God, Guide Me

Well before we dig into the message, I just want to show you something very cool that happened a little while ago this summer. My grandson was born, here's a picture of him. Don't you feel better about just seeing that on screen? Oh, and also we just wrapped up our amazing Cruise Kids summer day camp. And I went down there on their very last day a week ago and took some iPhone video of what was taking place down there in the brand new children's building. So here's just a sneak peek of some of the stuff that happened. Doesn't that sound like fun? That sounds great. Let's thank all the Cruise Kids people. They did such a great job putting this together.

Check this out. 1,400 camper spots filled this summer, the most campers we've ever had at Cruise Kids, 1,400. And our Cruise Kids director, Yolanda, decided, "You know what would be very, very cool?" Because it's not just about the numbers of kids we get, it's about the commitments they make to Christ that really lasts the rest of their lives. In many cases, I made a commitment to Christ at a vacation Bible school and you see these things lasting for a long time. So she said, "Let's have a visual representation of this." And she had all the kids who received Christ this summer put their names on a green construction paper leaf and then she put those leaves on a tree in the lobby. And here is video I took of that tree, 315 leaves on that tree. And that is truly what it's all about. And that is what we thank God for. Is that not cool? I tell you, I love that because that's why our church is here and that's why our new building was built in the first place.

And you know what else is cool? Let me just show you a picture of a future Cruise Kids camper, Frederick J. Schlepper. He's gonna be there one day. Every excuse I can, man. And now, grab your message notes. Authentic is the name of our summer message series on surprising lesser known prayers of the Bible, authentic spirituality. We've seen prayers of anger, prayers of frustration. And today we're gonna look at a prayer for guidance. God guide me. Show your hands if you've ever prayed that prayer, prayer like that. God, you gotta direct me here. I don't know which way to go.

If you have ever asked God about what job should I take? Who should I marry? Or if I should marry? Or how I should spend my time? What courses to take? Where to live? What kind of car to drive? Where to eat or drink? How to dress? How to pray? Read the Bible? What kind of ministry to have? Etc. And you find yourself praying, "God, just guide me." Psalm 25 will help you. This is one of the main questions I get as a pastor. How can I get God's guidance for my life? How can I move forward if I'm not sure I'm receiving God's guidance? And I gotta tell you, in my own life, this has been one of my toughest spiritual battles.

And you were a part of this. Twenty-three years ago this month, I was wracked with indecision, tried to decide whether or not to accept an invitation from this church called Twin Lakes in a place called Aptos to candidate to be their next senior pastor. And I just did not know what to do. I was pastoring a church up in South Lake Tahoe at the time, and I thought, "God, just guide me. I don't want to make a mistake. Just make the clouds form into the letters T-L-C or have Billy Graham call me and say, 'René, there's a bus outside. It will wait. Go to Aptos, California. Just somehow direct me.'" And you know what? He didn't do any one of those things.

So how in the world did I know whether or not I should stay at a good, healthy ministry in Tahoe or come down to a wonderful church here in Aptos? What did I decide? We'll get back to that story in just a moment or two. But first let me read you some verses written 3,000 years ago, which tells me this is a very common human emotion. The writer, David, is at a super tough time in his life, and he prays, "In you, O Lord, I put my trust. I trust in you. Don't let me be put to shame, nor let my enemies triumph over me." And then starting in verse 4, he says, "Show me your ways, Lord. Teach me your paths. Guide me in your truth. Teach me, for you are God, my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long. Show me. Teach me. Guide me."

Now, one thing that does not come out in the English translation is that Psalm 25 is an acrostic poem in the original Hebrew. That means each line begins with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet. And that makes it kind of difficult to outline as a sermon because it doesn't follow a logical or a chronological argument. It arranges three different themes in kind of poetic ways to match the Hebrew alphabet. So in keeping with the flavor of the original, I've taken those three themes and arranged them to the English alphabet. A, B, C. You see that there in your notes. This Psalm is demonstrating if I want to be guided by God, first I need to admit I need guidance, right? If I want to be guided, I've got to be willing to be guided.

David says in verse 9, "He leads the humble in what is right and teaches the who? The humble is..." Wait, circle the word humble. You cannot be led unless you are humble. Let me ask you, are you able to hear good advice when it comes from some mouth other than your own? That's a rare quality, it really is. But like they say in recovery groups, you have to admit that your life is out of control in some way before you're willing to turn it over completely to God, right? So what is David admitting is out of control in his life, in this Psalm? Well David's feeling four things. First he says he is lonely. Verse 16, "Turn to me, be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted." And next he is overwhelmed. He says in the next verse, "My problems go from bad to worse." Ever feel like that? God saved me from them all.

You're in a place where you just want to lie down and cry. You're so confused, no path seems like a way out. I've been there. David is there. Maybe you are there right now. And he feels very guilty. That comes out a lot. Four times in this one Psalm he mentions this, like the next verse, verse 18, "God, feel my pain and see my trouble. Forgive all my sins." And he's not only guilty because of stuff he just did, he's also haunted by stuff he did when he was younger, like he says in verse 7, "Remember not the sins of my..." What? "Raise your hand if you ever just cringe when you think of stupid stuff you did when you were younger." Anybody? I do. David apparently feels like, "How can God really have a plan for me when I've messed up so much? I have felt that way for sure."

And then finally he's afraid in verse 19, "See how numerous are my enemies and how fiercely they hate me." Now stay on page one for just a minute there. Look at those bullets because I want you to notice something. David's life when he writes this is not full of peace and safety. There are dangers. There are threats. And don't miss this. This is what our authentic series is all about. He does not breeze through the tough times. He has an upset stomach and he has sweaty palms and he's got a pounding heart and his mind is racing. We totally get the wrong idea sometimes that if I am a healthy Christian I will always feel serene. And we put so much pressure on ourselves to be somebody that the Bible never asks us to be and nobody in the Bible ever was.

The Christian life does not mean you will never feel anguish. You'll never feel stressed. You'll never feel down. Nobody in the Bible ever lived like that. In fact when Jesus Christ himself was in the garden of Gethsemane facing his crucifixion later that night was he all blissed out and serene like a Jedi Knight in the movies or something? Now the Bible says he sweated drops of blood. He was in anguish. You are not unspiritual if you feel stressed out. What a healthy Christian life looks like is we take those stresses and we authentically bring them to God in prayer. That's what Jesus did in the garden of Gethsemane. We're honest with God about it and that's what David does here. He's going right now I'm totally stressed. I don't know what to do. He is admitting that he needs God's guidance.

And then second you have to believe God is good. And this is huge at the top of page two. He wants to guide me. He is a good God. David says three things about this topic in the Psalm. First God wants to guide me not trick me. God wants to guide me not trick me. So to pick up my story there I am try to decide whether or not to come to this place Twin Lakes Church and I realized I was at a point where I was actually thinking maybe God is going to trick me. And here was my reasoning. He'll let me believe it's his will for me to come to Twin Lakes Church but really he's testing me to see if I'm committed to the Tahoe Church no matter what. And so this was an impossible issue to resolve in my brain and finally I told my wife she says why are you so indecisive. I said because what if God's going ah I mean it seemed like it was my will for you to go to Aptis but really you failed my secret test.

You ever think things like that? And my wife looks at me she says René two things one you're insane and second she goes here's what is driving you crazy. She said you've got an unbiblical view of the nature of God. Now Laurie's a world religion teacher she's very wise and she said you know in the pagan religions in the Bible's time I mean think of Zeus think of Baal. She said those gods were tricksters. They were mischievous. They did not have the best interest of human beings at heart. They wanted to get human beings into trouble. They hated humans and so they deliberately led them astray and into trouble all the time and the mythological stories are about how humans tricked the gods back. She said that is not the God of the Bible.

The God of the Bible is good and he's consistent and he's generous and that's all over the Bible. Verse 8 David says this in fact let's say this phrase out loud together. Let me hear you. The Lord is good and does what is right. In other words the Lord is not some head faking trickster. He's good. He always does the right thing. He's consistent. Look at this in the New Testament the Greek scriptures James 1:5 it says if any of you lacks wisdom he should ask God who gives how? Generously to those who have proven themselves worthy and never mess up and know the secret code. No to all without finding fault and it might be given him. No it will be given him. God is good. He is generous without finding fault and that's the next bullet point in your notes.

Not only does God want to guide me not trick me. God wants to guide me not condemn me. He doesn't want to condemn me. You ever feel like I've blown it so bad that now God's not going to help me? In fact he's going to make me mess up. He's going to make bad things happen to me because I've gone astray. Well check this out David says in the rest of verse 8 he shows the proper path to those who go astray. Not he withholds his guidance from those who go astray. Not he withholds indefinitely plan A from those who go astray. Not he beats up on those who go astray. He shows the proper path to those who go astray. Your sin is not a necessary obstacle to God's guidance. Aren't you glad about that?

This is so important because often people think I blew it so bad. I have forfeited God's plan A for my life. That will never happen now and now I'm on plan B or like plan Z. But the biblical way to look at it is this, okay maybe I messed up on plan A. You know what God does? He doesn't shunt you down to plan B. He rewrites plan A. God works all things together for his sovereign will to glorify himself. He shows the proper path to those who go astray. God does not ever say you sin one too many times. You don't deserve to be led by me. You don't deserve to get my wisdom. God wants to guide me, not condemn me and God wants to guide me, not confuse me. He wants to guide me. He doesn't want to confuse me.

Listen, I have a stack of books, a whole shelf in my office on finding God's will that I collected over the years because this has been such a source of agonized prayer for me and I got to tell you now that I've studied what the Bible says, I think so much of what is in those books and some of these are bestseller Christian books. I think so much is garbage because I would say maybe 70% of their advice is actually not based on the Bible at all. Now I think it's actually based more on a pagan idea just like Laurie pointed out about my image of God because the pagan religions in the time of the Bible spent most of their time on fortune telling, on divination, on learning techniques for reading the livers of chickens and the paths of the stars and the tea leaves left in the cup to try to discern the will of God so that you could choose the more fortuitous path and have fewer problems in life.

That idea dies hard apparently but it is just not in the Christian Bible. This idea that God leads through obscure signs and feelings that you are responsible to decode and if you do not decode them correctly things will go badly for you and God might even punish you. That is just not in the Bible. Think of what the Bible says. David says in Psalm 25:14, "He makes his covenant known." Circle the word known. He doesn't hide it. He makes it known. And now circle the important word covenant. Now this is big. To David that meant the Hebrew scriptures, the law. To us today it means both the Old and New Testaments, the Greek and Hebrew scriptures. Basically covenant means what is super important to God for you to know about how to live in relationship with him. All of that, the most important stuff to God for your life, it is already in the Bible. In black and white. Multiple times.

We ask him for guidance but on the really important things he has already given it to us. Let me just give you an example. Let me show you something. This past week Lori bought an egg timer and this is the packaging. Where did she buy it? She bought it at Marshalls apparently. She got a good deal. $2.99 for this egg timer. They are probably out though so don't go down there to Marshalls. But I think the person who designed this packaging probably has had it with answering customer service calls about how to use this egg timer because look at this top of the package. Just place in pan with eggs. And then on the bottom of the front it says instructions on the back just place in pan with eggs. And then you turn it over, this is the back and it says just place in pan with eggs.

Then on the bottom on the back instructions just place the egg timer in the pan with the eggs. I read this and honest to goodness we got this yesterday I am going to call their 800 customer service line and go now let me get this clear. What is it you want me to do with the egg timer? Just to hear the other person lose their mind. But don't you think God must feel exactly like this at times right? The basic instructions of live men they are in his word. How did Jesus summarize it? Love God, love people. You know they all boil down to that just place in pan with eggs. And we are going oh God what color should the pan be just guide me. And he is going just place in the pan with the eggs.

We all be a lot better off if we spend more time doing the already revealed word of God in the Bible. And a little less time worrying about the details that are not that important that are not already revealed. Does that make sense? Now of course you say don't you believe that God can sometimes guide through hunches, through leadings, like somehow you get an urge suddenly to go visit somebody who is in the hospital or sometimes even through dreams, visions like in the Bible. Of course I believe God can lead like that. Now I believe that those are exceptions even in Bible times they were but God is sovereign he can lead however he wants to lead.

But if you put yourself in a place where you are placing the timer in the pan with the eggs where you are loving God and loving people and doing what is in his revealed word as his will for you specifically you are going to put yourself in a place where you are going to notice his leading naturally. And you are not going to have to just sit there and beg and beg and beg him on some details. So you admit your need of guidance you believe God is good he is not going to trick you and then see I commit my ways to him. Commit my ways to him. In other words my way of life.

Now watch this we started with this verse but I don't want you to miss it this is huge. David says verses four and five show me your ways oh Lord. Teach me your paths. Guide me in your truth and teach me for your God my savior and my hope is in you all day long. Notice it doesn't say guide me in your way singular the path to the specific cave where you want me to hide from King Saul tonight. He's saying show me your ways your path your truth lead me in a wise lifestyle a God devoted life of holiness because then I know I'm going to be going in your direction.

Now don't miss this because this kind of counters to myths about finding the will of God by proposing two very important truths about finding God's will and the first one is this God's will is not a dot. God's will is not a dot. We say that a lot around here in fact whether you're watching in venue or here live let's just say that phrase together. Let me hear you. God's will is not a dot. What do I mean by that? Imagine all of your options in life if you're single who you should marry where you should live what kind of a career you should have and there's probably billions of potential options right. So you imagine them all as just a sea of dots and only one of those dots is God's perfect will for you.

He wants you to marry this one person and live in this one city and have that one job for that one company and if you miss out you have messed up you are not in God's perfect will for your life anymore. For years this was my conception of the will of God suggested by some of those books that I have on my shelf and honestly I think it almost gave me a mental breakdown because I was I would pray about everything. God what is your what color shirt do you want me to wear today. God just guide me. You know now what is wrong with this idea. Well first it just doesn't make sense. It's not rational. Let's say that God has one perfect person for me to marry as my mate but I accidentally marry the wrong one. Now guess what happens that person out there who was supposed to marry me. They have no choice but they're marrying the wrong one and the person that they marry they were supposed to marry somebody else and they marry the wrong one it sets off a chain reaction. Folks look around we're all married to the wrong person because one person messed up somewhere. It's just not rational.

But second it's not biblical. Think of the very first story in the Bible it teaches us so much about how God interacts with human beings. Adam and Eve in the garden. Does God guide them? Yes. Now does God guide them by saying today here's my perfect will for you eat from this tree. Now the next day here's my perfect will for you eat from this tree and then I want you to walk over the ridge and go to that grove of trees and eat from that tree. No that's not how he guides. How does he guide them? You may eat from any tree in the garden except for this one tree. This tree is toxic to you. This tree is a really bad idea. You don't ever eat from this tree but from every other tree have fun kids.

And the ratio today is still the same. God shows us in his covenant which he has made known the few things in this world that are toxic for us. Toxic behaviors toxic attitudes which our sinful human nature always wants to gravitate toward and he says stay away from that tree. Now all the rest of the options out there you can choose whichever tree to eat from that you want. But from those specific things like revealed in the Ten Commandments for example you just make sure that you stay away from those things that I'm warning you about. And the ratio today is about the same. If you miss everything else don't miss this. There is a lot more freedom in the will of God than most people imagine. God's will is not a dot. God's will is about character and that's what comes out here in this verse.

David says show me your ways your paths your truth. He's not talking about a quick guidance fix. He's talking about long term cultivation of a wise lifestyle. Wise living holy living informed by scripture. In other words God's a lot less concerned with what school you attend than he is with what your character is like at the school you attend. He's a lot less concerned with where you live or what you do for work than he is with what your character is like where you are at. God listen look up here for a second. God just wants you to be mature. He's your father and every father or mother wants their child to mature right make mature choices.

And you know what I realized honest confession here of my own immaturity. I realized that a lot of times when I was thinking of myself as spiritual and I was begging God for specific guidance I was really hoping for a word from heaven as a way of escaping my responsibility as a mature adult to make a wise intelligent choice. But God's not going to tell you what to do at every fork in the road any more than your mom and dad are now that you're a grown up because he wants you to be mature.

For example if you're a parent and you have a small child like well for example my grandson Freddie and when you're when your kids are little you carry them around everywhere right. Then when they grow up a little bit it's good for them to ask you can I go over to Ian's house to play right. But when Freddie's 35 and he asks me grandpa can I go to Ian's house to play I'm going to think what is wrong with you right. What matters to God is your maturity your character so you learn to walk in his ways in his path.

Now this isn't in your notes but another misconception that we have about the will of God is the idea that if I make the right choice then everything will go smoothly. Listen, I'm super stoked about this this fall in about seven weeks we are beginning a study on the book of Acts in the Bible it's going to be an immersive study as a church we went over to Greece and Turkey and Israel filmed small group videos there releasing a book about it pray about it we're finalizing the edit it's called Acts Odyssey so stoked about this but you know what comes out again and again in the book of Acts these apostles these men and women in the first century they went through shipwrecks and assassin attacks and snake bites and riots and all the wheels were coming off for them and they were in the exact center of God's will for their lives.

Being in God's will doesn't mean you know fortune telling wise that you're going to get fortuitous circumstances headed your way being in God's will means no matter what circumstances you are dealt you are going to deal with them in a godly way God's will is always more about character than it is about circumstances. Now some of you are thinking but René you have an answer my big question which is how can I know for sure a decision I am making is God's will you know what you can't I'm telling you in my experience sometimes a lot of times you just can't it's just that simple in fact in the areas of life that are not laid out for you for sure in the Bible you can rarely be 100% sure so stop trying to be and stop making your hunches into the Holy Spirit's leading and then getting mad at God when your hunches don't pan out somehow stop trying to be 100% sure because in most cases it is a waste of time you just have to make a choice and move ahead and that's why Proverbs 16:9 says we should make our plans counting on God to direct us as they say it's always easier to steer a moving car than a parked car so put it in gear and move forward walking in his ways in his wisdom with a holy life and then trust God to redirect you however he wants he can close doors he can open doors he can use circumstances he can speak to you in a dream he can speak to you through other people he's got he can do whatever he wants but start moving in a direction that you believe is wise he gave you a brain he gave you certain gifts he gave you certain circumstances so don't sit there wondering whether or not this is God's will for your life if it seems wise and in accordance with Scripture move forward and do something.

Now I am still in process on this subject about three years ago I faced another major decision and just felt that the weight of it just pressing down on my shoulders and you know what it was about it was about the new children's building should we or should we not build it and I just have to tell you for several weeks every day I just felt like I was going to throw up I was so stressed should we move forward or not on the one hand I knew we needed it that was inarguable but on the other hand it's so expensive to build anything around here so should I ask all of us to do kind of a high-tech Amish barn raising and raise the funds to build that building man I remember long before I was going to do that and I remember long phone conversations with some of you wrestling with this long talks with the mark in his office but you know what moved me forward somehow I don't remember how now I got ahold of a CD by an artist named Elizabeth Honeycutt and this was long before we had any idea that she would one day be on staff here and she had a song on the CD that says basically God I don't know what to do I don't have the wisdom I don't have the answers I feel like I don't have the strength or even very much faith but here I am I am here to do your will and so I'm going to move forward and trust you to redirect however you choose because I want to be used by you and I played that song dozens of times in my car I remember just weeping as I made the lyrics of that song my prayer committed myself ultimately to the building because I thought we do need it it seems wise it's a challenge but it seems very wise so I'm going to commit myself a hundred percent to it and then you might remember we faced a huge roadblock with that building the water district wanted to stop all building around here and I thought okay I said I was committed to this and so I'm going to move forward in this direction with all my might and if God wants to redirect with a note vote with a slammed door that he can and the project got approved by the narrowest possible margin one vote and about three months ago the building opened and this summer 315 young people received Jesus Christ in that new building not because God wrote in the sky build that building not because I was a hundred percent convinced that this is the received will of God but because we believe this is wise this is a worthy cause and so we are moving forward trusting God to guide further and my guess is there's a lot of people in that place right now with some question in your life.

And so here's what we're going to do to close I asked Elizabeth to come back on stage and play that very song that I listen to dozens of times for us live right now and I want to invite you to just take this moment to bring to God whatever decision you're having a hard time with and make the lyrics of her song your prayer just have your way in me in my character in my life now listen maybe the choice you're facing is the choice to follow God in the first place you know that cruise kids tree is in our lobby today right outside those doors if you're watching on venue it's right here in the auditorium lobby and we put some extra construction paper leaves this morning out by that tree and today if you are making a prayer of commitment to Christ or recommitment after the service I just invite you to write your name on one of those leaves and hang your leaf on that tree and take your place with all those kids this weekend but whatever decision you are facing make this song your prayer no I don't know it all and I don't have the strength here I am here I am I don't have the words and I don't have the wisdom here I am here I am you are strong I feel you give everything to you so I don't have the faith I don't have the answers here I am Oh here I am and I feel you give everything to know you it's so rare and the wrong is here I am here I am here I am here I am and all of these doubts ran over me bring a light and shine till they're gone till they're gone yeah yeah and I wanna feel you give everything to know you it's so rare and the wrong is here I am here I am I want to feel You moving Give everything to know You And surrender ought to be used here Here I am, here I am Here I am, here I am Here I am, here I am ♪ Here I am, here I am Here I am, here I am ♪

That's so beautiful, Elizabeth. You know what I love about that song? I think it really captures the essence of Psalm 25 that we're looking at this morning. Because did you notice, David starts the Psalm with this verse, "To You, O Lord, I lift up my soul. O my God, in You I trust." And he ends it with this, "My hope, Lord, is in You. My hope," listen, "My hope is not in the clarity of the guidance, but in the character of the guide. My hope is not in the clarity of the guidance, but in the character of the guide." That's the bottom line. Do I trust God? Do I trust Him with my whole life?

You know, let's bring it to Jesus. This is why God's ultimate revelation to us was not a book of Chinese fortune cookie type sayings about your future. God's ultimate revelation to us is a person, Jesus, who loved us so much that He died for our sins and rose again to give us hope. And it's when I find my heart captured by Him, and I fall in love with Him, and I trust Him, that's when I feel confident to walk forward into the future no matter what happens. And so I want to give you a chance to remember, to reaffirm your trust in that personal God right now. Would you bow your heads with me? I'm going to pray a prayer, and if this prayer reflects your heart, I invite you to just pray silently with me.

God, I relate to that song. I feel like I do not have the strength or the wisdom or the answers or even enough faith, but I place my trust in You. I believe You are good, and You are gracious and generous, so good, so gracious, so generous, that You sent Your one and only Son, Jesus, so that whoever believes in Him would not perish but have an everlasting life. And so God, right now I want to place my trust in Jesus Christ, maybe for the first time ever, saying I want to take my place with those 315 kids who did that this summer, and I trust in Him to guide me further. It's in His name that we pray together. Amen.