Praying for God’s Guidance

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Whenever my family travels in any kind of caravan anywhere, as you do, when there’s too many of you to fit in one vehicle, I like to be driving the lead car and leading the way, and that may be because I’m a control freak, or it may be because I have a pretty good sense of direction. I don’t tend to get lost. And the last road trip, the last major road trip we all took was back in May to go to Louisiana for graduation. And I went down several days earlier.

And as they were all coming down on Thursday, I had told them, you know, this is how you go. You go down Highway 9, 270 to the Indian Nation Turnpike, and you go down to Paris, Texas, and told them which highways to take and take I-20 into Shreveport. Told them exactly how to get there from experience.

Well, we have this Find My Friends gadget on our iPhones where we can track where we’ve set it up where we can see where others in our family are. And I see that they left the house Thursday morning and they’re in Shikoda. I said, why in the, I called Charlie, I said, where are y’all going?

Why in the world would you go up to I-40? She said, Mom’s GPS, my mother-in-law, and it’s kind of a running joke that my mother-in-law deliberately takes whatever directions I told her not to take. But she said, Mom’s GPS, it’s payback because when we first, when Charlie and I first got engaged, she tried to tell me to do something.

I said, Janice, I’ve already got a mother I don’t listen to. So it’s a joke. I heard an audible gasp there.

I love my mother-in-law. She loves me, but we pick at each other, and it’s fun. Anyway, so she deliberately doesn’t listen to me either.

And Charlie said, Mom’s GPS told her to take I-40 and go to the turnpike there. Okay, fine, whatever. So I’m in classes that day and watching them periodically.

And I look and I know, and by the way, we’re on a time schedule because Charla needs to be there by 5. 30 for dinner we’re supposed to go to. And I’m watching, it’s getting close and it’s getting close.

And I see they’re coming down through Texas and then all of a sudden they’re headed back northeast on I-30. And I called Charla again. I said, why are y’all headed to Little Rock?

She said, I don’t know, this is the way Mom’s GPS told us to go. I said, I told you where to go. after you got to Paris.

I told you which way to go. Mom’s GPS said to take I-30. I said, that goes back toward Little Rock.

What are you doing? Later, I checked. They’re in Arkansas.

They’re in Texarkana. Do I even need to ask why you’re in Texarkana? Because I’m pretty sure it’s because you’re listening still to your mother’s GPS.

The GPS took them through Texarkana, then brought them down I-49 in the back way to Shreveport, and it took them like an extra hour and a half to get there, and I’m in a panic thinking we’re going to be late. We got to the dinner with like five minutes to spare, which for us is late. And I got to thinking, why would you listen to this computer?

Now, I get it. I use GPS all the time, but I also have learned the limitations of GPS. It doesn’t always know where it’s going.

It doesn’t always know the best way to get there. It drove us over the edge of a gorge on our honeymoon. Luckily, there was a gravel road there, but we didn’t know.

We just kept, she’s white knuckles screaming, what are you doing? I’m just going where Google tells me. Bad idea.

The computer doesn’t always know the best way to get there, and the computer doesn’t care whether you get there or not. I’ve actually read articles recently of people who’ve died out in the deserts in Arizona and California and Nevada because they followed GPS down roads that weren’t there anymore. The computer doesn’t care whether you get there safely in one piece or not.

The computers just, you know, they have to provide maps and that’s all they’re doing. The computer doesn’t care. When we’re driving, it makes much more sense to follow the guidance of somebody who knows the way because they’ve been there and cares whether you get there in one piece or not.

And if they’d done that, they would have been in Shreveport a lot earlier. In life, it matters. In life, it matters also that we follow the guidance of somebody who one, knows the way, and two, cares enough to make sure we get there, that we get to where we need to be.

And we see this in the life of David. David had all sorts of people around him, and sometimes they gave good advice, sometimes they gave bad advice, but one of the important things that David, King David, learned how to do was to put all of everybody else’s advice aside and go to God for guidance, because God knows the way, and God cares enough to make sure we get where we’re supposed to be. In the passage we’re going to look at this morning, in Psalm 27, this is a time in David’s life when he’s running from King Saul.

So this is before David becomes king. It’s after David’s been anointed to be the next king, because God has sort of turned his back on King Saul. He said, I’m done with you.

I’m no longer going to interact with you as though you are my anointed king. David, however, wasn’t going to step in and take over because, hey, as long as God keeps Saul there, he’s supposed to be there. That’s where that verse comes from, touch not the Lord’s anointed.

He’s talking about overthrowing the king of Israel. If anybody ever tells you you shouldn’t criticize this preacher because he’s preaching, if somebody ever says, oh, no, don’t you say anything about Jared. I don’t care if he’s preaching something unbiblical. Touch not the Lord’s anointed.

That’s not how that verse works, all right? If Jared’s preaching something unbiblical, you need to say something to Jared, okay? Are we clear on that?

All right. So David wasn’t going to touch the Lord’s anointed. He wasn’t going to try to overthrow Saul.

As a matter of fact, he faithfully served King Saul in his household. And yet Saul, in his madness, Saul went a little bit crazy, and in his madness, he thought that David was trying to take over his throne. He falsely accused David, and on multiple occasions, he tried to kill David.

All David’s doing is playing his harp to help Saul sleep, which is a pretty valuable thing. If you’re that tormented, you can’t sleep, and somebody comes in and tries to help you, and yet Saul throws sharp objects at David trying to kill him. So he’s tried to kill him on multiple occasions.

David is now on the run, and Saul is so crazy that if he even gets the vaguest idea that somebody might have even thought about trying to help David, he goes and has them killed too. He killed a bunch of the priests that worked in the temple or in the tabernacle at that point because one of them had fed David’s men. And so he has all the priests rounded up and murdered.

I mean, Saul is, this is the kind of dangerous situation David’s in. He’s running for his life. It was incredibly dangerous.

And David, in this situation, needed God’s guidance. Now, we need God’s guidance in every situation. But in this situation in particular, David needed God’s guidance because Saul was so angry and had so many resources to track him down and kill him that for David, any misstep he made at this point could be fatal. So if ever there was a time that he needed God’s guidance for his physical safety, it would have been now.

And it was during this time that David wrote down the words that we read in Psalm chapter 27. If you haven’t already turned there with me, I invite you to do so. Psalm chapter 27, we’re going to look at verses 10 through 14 here.

David writes this, Even if my father and mother abandon me, the Lord cares for me. Because of my adversaries, show me your way, Lord, and lead me on a level path. Do not give me over to the will of my foes.

For false witnesses rise up against me, breathing violence. I am certain that I will see the Lord’s goodness in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord.

Be strong and let your heart be courageous. Wait for the Lord. That’s what David says.

That’s what David writes down in this psalm, which is also a prayer. As he’s praying to God, he’s expressing his need for God’s guidance, And he’s expressing his trust and his faith that God will guide him as he believes he will. And we’ve seen throughout the Psalms we’ve looked at in this series on prayer that David really believed in God’s faithfulness because he looked at God’s track record and saw all the ways that God had taken care of him before.

And if you see that God has a perfect track record of being faithful and keeping his promises up to now, then every indication we have, every scrap of evidence we have, points to God being faithful in the future. So that’s what David’s leaning on at this point when he’s praying to God. And David realizes what we need to realize today, that we can pray to God for guidance in any situation in life, we can pray to God for guidance because God cares too much ever to steer us wrong.

Did you know that? God cares too much about you ever to steer you wrong. Oh, you mean God cares about my piddly little problems?

Yeah, God, if it matters to you, I believe it matters to God. Because the Bible’s clear, God relates to us as a father. And I know there are times that my kids come to me with things that I really don’t care about this, but it’s important to you, so it’s going to be important to me for the moment.

And I believe that’s the way God sees his children. If you’ve trusted in Christ as your Savior and He’s your child, I’m sorry, you’re His child, got that backwards, you’re His child, then you need to understand that God relates to you as a father. And if it’s important to you, it’s important to the heart of the Father.

And so those moments where we think, I need guidance in life. I need to know what to do. I need to know how to handle this situation.

I need to know what choice to make. I need to know what step to take from here. There’s no wrong time to look to God for guidance.

He will never, ever steer you wrong. Because he knows how to get where you’re supposed to be, and he actually cares that you get there. So we look at this passage, and it really encompasses two things that I’ve talked about, him knowing how to get there and him caring that we do.

How much does God care? We see this in this passage. God cares more even than our closest loved ones.

Now that may be news to people that if you’re new to Christianity, maybe you’re not even here by choice. Maybe somebody dragged you in. We’re glad you’re here anyway.

But maybe your idea of God is somebody who’s distant. Maybe your idea of God is somebody who is wrathful and looking down on you, and that is part of God’s character. God is a God of justice.

But there’s this other aspect of God’s character that’s love. And when we take one without the other, we get off balance about who God is. But you need to understand, God is not just up in heaven frowning at you.

God cares about his creations more than even our closest loved ones do. David prayed in verse 10, Even if my father and mother abandon me, the Lord cares for me. David looks around at this time when he’s being unjustly accused by Saul.

He doesn’t know who to trust. People are turning on him. He’s in a bad situation. And David realizes it doesn’t matter who else turns against me, because even if everybody turns against me, even if everybody I trust turns against me, even if my own family turns their backs on me, God still cares for me, even if my father and mother abandoned me.

Now we look at these two words in verse 10, abandon and care. If we look at them in the Hebrew, what we’ll see are some implications here, where abandoning is talking about scattering something. And yet the word that has been translated care here is talking about gathering it back up.

That’s been my understanding of it from looking at these words this week. And if that’s the case, then what David’s saying here is it doesn’t matter who tosses me aside. It doesn’t matter who discards me.

It doesn’t matter if even those closest to me discard me and they no longer care about me because God will still gather me close to himself. Folks, you may think that your problems don’t matter to God because you’ve been taught in life that you don’t matter to other people. Maybe some of those closest to you have hurt you.

We’ve got to realize that even if our father and mother abandon us, God still cares. He still cares. And we see that not only does he care more about us than our closest loved ones, and that’s something I have to remind myself constantly when I worry about my kids.

As a matter of fact, Charlie and I had dinner with a friend last night, and I was telling her, I have to remind myself when I worry about stuff with the kids, God loves my children even more than I do, and he can take even better care of them than I ever could. So I just have to trust. I have to trust him with these things. So we see that not only does God love us more than those closest to us, but we see in this passage that his goodness is an absolute certainty.

His goodness is not in question. It’s something we are absolutely assured of because David says in verse 13, I am certain, I am certain that I will see the Lord’s goodness in the land of the living. Now, when I say God’s goodness, I want to be very clear here.

That doesn’t mean that God will always give us everything we want. It doesn’t mean that God is just concerned with you being happy. I hear people say from time to time, Now, Jared, you know God just wants everybody to be happy.

Now, my answer is, show me where it says that. You know what? It doesn’t.

God’s not all that concerned about our happiness. God is more concerned about our holiness. Okay?

And yet God is good to us. That doesn’t mean that God is trying to make us unhappy either. All right?

It just means there are things that are more important than happiness. And yet we see God’s goodness in the way that he takes care of us. We see God’s goodness in the way that he loves us, in the way that he shows his care and concern.

We see his goodness in all the ways that he blesses us.

and as I talked about last week if you’re here and you’re alive and I asked you all to raise your hands some of you didn’t raise your hands I was kind of worried about that I’m not sure if you’re dead or just not listening anyway nobody was still sprawled out in the chair when service were over so I figure everybody was alive but I said if you’re alive and you’re here this morning then God has blessed you with a heartbeat if you’re here and alive this morning God has blessed you with the breath in your lungs I asked you if you had food to eat do you have a place to sleep do you have something to wear folks we all have something that God has blessed us with if we’ll just look for it and in every little every little blessing and every big blessing he gives us we can see the goodness of God again it doesn’t mean that God God’s just a a genie who’s going to give us everything we ever wanted but God is good to us and folks he’s good to us even when we don’t deserve it.

He’s good to us even when we don’t deserve it. He takes care of us. And folks, he shows his goodness even to those who don’t love him and haven’t trusted him yet.

Now to those who are his creations but have never been adopted as his children through Jesus Christ, he still shows his goodness. And the Bible says it’s God’s goodness that draws men to repentance by seeing God’s goodness. Now you may think, well, yeah, but God will show his goodness.

I struggle and I suffer so much, I know I can count on God’s goodness later. Sometimes we think we’re assured of God’s goodness in heaven. Folks, David said, I am certain that I will see the Lord’s goodness in the land of the living.

In the land of the living means on this side of the grave. Now, if you’ve put your faith in Jesus Christ and you’ve trusted in him alone for salvation, you are assured by God’s word. You have his promise and his word that you will see his goodness in heaven, that you will be with him in heaven.

But you know what? We’re also assured of his goodness on this side of the grave. We don’t have to wait until heaven to see that God is good.

We can see God’s goodness when we appeal to him for guidance and he steers us in the right direction. On top of all those other blessings that I’ve already mentioned, all the ways that God shows us that he’s good, even in the midst of our suffering, doesn’t take away our suffering or our struggles or our troubles, but we see God’s goodness even in the midst of those. And yet this passage is talking about David needing God’s guidance, and that’s another way that God shows his goodness by caring enough to point us in the right direction.

So we know that God loves us more than anybody, and we know that God’s goodness is something we don’t have to wonder about. We’re assured of his goodness, but will he guide us when we ask him? David believed he would.

His track record of faithfulness tells us that he will. In verse 11, we see that God will, if we will listen, God will direct us into making the right decisions. Verse 11 says, because of my adversaries, show me your way, Lord.

Now we pray from time to time for God to show us his way. God, Show us what you want me to do. Lord, lead me here.

Help me make the right decision. David was praying this for a specific purpose because he said, because of my adversaries. Remember, go back to King Saul, and he’s trying to kill David.

And he’s trying to kill anybody associated with David. The stakes could not be higher for David. Oh, it’s easy for us to trust God when things are going well.

It’s easy for us to say, yeah, God’s guiding me when everything’s coming up roses. But here it really counts. here it really counts whatever he does David is putting his life on the line and he believes that God will lead him in the right direction in spite of his adversaries that God will lead him around his adversaries he says because of my adversaries show me your way God you tell me what you want me to do God you lead me in the right direction he says here and lead me on a level path in verse 11 that word a level path means to smooth out, lead me on a road that’s smoothed out.

Now, when David prays that, when David prays that, he’s not asking God to take away all of his problems. If somebody has led you to believe that if you’ll just become a Christian, if you’ll just follow Jesus Christ, all your problems will be over, I’m sorry that they’ve misled you. And too many people’s faith has been shipwrecked by that because they expected, when I come to Christ, I’m not going to have any problems. How many testimonies have we heard? And after that, I came to Christ and I’ve been happy ever since.

That’s not my testimony. I came to Christ and he’s always taken care of me, but that’s when the trouble started. All right?

When David, there’s no such thing as a Christian life without struggle. There’s no such thing as a Christian life without trouble. Jesus promised us in this world you will have trouble.

So David’s not asking him to, Lord, just make my way perfect. Make this an easy road. He’s asking for God to smooth out the road in the right direction.

This is not, hey, God, just make life so easy for me and just carefree. He’s saying, God, show me the way you want me to go. It’s like if we pray, God, I don’t know what you want me to do.

I don’t know which way is your way here, but you open the doors that I’m supposed to walk through. It still doesn’t mean that everything’s going to be easy. but God will make the opportunities for us to serve him and follow him in the way that he wants us to.

God, open the doors. Open the doors you want me to go through is the way we would say that. We know that he’ll lead us into making the right decisions.

We also know that he will clear the path for us to pursue the things that he wants us to do in life. I want to be very clear as we’re talking about praying for God’s guidance. This is not about, God, show me the way to have an easy life.

I’m not sure that’s something God’s going to answer for you. It’s not something that he’s answered for me up to now. What we’re talking about with praying for God’s guidance is, God, show me the direction you want me to go and help me walk that direction.

And sometimes it’s a harder road to take, and yet God can remove obstacles to help us walk that hard road. God can smooth the path for us to walk down the hard road. And he says in verse 12, do not give me over to the will of my foes.

Now, this is important. That when we pray to God for guidance, he will, he can and he will keep us out of the snares of the enemy. Snares, the traps that are set for us.

See, David had enemies who set all kinds of traps for him. They wanted to capture David. They wanted to probably torture David, probably put him to death.

Like I said, Saul was crazy at this point. There were very real traps set for David. there are very real traps set for us as well if you’re trying to serve the Lord.

There are very real traps and a very real enemy who want to ensnare us and want to entangle us and keep us from doing the things that God wants us to do. We talked about this a little bit on Wednesday night, that Satan knows exactly what’s going to entice you. Satan knows exactly what will pull you in and grab your attention and get you off course.

Just like in David’s day, there’s an enemy who wants to ensnare us. And you know what? We’re not smart enough to avoid the traps.

You know why animals get caught in those steel traps? Because they don’t have the discernment to see where they are. If they had the discernment, they’d avoid them.

Our dogs don’t always like going in their crate, and they’ve learned that when we open the side door of the garage, that’s where they’re going. So you know what? They’ve learned to avoid the side door of the garage.

They have discernment about that, and so they avoid it. Folks, we’re typically not smart enough to avoid Satan’s snares and traps on our own. We need God to show us the way around them.

And he does tell us that he won’t suffer us to be tempted beyond what we can stand, but he’ll make a way of escape. Folks, we need his guidance in that escape route. David said, don’t give me over to the will of my foes.

Don’t let me get caught by the enemy. Don’t let me get ensnared by the enemy. God, I want to do what you’ve called me to do.

I want to follow you and go your direction. Don’t let me go the wrong way and get trapped by those who want me not to do what God wants me to do. And, folks, we are warned of this exact same thing.

If you think I’m overselling the threat of the enemy’s snare, folks, it’s not coming from me. God’s word says in 1 Peter 5, 8, be sober. Be sober-minded.

Be alert. Your adversary, the devil, is prowling around like a lion looking for anyone he can devour. He’s looking for anybody he can gobble up and he’s not picky.

And you know what? When the lions go out on the prowl, we’ve watched enough nature shows with the kids. When the lions go out on the prowl, not every zebra and not every wildebeest escapes every time.

More often than not, they get somebody. Folks, for us to escape the trap set for us, we’ve got to be sober-minded and vigilant. We’ve got to be on our guard, and we’ve got to constantly be asking God.

We’ve got to be looking for his guidance and seeking him to lead us out of the snares of the enemy, just like David did. So what do we do with this? Well, just like all of these, we look to David’s positive example.

Now, there were things David did in his life that we should look to as an example of what not to do, but there are more things that David did that are recorded in Scripture that we should look to as an example of what to do, and this is one of those. That just like David, in times where we, you know, when it counts and we really need to know what we’re supposed to do, in those times we look to God for guidance. Now, there’s nothing wrong with talking to other people.

There’s nothing wrong with getting wise and godly counsel. Those things can be beneficial. But there are times we need guidance that only God can give. I’ve experienced that in the last week or so.

dealing with something I didn’t know how to deal with. I’ve talked to my wife a lot, talked to my mother, talked to my mother-in-law, but still didn’t know what to do. You know what?

I didn’t get it resolved until I spent some time on my knees asking God, what do I need to do? My wife and my father and my mother, my mother-in-law, my father-in-law, people around me can give me godly counsel, but we need guidance directly from God. What are the questions you’re facing right now?

I’m not asking you to shout them out loud. You may not want everybody to know what they are. What are the decisions where you’re saying, which way do I go?

It can be something simple. It can be something complex. It can be something in your job, in your finances, in your family.

It can be something spiritual. God, what do you want me to do next? We’ve been talking about finishing well on Sunday nights. God, what do you want me to do with the rest of the time you’ve given me here on earth?

It can be anything. But instead of polling everybody around us and saying, what do they think we ought to do? Instead of looking to Oprah, is Oprah even still on anywhere?

I’m sure she’s on TV somewhere. Instead of looking to Oprah or any of the other experts on life, go to God for your guidance. Because God knows.

God knows where he wants you to go, and he cares that you get there. His word commands us. Man, as I was studying this passage this week, verse 14, about the fifth time I read it, came out and slapped me in the head.

Because it was exactly what I needed to hear with some of the things that I’ve been struggling with. He says in verse 14, Wait on the Lord. Be strong and let your heart be courageous.

Wait for the Lord. And there were two things. As I’m praying for God’s guidance, there were two things exactly that I needed to hear.

Number one, stop being afraid and making decisions from a place of fear. Be willing to step out and take a risk if that’s what God tells you to do. But stop doing things out of fear.

And number two, just wait and let God handle it. And I read that verse and I thought, has that always been in there? Not only all these years, but the other four times I’ve read this passage before this week.

Has that verse always been in there? Because that’s exactly God’s guidance that I needed. And he tells us, wait on the Lord.

That word wait, we talked about it either last week or the week before. Doesn’t mean just wait. It means wait expectantly.

And I shared with you the difference. We had the trouble with the hotel in Texas. The guy, without us asking, said, I’ll refund one night of your stay.

You don’t have to do that, but okay, thanks. I’m still waiting on the check, and it’s been what, two years, Charlie? I’m still waiting on the check, but I’m not holding my breath that it’s ever going to come.

That’s one form of waiting. Then there’s the waiting that says my Amazon package is coming today. I love that.

Every time, it’s like Christmas.

my Amazon package is coming today and I got an email saying it’s in town and it’ll be here between 11 and 1 I know it’s coming there’s no doubt in my mind Amazon is sending my package and so I’m waiting expectantly do you see the difference and when David says wait for the Lord he’s not just saying wait around and maybe he’ll show up someday but don’t hold your breath he’s saying wait like you expect him to do something wait like you expect him to give you an answer wait like you expect him to be faithful because he has all these times wait for the Lord be strong and be courageous that means to fortify yourself strengthen yourself stand up straight and act like a man now ladies you can strengthen yourselves too especially when he says let your heart be courageous the heart is at the core of who you are don’t just let it be a superficial strength but because you trust in God because you expect that God will do what only God can do you can be strong to the very core of who you are.

Wait for the Lord. Be strong and let your heart be courageous. Wait for the Lord.

What do we do with this? What do we do with this? We seek God’s guidance, and we wait expectantly until He gives it to us.

We continue to pray for it. We continue to seek it because we know that He will guide us in His time, and in the meantime, we don’t fear what are going to be the consequences of doing what God says when he gives us the guidance, we just know that God’s going to take care of it and we trust in him. All of this, all of this is calling us to trust in God and look for his guidance.

Now we all need it in all these matters that I’ve talked about, family, financial, job, spiritual, we need it in all these areas. Every area of life we need God’s guidance. Perhaps the most important that we have is perhaps the most important area needing God’s guidance is this issue that I hit on of the enemy who wants to ensnare us.

Who’s our enemy? David’s enemy was Saul. Who’s our enemy that wants to destroy us?

Satan. Yeah, smutty face. Thank you.

For those of you who don’t know what that means, like I didn’t know what it means when I came here because I didn’t speak Cajun, it’s the devil. All right? Satan.

Satan wants to destroy us. What does he want to do to us? He knows his fate is sealed.

He’s read the book of Revelation. He knows he’s going to be thrown down into the pit of, into the lake of fire forever and ever. He knows he will never usurp God’s throne.

He knows he can never hurt God, so he wants to do the next best thing and take those creations that God loves, you and me, and he wants to drag us down with him. Separate us from God for eternity and drag us to hell with him. Why would we look to God for guidance in that?

Because God has made a way of escape in Jesus Christ. He’s made the one and onl