The Path of Life

Good morning three CI it is a great privilege to share the

word of God with you this morning my wife shared so

beautifully babe, you're amazing what God has done in your life

is incredible. It's a privilege to be married

to 18 years this year. Hey and going awesome 3 CI I

want to say this to you. You're a base church, that is

you impact the lives of of, of, of, of gospel families across

the earth. The gospel reverberates, echoes

out of this place and touches our hearts and Durban people in

Cape Town, Lisbon and beyond. And what you are doing and

you're serving the Lord here is impacting people out there.

Paul writes to the the Thessalonian Church and he says

the word of God rang out from you not in only in your region,

but to every area where your faith, faith has been made

known. And I want to say to you, 3 CI,

you're a beautiful church. You're a beautiful church.

You may not feel beautiful, but God has made You Beautiful.

The Father says you are beautiful.

You're beautiful in his eyes. I pray you received that this

morning. Jesus makes us beautiful.

You're a beautiful church. Roy and Mel, thank you for your

love and tremendous support. The leaders of this church thank

you for backing us. Thank you for for how you love

us, how you support us. This church continues to support

us in so many ways and we are so grateful your team has hosted us

with such heaven like generosity this weekend.

We are so filled up and refreshed and and built up.

I want to thank you from three CI.

Thank you every single one of you.

Thank you. Wonderful.

There's 10 in our Bibles this morning to Psalm chapter Psalm

16. It's it's not chapter 16, it's

Psalm 16. I'm going to read from the real

Bible. OK, let's hear the word of God

this morning. Protect me God verse one,

protect me God, for I take refuge in you.

I said to the Lord, you are my Lord.

I have nothing good beside you. As for the holy people who are

in the land, they are the noble ones.

All my delight is in them. The sorrows of those who take

another God for themselves will multiply.

I will not pour out their drink offerings of blood.

I will not speak their names with my lips.

Lord, you are my portion and my cup of blessing.

You hold my future. The boundary lines have fallen

for me in pleasant places. Indeed, I have a beautiful

inheritance. I will bless the Lord who

counsels me. Even at night, when my thoughts

trouble me, I always let the Lord guide me.

Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

Therefore my heart is glad and my whole being rejoices, and my

body also rests securely. For you will not abandon me to

shield. You will not allow your faithful

one to see decay. You reveal the path of life to

me in your presence is abundant joy at your right hand, our

eternal pleasures. And I've been prayed for this

morning, but let's pray. Heavenly Father, I pray this

morning that we'll come under the conviction of your word by

the power of the Holy Spirit, and that you will enable me to

preach your word with boldness this morning in Jesus name,

Amen. You remember how God took David,

a young shepherd boy from Bethlehem, and he anointed him

king over Israel. And the process of becoming king

was long and treacherous. As king, David carried great

responsibility and he enjoyed many victories, but he also

endured many trials. And God used David to show us

his covenant love and his faithfulness.

This particular Psalm is is called a Mctim of David.

Scholars have no cooking clue what the word MC Tam actually

means, but the root word that this word MC Tam takes its

reform from is actually quite interesting.

There's 2 two or three Hebrew words, but significant is one of

them is the words secret and the other one is protective

covering. I don't know if you've, I looked

at Brad and Debbie recently and said, Brad and Debbie, I don't

know how old you are, at least over 40, but you look like

you're not a day over 30. You know, what's your secret?

What's your secret? How do you stay so young?

Brad and Debbie, one could say of David, you know, what's your

secret, David, what's your secret?

How do you keep on going through the trials that you've that

you've faced? How do you hold this

responsibility of being king over Israel when, when things

are good and when things have have not been easy at all?

Like when your own son has betrayed you and tried to take

the Kingdom from you, when your own sin has caught you out?

David How, how, how have you lived in God's covenant faithful

love and experienced the joy in in your heart?

Where do you get your confidence, David?

And so I see Psalm 16 as a as a window into the devotion of

David's life, his convictions brought about by the Spirit of

God. And in Psalm in verse 11, David

says God reveals the path of life to me, the path of life.

And so that's the title of my sermon this morning, the path of

life. I want to talk about

experiencing, knowing the life of Jesus that we have been

delivered, saved into walking it out the path of life.

Many Christians trust Jesus for forgiveness of sins, but we

don't trust him for our everyday life.

We give our hearts to Jesus, but we still live our own lives

according to the pattern of the world.

And we wonder why we're not enjoying God's peace.

But he saved us into a whole new country.

It's called the Kingdom of God. And in the Psalm, I see seven

statements of radical devotion from a man who experienced God's

faithful covenant love through the highs and lows of life.

And we're all invited to walk the path of life.

We are delivered into the path of life by grace, undeserved

favour, and by the Spirit of God.

God invites us to walk it out, to live under him.

Let's go through this Psalm. Protect me God, for I take

refuge in you point #1 take refuge in God, friend, take

shelter in God. I grew up in a ministry hustle.

I heard many tragic stories in my life.

My dad would get the phone call, so and so has died.

There's a time where my dad had to go to a couples home and tell

them that their first child had died.

And a couple of years later he had to go to their home again

and tell them their second child had died.

And my dad taught me how to take shelter in God.

I remembered dad holding my dad holding hands with us as a

family and say, let's pray. Let's pray when trouble hit,

let's pray. Let's seek the Lord.

Let's take shelter in our God. I'm grateful for that.

How are you dealing with life, friend?

Are you trying to, are you trying to do it in your own

strength, trying to face your troubles and your own wisdom and

your own strength? Do you know the shepherding of

God? Protect me, Lord.

It actually means shepherd me God, Shepherd me God.

David says he runs to God for shelter.

Another psalmist called Elamoth in Psalm 46 verse one says God

is our refuge and strength, a helper who is always found, say,

always found in times of trouble.

Let's run to God for refuge. This is the path of life.

I said to the Lord, You are my Lord.

I have nothing good beside you. I want to invite you to come

under God's loving authority as this child come under God's

loving authority. I said to the Lord the Lord

Yahweh, the God who breathed in all of creation came into

existence. The Lord the one who spoke the

stars into being filled the universe with such beauty and

wonder and glory. Dallas Willard says yo you we,

we put a little fish tank in our home and we can't get enough of

the little fish. Have you ever looked into the

might of the oceans and seen the unfathomable riches of colour

and and life? The Lord who parted the Red Sea

before Moses and the Israelites, the God of Abraham, Isaac and

Jacob, the God who by grace came down and said, Abraham, I will

bless you, the Lord. I said to the Lord, You are my

Lord. You know what the grace of God

is. The mercy and the wonder of God

is that the Lord wants to be your Lord.

He wants to be your Lord. My wife has just shed her

testimony and beat me to it. I was going to she, but I'll

just fill in some details. There was a guy called Sean

Adams LED a youth ministry, still leads youth ministry to

this day in Nosbrite, Pomalanga. My, my wife heard the gospel

under Sean Adams and, and then she was learning to, to walk

this out and she got a bit distracted at the University of

Pretoria and she, she wasn't involved in so many good things.

And the Lord arrested her heart one Saturday morning in varsity

and said enough. And she was convicted.

And so that night at a party, she was learning to listen,

someone else comes to her. So let me just backtrack a bit.

Sorry, very important. She said, Lord, if you want me

to go to church, then tell me which church to go to.

And she took out a map of Pretoria and before Google Maps

and she and she said, where, where should I go?

And she said you'd help me, Lord.

So that night at a party, someone comes up to her and

says, you won't believe it. I found a church.

This is 2:00 in the morning, three CI, we should go tomorrow.

She walked into the doors of three CI.

And her life has never been the same.

The Lord became her Lord. I have nothing good apart from

you. You know what?

David comes to the conclusion that in life, no God, and I mean

the God, no God, no good. No God, no good.

If God's not in it, I don't want it.

Everything under the sun loses its goodness apart from God.

Marriage, business, entertainment, pleasure, it all

gets sick and twisted without the presence of God.

When we think there is there is any good outside of God's

presence, outside of his loving authority, that is not life, you

know. You know Jesus came, came

preaching the good news of the Kingdom saying repent because

the Kingdom of God has come near.

The Kingdom of God means the rule of God, the loving

authority of God. Most High Jesus was saying you

can come in and live under the rule of God.

It is available. The Kingdom of heaven has come

near and we know through Jesus the only way to the Father, we

can come under the loving authority of God and live under

his gracious rule and reign. You know the two very important

lessons that God had to teach Abraham.

Genesis 15 I am your protector. Genesis 22, I am your provider.

Come under the authority of of God, friends.

Learn to live under the protection and the provision,

the loving authority of God #3 #3 delight in God's people.

As for the holy people in the land, they are the noble ones.

All my delight is in them. Friends to delight this word

delight means to take extreme pleasure and satisfaction,

extreme pleasure and satisfaction in God's people.

Look, look at the person next to you.

So I, I delight in you. It might seem weird, but I'll it

will make sense now. OK, Some of you looking at your

wives. It's it's good.

I delight in you, friends. I have observed this, I've

observed this. I've been in the church.

It's my 40th birthday in August 26th.

If just I've observed this, I've observed this.

I grew up in the church. It didn't make me a Christian.

Jesus came to me. He is my Lord.

People who love the church have a lot of joy.

People who love the church have a lot of joy.

People who love God's people have a lot of joy.

We walk the path of life when we invest our lives in God's

people. There is safety, there is joy,

there is encouragement being amongst God's people.

I have not walked out of one gathering of the church and I've

fellowship in America and Australia and Thailand and

Portland OR and and Lisbon, Portugal and here in three CR

and I've never walked out of a church service.

We haven't been encouraged and built up and full.

Just God, thank you for your grace.

As a pastor, I want to tell you this, God has had me on a

journey of learning to delight in His people more and more.

When I was fresh in the ministry, it was about me, my

responsibility, what I need to organize, the weight of

leadership. And while this is all part of

the role, God has been changing my perspective and I've

discovered the joy of delighting in God's people, celebrating

what God is doing in people's lives.

You are bought with the precious blood of Christ.

I look upon the sea of people and I'm amazed.

We hear all sinners saved by grace.

Each of you a miracle story of what God, God has redeemed you

and saved you and washed you and brought you into the Kingdom of

God. Oh, learn to delight in God's

people. Learn to delight in God's

people. Learn to celebrate what God is

doing in other people's lives. Friends, I want to tell you

this. I know, I know.

We journey through the church long and some of you, you've

experienced pain in the church some some of you are hurt.

And I just want to tell you this, Don't give up on the

church. Jesus never gives up on his

church. If you read the end of the

story, it says Jesus marries his church.

I want to encourage you if you're cynical this morning, if

you've been hurt, it's not a lack of compassion for what

you've gone through. I don't know your story, but I

want to tell you just just open up your arms and say, Lord God,

may I delight in your people again.

First of all, the sorrows of those who take another God for

themselves will multiply. I will not pour out their drink

offerings of blood. I will not speak their names

with my lips. I summarize what David is saying

into this Have nothing to do with the ways and worship of the

wicked have nothing to do with it.

There's a quote by Andy Crouch. He says all idols begin by

offering great things for a very small price.

They will take more and more and offer less and less until

eventually they demand everything and offer nothing.

I've been in church a long time. As I've said, I've observed

people who are faithful in worship and in simple obedience

to the Lord, and they've lived with joy in their hearts for

decades. But worldly ambition that's

crept into the hearts of believers, those who fall for

the pursuits of the world. I've seen them taken out of

their church according to their own decision and come into

spiritual drought. David is not saying have nothing

to do with ungodly people. We are called to reach out to

the lost. David is saying have nothing to

do with their worship and their ways.

Don't take the world's value system on board.

You see, if we enter the ways and worship of the wicked,

running after the things they are running after, we will enter

their sorrow. It's it's not good.

It's not the path of life. It's not the life in the Kingdom

of God that our Father is calling us to live in.

You know, the way the world operates behind it is the one

who opposes Satan's agenda. And we, we do not fear him

because we are protected and, and, and made perfect in the

love of Christ. But let's just be real according

to the word of God that the way of the world is there to

desensitize us and and to and to make us think you're Jesus

standard of righteousness is a bit extreme and sin is not that

bad. And I'll tell you friends, I

meet many people that start to think this word is outdated,

that God's ways are but old school.

Daryl Johnson says this. Even when I don't understand the

word, I stand under it. This is the infallible word of

God. This is our standard of

righteousness. God's standard of righteousness

is a is a righteousness of love. It's for his glory and it's for

our good. And so we read the word of God

and we say, Lord, I've fallen fast short.

Thank you, Lord Jesus, that I'm covered by the righteousness of

Christ. I'm unable to live for you.

I just want to encourage you in this place.

If you're involved in something you know that is not part of

this, this family of God, run from it, get rid of it, it's not

worth it. Come out of it, repent.

The Kingdom of God is available, the rule of God is here #5 enjoy

God and enjoy what He has given you.

Enjoy God and enjoy what He has given you.

This is the path of life. Lord, You are my portion and my

cup of blessing. You hold my future.

Vanessa and I were in America, in Green Bay, WI for six months

of our lives and, and, and I was running after some stuff and it

was a preacher from, from, from the South.

And he was preaching in the church that day, you say,

where's that South African cup come to the front?

And he prophesied incredibly accurately about some details in

my life. And he said, I feel to tell you

this, the Lord says I am yours and you are mine.

I am yours and you are mine. That comes from Song of Solomon

Song of Solomon 2:16

2 verse 16. My love is mine and I am His

friends. This truth has been a life to me

when things are not going my way and when I don't get what I

want. The Lord is mine and I am His

and that is enough. That is enough.

You hold my future. You hold my future.

Say you hold my future friends, the way of the world, the way of

the successful In the world's success markers, the self-made

man and woman, master of your own destiny.

Get all you can get. It's a sad way to die.

The good news is that in Christ, God is the master of my destiny,

and this applies to your final glorification at the return of

Jesus, and it applies to the fulfillment of every promise and

dream that God has spoken over your life.

God is the one who holds your future.

Your life is in no man's hands, not in your boss's hands, not in

anyone's hands. We live under the rule of God.

He is the master of our destiny. The boundary lines have fallen

for me in pleasant places. Indeed, I have a beautiful

inheritance. Remember, David wrote the Psalm

when he was in trouble, when things were not going well, and

he says the boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant

places. Indeed, I have a beautiful

inheritance. I'll tell you a little story.

Three men woke up one day to a phone call.

The person on the other side of the telephone says you've

received an inheritance. So the first man spent his whole

life going to court trying to argue that he didn't deserve the

field, that he was given the inheritance was a field, crucial

part of the story, sorry, and that surely he couldn't have

been given such a gift for free. So he argued in court the rest

of his life. One man spent his life and he

complained that the field had some weeds in it.

And he cried out that this is useless and he rejected the

potential. The last man rejoiced in the

gift, worked the land and he enjoyed a harvest the following

year. Ashley Bell leads Branston New

Covenant Once on a ministry trip.

He just turned to me. He'd like one of those throwing

lines to a young man. He said, you can only have what

heaven gives you, James. This comes from John 327.

Context As John's disciples come rushing to John and saying

everyone is heading off to Jesus and John says I'm not the

Messiah, he must increase, I must decrease.

My ministry has run its course and I'm happy I got to be the

friend of the groom who rejoiced at his coming.

He says this John responded no one can receive anything unless

it has been given to him from heaven.

I've travelled from being born in Middleburg and Pomalanga, to

studying in Pretoria, to a job in a mechanic shop in Centurion,

to Sydney, Australia, back to Middleburg, now to Durban.

And I've learned this. You are happiest where God has

you and you're happiest when you enjoy.

That is, make full use of what God has given you.

And some of us are too busy wishing about living in another

country or or or or or or Lord, give me something else and

wishing for something else in your life that you're not

enjoying your wife, you're not enjoying your kids, you're not

enjoying what is, what has heaven given you?

Can you stand up with David and say the boundary lines have

fallen me for me in pleasant places?

I will enjoy what I will enjoy God because firstly, he is my

portion and my cup of blessing. And I will enjoy what the Father

has given me. I will make full use of it.

This is the path of life number six.

Open your heart to God's counsel.

I will bless the Lord who counsels me even at night when

my thoughts trouble me. I've observed that people who

seek godly counsel make good decisions and enjoy the peace of

God. Isaiah 9 verse 6 Speaking of the

Isaiah 9:6

Messiah, says he will be called wonderful counselor.

How many of you are turning to God for His counsel?

How many of you in your prayer life simply said, Lord, speak to

me, what should I do? What will be your way?

Before I rush off and do my way, what will be your way?

Lord counsel me. Lord, Friends, we have to open

ourselves up to the counsel of God, especially when we're in

trouble. When we're in trouble, we tend

to hide from God in the church, right?

We get busy with trying to solutionize.

It's my own word. I've got to figure this out.

I just got a couple of things to get through and the church will

see me later, but I got to deal with this first.

And God is saying you stick in the family of God, you stick in

the counsel of God. You, you, you don't turn aside

to the left or the right. You, you, you seek the

counselor. Lord, you walk through it.

In the family of God, you walk through it when you're in

trouble, when you're depressed, when you're anxious.

This church has got an amazing saying.

You run to God and you run to his church.

And I love this. David gives us a beautiful

picture of how worship opens up the doorway to God's counsel.

So David says that he blesses the Lord who counsels me even at

night when anxiety rages. How many of you in this room go

to bed some nights and you just feel like the world is a

tremendously dark place? Just me.

OK friends, I've learnt this. I've learnt a lie.

I'm just going to do a little picture that you I learnt and I

put my head on my pillow. I feel troubled by the stuff

that I can't control. And I just say, Lord, I worship

you. I praise you, Lord, I am yours

and you are mine. You're my portion, my cup.

I worship you, Lord. I can't control it, Lord.

God, you can work while I'm sleeping.

I can't make it happen. I love you, Lord.

Bring peace to my anxious heart. Speak peace to my soul right

now, Lord. Praise you, Lord, just to ask

you to close your eyes. Just close your eyes.

Let's begin to worship the Lord. I don't know that any in any

building, any time there's a church gathering, there can be

troubled hearts in our midst. They can be people going through

the depths of pain that some of us don't understand.

Many of us don't understand right now.

Maybe for some people in this room, there's a great sense of

hopelessness in in some people's hearts.

So we're going to worship God together and we're going to

trust God to speak his peace to anxious hearts.

Right now, this morning, come with you, with your, with your,

with your lips, just I worship you, Lord, I praise you, Lord,

speaking to worship God, cry out to him, Praise you, Lord, I

worship you, your holy name. You are good, wonderfully, good,

amazing, magnificent. You love us.

You know every hair on my head, Lord, I worship you Jesus,

praise you, Lord, thank you, Jesus.

Father, I pray that you just touch any heart in this place.

I want to encourage you with this when we think that our

anxiety is too much to bear. John writes this whenever our

hearts condemn us. God is greater than our hearts

and He knows all things. Verse 8.

I will always let the Lord guide me because he is at my right

hand. I will not be shaken.

My last point is this, Trust the Lord to lead you.

I always let the Lord guide me. This phrase is literally

translated. I put the Lord in front of me.

I put the Lord in front of me. Many of us have no peace because

we live our lives like this. My Father in heaven, my Kingdom

come, my will be done. But the last time I checked, it

doesn't go like that. Jesus says follow me, follow me.

There's been a vital reminder in in the call of ministry.

I remember in a prayer meeting and when this was still a tent

and we had a prayer meeting at the back somewhere behind the

sound desk there, and we were in the middle of a pre meeting.

I was a young man. I wanted to serve God and I had

a lot to learn. In the middle of the pre

meeting, the guy who led the church at the stage name was

Nick Davis. He stopped the pre meeting and

he looked at me, looked straight at me and said God will raise

you up. God will raise you up.

In other words, you don't have to fight for what God is going

to give you one day. You don't have to position

yourself and wangle it. God will raise you up.

That has been so life giving for me.

In a world of ministry where people are brand building and

platform building and whatnot, God will raise you up.

Whatever God is calling you to do, God will position you for

it. That that that word guide means

to be positioned. God will position me if you're

looking for that, that that thing that that promotion, if

God has it for you, God will position you be faithful and

obedient with what he's given you today and you pray about it.

But friends, don't take things into your own hands.

He says the Lord is at my right hand.

I will not be shaken. That that phrase right hand.

That's very significant, especially in in in ancient

Middle East. The one who was at your right

hand was, was was your your defender, your advocate, someone

who defended you. Are you trying to defend your

life? Can you, can you live with a bit

of people misunderstanding you? Do you always have to explain

yourself? Can you live in the peace of God

that the Lord will defend me? The Lord vindicates me.

Do you have to do you have to prove yourself?

If someone tells you something you already know, do you have to

tell them? Yeah, but I already know that.

Or can you just. Can you just he just let the

Lord defend you can live in the peace.

It's the peace and freedom of knowing that God knows.

And it's the military context where it's it's, it's, it's,

it's where your sword is stripped.

It's, it's your right hand, man. God is at my right hand.

He's the hand of my strength. My hands alone are not strong

enough to lead me where God wants to take me.

Friends, the consequence? Let's just read this again.

What's the consequence? I'm done.

What's the consequence of being shepherded by God by walking in

His path of life? Just close your eyes.

Therefore, my heart is glad and my whole being rejoices.

My body also rests securely. For you will not abandon me to

shield You will not allow your faithful one to see decay.

God will not abandon you, friend.

God will never abandon you, no matter how far you go running

away from His love as his child. God will not abandon you.

God will not abandon you. We are saved by grace.

You reveal the path of life to me, and your presence is

abundant joy at your right hand or eternal pleasures.

Peter says in his sermon at Pentecost and Acts 2 that this

Psalm is actually about Jesus. You see, because Jesus is

actually the hero of the story. Jesus has perfectly glorified

the Father as a man. Jesus is heaven on earth.

Jesus is the path of life. Experiencing God's abundant life

starts with putting our total trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.

God bless you. 3 CI. May God work mightily in your

lives. Amen.