Rescue 25:15

So I wonder how many steps do you take in a typical day?

You count them.

That takes concentration, you know, maybe you're cool like my wife, you got a Fitbit thing, huh, maybe you'd like me.

You just use your iPhone, counts your steps.

The average American walks how many steps a day?

Do you think?

Between five and seven?

Between five and seven thousand steps a day.

The American Podiatric Medical Association estimates that the average person over the course of a lifetime will walk nearly a hundred thousand miles in a lifetime.

We've got some great ushers who've got some great note pages and some great Bibles, and they're thrilled to share them with you.

If you didn't get a note page, why don't you grab one right now?

These talented folks are reaching out to you.

You reach out to them.

Can you imagine, though?

A hundred thousand miles in a lifetime.

What that really means is, most of us, if we live an average life, will walk between three and four times around the whole earth.

Wow, not just once, twice, three to four times.

Now.

All that walking comes with a price tag, though.

Sadly, nearly eight in ten Americans have experienced foot problems from wearing uncomfortable or ill-fitting shoes.

Anybody ever experience that?

I have?

Yeah, the most reported foot ailments among Americans are heel pain, blisters and ingrown toenails.

Let's tally those up.

No, yeah, it's true we have a lot of issues.

The most reported foot ailment that doesn't get reported, though, is stinky feet.

By the way, you know what the definition of a toe is.

It's a device for finding something in the dark.

Seems like I'm always banging into something with my toes.

You know what do you call a dinosaur with smelly feet?

Extinct Guys.

Would you please laugh louder?

These jokes weren't free.

I had to pay for them by the foot.

All right, it's one thing to have pain-related problems with your feet.

It's quite another, though, to have issues with tripping, and boy, that happens too.

The older we get, no surprise, the more we fall.

But did you know that falls are the third leading cause of unintentional injuries?

I love it.

Unintentional, unintentional injuries for ages 18 to 35.

Yeah, young folks.

So Purdue University naturally did a study on all this with people in the younger age bracket, and they found that more than half of the participants 52 percent fell at least once during the course of that study.

18 percent of those falls resulted in injuries.

Medical treatment received in 4 percent.

The majority of falls occurred while walking 58 percent and the main cause of the fall was a slip 48 percent or a trip 25 percent.

I love their concluding statement.

This is genius.

Don't miss this Quote.

Falls are not a trivial problem for young adults Hmm, I would add nor for the rest of us.

If you're alive and breathing, I bet you've got a story about falling, a time when you slipped or tripped.

Maybe you didn't see something in the path or in the dark, but I want to suggest this morning that you and I face something much worse than tripping in the dark, and that's a scary thing.

We read about this danger in Psalm 25.

Since you brought your Bible with you, would you open there, please, psalm 25.

And if you're comfortable and able, would you join me in honoring the reading of God's word by standing?

We're going to read just two verses from Psalm 25, starting at verse 14.

The text will be up on our screen here.

This is from Psalm 25.

And we're waiting for there.

It is verse 14.

Ready to go?

Here we go.

Let's read together.

The secret of the Lord is for those who fear him, and he will make them know his covenant.

My eyes are continually toward the Lord, for he will rescue my feet from then that Thank you, you can be seated.

You know, at first glance this passage sounds kind of comforting, doesn't it?

But at the heart of it all is a warning.

The warning is this you and I are just inches away from a fall, which is actually a trap, a net, and the scary thing is you probably can't even see that net.

This net could delay you, embarrass you, maim you, cripple you, maybe even kill you.

Wow, worse.

Yet it's possible you've already put one foot in that net.

Say, what do you mean?

Well, perhaps, in unchecked anger, you showed your boss what you thought of her and she showed you the door.

Or that harmless flirtation at the office led you to a hotel rendezvous that has now trashed your marriage.

Maybe your net experience is much less traumatic.

You've been sober for three months, but earlier this week you caved in and went to the beer cave.

Or you were minding your own business online when a seductive image popped up.

You gave that thing a click and it took you where no Christian belongs going.

Hmm, could be something as minor as skipping your morning prayer time for the third day in a row and feeling no concern at all.

This is what nets are and do Hidden from sight.

They snag us at unsuspecting moments, reducing us to pitiful birds, kind of trapped in a cage.

Nets like anger, impatience, lust, greed, arrogance, pleasure.

This is why Psalm 25.15 is so powerful.

It's why we call it the Rescuvers Rescue 25.15.

My eyes are continually toward the Lord, for he will rescue my feet from the net.

You know, ironically, david the giant killer.

He knew very well what it meant to be trapped by nets.

Think of this David was trapped by the net of fear when he faked insanity.

Remember the story he's drooling as a captive before the Philistine king Akesh of Gath.

David was trapped by the net of pacifism when his daughter Tamar was raped by his own son, amnon.

And in fact, david's lack of response created the seeds of an epic family crisis.

Unbelievable.

David was trapped by nets of doubt and fear and jealousy, and the list goes on and on and on.

Though David may have been a man after God's own heart, he certainly spent his share of time in the enemy's own net.

But I think that David, over time, built a critical lifetime habit based on lessons learned in the cages of his captivity.

Somewhere in the darkness of those despairing moments, he discovered a secret.

It's a secret that turns seemingly non-recoverable disasters into hope he could hang on to.

Maybe you're in the middle of a non-recoverable disaster looking for some of that hope?

Well, david shares that secret with you and me in Psalm 25, verse 15.

Psalms 25:15

Again, the verse reads my eyes are continually toward the Lord, for he will rescue my feet from the net.

Now don't let the brevity of that verse, the simplicity of it, fool you.

David's habit of keeping his eyes continually toward the Lord.

It seems so simple, so beautiful, but don't underestimate the struggle.

Let's look together at five insights over the next 90 minutes that will help us keep our eyes on the Lord and our feet out of the nets.

Insight number one where our eyes go, we go.

Be careful Whatever you fixate on is where you tend to end up.

You know, in driver's ed training, what do they tell you to do?

Fix a point out on the horizon there.

Look way down the road, not right here, why?

Well, you don't want to look left out the window, why?

Or over here, because you're going to steer it.

Whatever you're looking at right, look straight down the road.

It's a fact.

If you gawk at things through that side window, that's where you're going.

Where our eyes go, we go.

So where are your eyes taking you?

That warm spring night, walking on the roof of his palace, david was not looking out at the horizon, he was not pondering the state of his troops in battle, he was not thinking of how he could support their efforts.

Instead, his eyes caught sight of a beautiful woman bathing on the roof of her home.

Rather than look away, he fixated on her.

He literally steered toward her.

And you know the rest of the story he let himself get trapped in the net of sexual passion when he slept with Bathsheba, and that led him to an even worse trap the murder of her husband.

Where our eyes go, we go.

Where are your eyes taking you?

Insight number two to fix our eyes on the Lord is a choice.

It doesn't come naturally, it doesn't come easily, it doesn't come automatically just because you're a good Christian.

Psalm 25.15 says my eyes are continually toward the Lord for he will rescue my feet from the net.

But this is not an accident, it's a choice.

So many Christians, I think, hope that good things will happen to them.

But this begins with a choice, and it's much more difficult than you might think.

See, if your eyes are fixed on the Lord, then your hobbies and your passions and, for that matter, your problems.

They're going to get less focus, less brain time.

If your eyes are fixed on the Lord, your work life so many of us are consumed by that that's down a notch or two, isn't it?

This all comes back to a choice, something that doesn't magically fall into place for you.

To fix our eyes on the Lord is a choice.

Proverbs 4.25,.

Let let allow, let your eyes look directly ahead, let your gaze be fixed straight in front of you.

The Bible couldn't be more clear.

Fixing our eyes on the Lord is a choice.

My eyes are continually toward the Lord, for he will rescue my feet from the net.

You know, I find it interesting that when we play week after week in this orchestra with the music, there are all kinds of nets.

Musically there are things that are going to trip you up.

You've got to repeat 17 times some things.

There's this thing called a coda, and I still don't get it.

And then some of these composers have the audacity to write something other than four, four time, and they put not one or two or three, but four, five sharps.

It's illegal, but they do it anyway.

Now Brother Dennis here understands that we're feeble.

And so you know what he does with all the music.

He highlights all the repeats.

You can see that from where you're sitting.

Even Look at all the highlighting ink on there.

He understands there are nets.

So he says, let me help you out.

That's what this text is doing.

There are nets, let me help you out.

Insight number three to fix our eyes continually on the Lord is a lifestyle.

For Dennis, this is a lifestyle.

He and Debbie, every single weekend, do this for us.

It's not like dressing up in your Sunday best once a week.

This is nothing less than a lifestyle change.

It's a daily thing, it's a moment by moment thing.

See, if we are not continually looking toward the Lord, here's the danger.

We are looking at lesser things, we are useless things in many cases, and that too can be a lifestyle.

Hebrews 12, 2, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith, for the joy set before Him.

He endured the cross, scorning at shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Insight number three to fix our eyes continually on the Lord is a lifestyle.

But note number four the world is wired to distract us.

You know, those of us ancient enough to have been alive in the 1970s.

I won't ask you to raise your hands, I can see.

If you were around in the 70s, you know what you saw between 500 and 1600 ads per day.

Today, the average American sees between 4,000 and 10,000 ads daily, depending on how often you dare to put your phone down.

And that's just the beginning of the distractions.

We're distracted by social media, our 4K televisions, our hobbies, our games, our toys, not to mention the latest ping or ding on our phone.

Right.

We are distracted, and that distraction comes at a great price spiritually, no question about it.

By not deciding to fix our eyes on the Lord, remember, we are by default fixing our eyes on something less.

That something less ain't good.

No wonder we're warned in 1 John, 2, 15 and 16, do not love the world, nor the things that are in the world.

If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him, for all that is in the world the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life is not from the Father, but it's from the world.

Do you know where we get the word tantalized from?

We can thank a character in Greek mythology, known as tantalus.

In the Greek world of mythology he was banished to the underworld by his father, zeus, and there tantalus found himself wading in a pool of water, and it was a nice cool water.

Just above him was a tree that had delicious looking fruit.

But every time tantalus reached up to grab that fruit it moved just out of reach, kind of like a Disney movie.

And whenever he would stoop down to drink out of that cool water, the water would immediately recede.

So tantalus was condemned to an eternity to yearn for things he could never have.

His story is what we call something desirable but just out of reach, tantalizing.

And the world is full of these tantalizing distractions, isn't it?

More money, more status, more sex, more possessions.

Our world is wired to distract us and if we're not careful we'll find ourselves trapped in these nets.

Consider just one of them the net, or trap, of money.

1 Timothy 6-10 says For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil and some, by longing for it, have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs Pierced.

I got a first class education on that verb when I was helping out as a moody student to make some extra money to pay for my school helped somebody move.

It was a good paying job back then.

And I remember reaching down, there was this wooden crate.

It looked heavy.

I knew it was going to be heavy, so I grabbed it and just really gave it all I had and instantly it was the wrong decision, because on this wooden crate at the very bottom was a nail parked at about a 45 degree angle outside of the frame of that baby.

I was literally impaled on it.

I was pierced with that nail.

Now what do you do?

You can't put it down.

It's on your thumb and the weight is going to drive it even further in.

It was pretty awkward.

Eventually we got it off there.

But boy, this idea of pierced took on a whole new meaning for me.

A painful trap.

The old hymn asks is this vile world of friend to grace to help me on to God?

Answer no, it most certainly is not.

This world is wired to distract us.

We've got to know that.

Insight.

Number five assumption is the enemy, because you and I see no problems.

We assume there are no problems, but nets are always hidden, right, that's why they work.

David assumed it was just fine to indulge his ego and take a census of the people, find out how many people he had, how many soldiers in the army.

But it was a net.

You can read the whole story in 2 Samuel 24.

David was trapped by the net of pride.

The whole thing was driven by pride and self-reliance and when he took that unauthorized census, 70,000 Israelites died as a result.

Wow See, the problem is simple and deadly.

As simple and deadly as this.

You and I are about to step into a net.

You can't see it, but it's there, it's ready to grab you.

On my commute to and from Moody, I take some shortcuts that get me there quicker.

I have to go through a couple of back-to-back parking lots.

There's a guardrail you step over no big deal.

Now I have crossed over that guardrail that's probably thousands of times without incident.

There was that one Labor Day weekend.

We were all pumped ready to go camping.

That was all that was on my mind.

Get the kids, let's get out of town.

Yeah, baby.

And I crossed that guardrail but didn't quite clear it.

So there you are, tumbling face forward toward the asphalt.

Your natural inclination is to flail your feet right.

Well, I flailed and paid the price.

Smack that guardrail so hard.

I couldn't.

I was in agony.

I thought, gee, I hope nothing's, bro-, we gotta get camping, we gotta get going.

Can I get up?

Yes, I can get up.

Can I walk on this thing?

Well, sort of, I didn't even want to inspect the wound because I knew it was nasty, just get on the train.

I limped onto the train, looked down, it was a bloody mess, but fortunately nothing was broken.

Let me tell you something Every single time I have crossed over that guardrail since including this week, I pay extra attention to that.

Giving yourself that kind of a whack, that kind of a fall will do that right.

Well, how do we apply all of this?

This business of nets, traps?

Three words commit, replace, expect, commit, replace, expect.

I'm going to suggest that we commit this verse to memory.

Yeah, it only takes a few minutes.

That is not a real big verse to memorize, but it helps you.

The second you start, the act of memorizing helps you.

The second you start, you immediately, are thinking of something more noble than whatever it is that is trying to trap you or has tempted you.

You're immediately inviting God's intervention.

How cool is that?

Which is why we're going to start on this right now.

Right now.

Let's say it out loud together.

It's on the screen.

My eyes are continually toward the Lord, for he will rescue my feet from the net.

Let's just do that first phrase.

My eyes are continually toward the Lord Two more times.

My eyes are continually toward the Lord Once more.

My eyes are continually toward the Lord.

Just that last phrase three times, for he will rescue my feet from the net.

For he will rescue my feet from the net Once more.

For he will rescue my feet from the net.

Now we need that next slide, because we're going to say it without any help Psalm 25-15.

My eyes are continually toward the Lord, for he will rescue my feet from the net.

You guys are awesome.

You learned it way faster than I did.

Wow, thank you.

Hang on to that now.

Stay with that.

Stay with that.

Memorize that verse.

See, I don't know about you, but my mind is forever going in the wrong direction.

A friend of mine called up one morning and said you know what?

I was out in the expressway today and I'm listening to radio.

They said there was a guy who was driving in the wrong direction.

So I looked out my window and it turns out everybody was going in the wrong direction.

Well, do you ever feel like your mind is going in the wrong direction?

We all fight this, but this verse powers your mind in the right direction.

So memorize it, start today, commit, commit, commit that verse to memory.

Step two replace.

Replace your hopeless thoughts with this verse.

You know when those distracting, disgusting, wrong way thoughts come and they will quote this verse.

I say it out loud.

You know, since memorizing this verse, I have experienced a gone through an excruciating period of months with a computer meltdown.

We've replaced the C drive, the hard drive, we've replaced the motherboard, we've replaced the video card, we've even replaced the monitor.

Now, for some of us that's a minor inconvenience.

Yeah, I like to check my email on the computer.

I run a freelance business.

I'm doing audio production, I'm doing video stuff, photo.

It's a mess.

It has been very stressful.

It's a brand new system.

Have I wasted my money?

Wow, and you know I have to admit, negative thinking has led me into the net of fear more than once.

But on a couple of occasions I have chosen goes back to the choice thing to say my eyes are continually toward the Lord, for he will rescue my feet from the net and instantly I'm in a better frame of mind.

Another example I've thought about this over the, the warmer months of summer, you're going back and forth to work, downtown or anywhere and there are people females who will be dressing with less than they should be wearing and as a guy, you're wired to stare Wrong.

That's a net.

That's a net, by the way.

It's really helpful to say to yourself what is this net?

What's behind this?

Oh, lost, okay, that's the net.

To just name it is really helpful.

But anyway, if you quote that verse out loud which I do my eyes are continually toward the Lord.

Guess what?

Your eyes aren't going to be on the girl.

Your eyes aren't going to be on the busted hard drive.

My eyes are continually towards yeah, I'm replacing what comes natural With that, which is spiritual and supernatural replace, replace, replace.

That's huge, absolutely huge.

When your feet are in a net or you want to avoid one, say this verse out loud.

Say it out loud, I'm serious.

I Guarantee your sight will be right Because your eyes will be toward the Lord.

He's the one, the only one, that's going to deliver you from that net.

Whatever that is, commit, replace, number three expect, expect God's deliverance.

Psychologists tell us that every thought we think makes a rut in the soil of our minds.

It's the mental equivalent of a path just starting out Right, and the more often you think a thought, that deeper and wider the rut gets.

And of course that works with negative thoughts as well as as well as spiritual thoughts, biblical thoughts.

But the more you quote this verse, the more you see its power.

It has a cumulative effect.

It's like interest on an account the more you see yourself delivered, the more your expectations will increase.

The more you expect to be delivered, the more you'll look for God's delivering hand in your life.

Anticipate the victory, look for it.

Every time you do, you'll be carving a righteous rut in the roadway of your mind.

The Adventuresome side of me loves to fly anything that goes in the air.

Several years ago I had the opportunity to fly with the Lima Lima flight group, six airplanes that do formation flying Across the country at various events.

Maybe you've seen them perform in an air show, these bright yellow airplanes.

Sitting in the back seat I experienced rolls and loops and aerobatics that are definitely not for the weak of stomach.

Now, I used to think that the hardest part about flying a loop would be flying upside down.

You start here.

You come up here, you are upside down.

Boy, that's really got to be rough.

It really isn't.

Let me tell you what the most difficult part of a loop is it's coming out of that loop.

You're out of the loop, all right.

You're coming down like this, straight toward the earth, and the pilots pulling here and trying to pull out.

You're driving, you know, 250 miles an hour.

You feel like you now weigh 800 pounds and you're pretty sure the rivets of that plane are gonna blast it.

You're gonna go right out the bottom of that thing.

It's unbelievable, the g-forces pulling you down.

You think you're gonna break the plane and land.

But you know, ironically, there's one image from that flight that Runs through my brain again and again.

I can't forget.

It's the pilot in the seat in front of me, as you see on the screen.

He never once lost sight of the horizon ahead, and this is what I saw him do.

He is just a few feet away, wingtip to wingtip with the guy next to him, right?

But this is my pilot, right?

He's looking straight ahead.

He goes up here Constantly.

He's checking here regularly Because he's only a few feet from that guy.

But he never lost sight of the horizon.

He flew that plane level straight toward the horizon, always kept it flying straight.

His eyes were toward the horizon and that's a picture of how you and I Are to discipline the controls of our minds to never lose sight of what's ahead.

To say with David my eyes are continually toward the Lord, for he will rescue my feet from the net.

For the days of fall are coming to a close, but I guarantee you, I Guarantee you, fall season or not, it's open season on Christians, 365 days a year.

Your enemy has his nets and traps and plans all laid out.

Your world says look at me.

Your enemy says look at me.

Your Savior says look at me.

Where are your eyes?

Who are you gonna listen to?

My eyes are continually toward the Lord, for he and he alone Will rescue my feet From the net.

Let's pray, lord.

We need this.

We need you.

We've seen the nets.

We've been tripped by them, trapped by them.

Would you help us now to commit this verse to memory, to replace our thoughts with it and to expect your victory in our life?

Let our eyes be continually toward the Lord, knowing that you will rescue our feet from any and every net.

We pray to the name of Jesus, whose name means rescue, amen.