

Israelites that he can look back upon

and that he can lean in on. And he sees

God showing up time and time and time

again for those people. He was out there

doing amazing things for the the people

of Israel from creation through Yeah,

there were a lot of ups and downs and

bumps and bruises along the way, but God

is always faithful. And not only that,

but David could point and just look at

his own life. He can look back to when

he was a shepherd boy and he had to

defend off the bears and the lions and

the and the wolves and the things from

the sheep. And God protected him through

all of that. He saw David for who he was

and God reached in and protected him.

And of course, we know the story of him

and Goliath where he took that little

sling and those five little stones and

this giant who was just wreaking havoc

on the Israelites. And yet God used

David and protected him in that way. God

knows you intimately. He knows you

inside and out. You have been created in

his image. You are fearfully and

wonderfully made with a purpose and a

plan to glorify God. And we read in

Ephesians that you are his masterpiece.

You are his masterpiece. There's nothing

better than to be determined like to be

uh have that read to you. What an

amazing testimony of God and his

faithfulness and who you are. Nothing in

creation gets that same label as what

you are and being God's masterpiece. God

sees you and he saw de David in this

situation. But you know what? God also

saves David. We go down to verse 13 and

it says, "For you have delivered me from

death." For you have delivered me from

death. And David faced physical death

time and time again in his life. Right?

He wasn't just a shepherd boy. And he

wasn't just that little boy who took

those five stones, but David was a great

warrior who led the Israeli army for

King Saul out into many battles. And now

he's under great trial and tribulation

being tracked by by King Saul himself at

this particular time and the Philistine

army. And yet God saves David time and

time again. And it got me thinking about

when we share the gospel on Wednesday

with our kids and we were able to share

with with them about how much God loves

each and every one of these kids. They

he loves him so much that he had a plan

because he had to have a plan because we

had a problem.

And that that problem uh just a little

problem, right? We had a sin problem.

Not so little. Not s such a little

problem. and there was nothing that we

could do to fix our problem. You see,

when we sin, when we put ourselves above

God, what that does is that breaks our

relationship with God. God wants to be

the the the the top, right? He is the

one that is worthy. He is the one that

is holy. He is the one that is set apart

and we are to honor him and glorify his

name and and and uh and have him lead

our lives. But when we sin and we put

ourselves above God, it breaks that that

rhythm. It breaks that pattern.

And instead, what we do is we sin. And

there's nothing that we can do to fix

that sin. But praise God that he had a

plan and that he loved us so much that

he sent his one and only son, Jesus, to

this earth. And what a beautiful story

that is. John 3:16 as we un unpack that

John 3:16

on Wednesday for our kids that Jesus was

sent not to just come and and be with us

and spend some time and and encourage us

and high-five us and all that kind of

stuff. No, Jesus came to die on the

cross for our sins. You see, our sins,

there's a penalty for our sin. First of

all, we all sin, right? Every single one

of us, kids in this room, parents in

this room, grandparents, pastors, we all

sin. And we all fall short of God's

glory, right? And the penalty of that

sin is death. Not just physical death,

but eternal death. Forever. Separated

from God forever.

Right? Forever. But Jesus came and he

stretched out his arms on that cross and

he died a criminal's death. And because

of his death and his burial and his

resurrection, we can trust in Jesus

because he defeated sin and he defeated

death once and for all. And that is now

behind us if we believe in who he is and

in what we did and what he did.

If we believe in who he is and in what

he did. And we had 38 kids on Wednesday

from third to sixth grade say, "I

believe in what Jesus did and who he

is." Praise the Lord for that.

[applause]

God saves us. God saves us. God saves

us. God saves us. The last part of our

week, we talked about how God leads us.

And the very last part of verse 13 says

this. David writes this. That I may walk

before God in the light of life. That I

may walk before God in the light of

life. What is he talking about there?

Walking in God's footsteps.

How do you get to know somebody? How do

you get to know somebody? You spend time

with them, right? You spend time with

them. The more you spend time with

somebody, right, the more you get to

know them, the more you find out, hey,

we got a lot of things that we like,

right? We got a lot of things that we do

that are are exactly the same. You think

of your best friend, the best friend

that you have, right? The one that you

hang out with the most, whoever that

might be. You have a lot of things that

you have in common. And so much so that

you start doing things together, right?

Well, if you want to know Jesus, what do

you got to do? You got to hang out with

them, right? You gotta hang out with

them. And Jesus will lead us every step

of the way. David knew that back 3,000

years ago. He knew that. I want to walk

in the light of life. What is the light

of life? The life that comes from God

himself.

The light that comes from God himself.

We had just an incredible week this

week. I'm so grateful for all of you in

this space that contributed in one way

or the other. Whether you volunteered or

you prayed for us, you gave

sacrificially for us to pull something

off like this. The kids were amazing.

They were so good. Parents are doing a

great job. They're so great this week.

We want them to always remember and we

want to reinforce to them as parents, as

grandparents, as aunts, uncles, as

friends, as pastors, as volunteers, as

staff, right? That these kids can trust

Jesus no matter what they're facing. So

that one day, just like David when he

prayed and he prayed, when I fear, when

I am afraid, I I put my trust in God.

Let's pray. Lord, thank you so much for

this great day, for this celebration of

Kidfest and all that you are doing in

the life of Calvary Church and in kids

ministry here. And uh we're just so

grateful for your word and the and the

ways that it teaches us. And I just pray

that you will be with us for the rest of

this time we have together. And we pray

these things in your name. Amen.