Living Confidently and Ending Confusion

Every single one of us has unique desires on the inside of our heart. For instance, when my wife and I go shopping, who do you think enjoys shopping more, me or my wife? I mean, I can't believe she'll spend the day there and be happy.

And for me, I want to go in, I want to get what I want, and then I want to get out of there and I want to do something else. Unless I walk through the sporting goods section.

And then if I walk through the sporting goods section, I start seeing cool hats I want to wear, and I start seeing a golf club that I want to have. And here's the truth. If I buy that golf club, it's really not going to make my score a whole lot better. All it's going to do is end up wounding my wallet, right?

So here's the thing that I want to point out, and that is we all have desires. And if we're not careful, we can desire to eat things that damage our health. If we're not careful, we can desire to say something that we're later going to regret.

But on a bigger note, we can all do things that damage our favor at work. We can damage important relationships in our life, and that's why it's so important to do what David is calling us to do in the Psalm.

And what he's letting us know is that God has the capacity to fully give us what satisfies us as people.

In verse 5 he said, "I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods, and with singing lips I'm going to praise God."

Now, what is David talking about?

Well, we can be satisfied by all the things that are around us on this beautiful earth that God has made to bless us. I mean, I love hiking the mountains and seeing beautiful scenery. I love being on the water, especially when the sun's coming up in the morning or when the sun is going down at night.

I enjoy eating so many foods that grow off of trees and plants. And when some of you blend them all together, it's absolutely amazing.

But in this Psalm, what David is going to tell us is, as good as all the things are that God has given us on the outside, what we're supposed to experience on the inside because of who God is, is to be the most amazing thing.

And so in the Psalm, it begins to shift from how God fully satisfies us to what has to happen on the inside of us if the confusion is going to end so God can satisfy our lives.

And in the Bible, King David not only spoke about it, but Jesus did.

In Matthew 7:11, he said, "If you then, though you're evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father in heaven give good gifts to people who ask Him."

In other words, God says, how optimistic, or Jesus said, how optimistic should you be that the God who is so capable of creating so much good and so much beauty in the world has committed Himself to being as good to you as He can possibly be in order to bless your life?

Those of you with small kids, when you take them to Fiesta Texas, have you ever noticed that when they go to the ride section, man, they're gone? They just are going to go do everything that they can possibly do, and you're just trying to keep track of them, right?

But when you get to the ice cream section and the cotton candy section, suddenly my little kids would be right by my legs. And I'd think, why are they now so close to me?

And the reason is they realized I can make everything happen that they wanted to make happen in that moment.

And in the same way, Jesus is telling us that, so we stay close to God. And we realize that everything that we desire on the inside of our heart, if it's an evil desire, then we may mess up our lives by giving in to that longing.

But if it's a good desire, we're going to love God more if we let Him direct us and if we let Him fulfill that longing.

James, the Lord's half-brother, talked about this as well when he said, "Don't be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters, because every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights."

In other words, he wanted us to know that everything good we could ever want in life can be found through learning to live in the love of God.

But then he added, "And God doesn't change like shifting shadows."

In the Greek, those words literally describe the fact that we experience changing weather because of the sun and because of atmospheric conditions.

And of course, here in South Texas, when we wake up in the morning, you know, it's kind of nice outside even in the summer. But how many of you know when it's in the afternoon, it's much different than it is when we wake up in the morning?

And what James is saying is no matter what you've done, no matter how many mistakes you've made, no matter how many regrets you have, one thing you can count on is that God will never change.

He'll always forgive you and He'll always do what's necessary to bless your future.

And that's what David's talking about when he's saying, in the middle of the Judean wilderness, when he's running from either King Saul, who was trying to kill him, or else Absalom, who was his son, who was trying to usurp the throne.

And how many of you know the devil is faithful and he makes life difficult for all of us, right?

But David says in those times, I'm going to be careful because even Jesus was tempted when he was hungry. The enemy tried to get him to make a choice he could regret.

Whenever he had a desire to do great things, the enemy tried to get him to make a decision that caused him to be somehow exalted, but not because he was empowered by Father God.

And Jesus showed us how managing our longings is so important if we want God's best to happen in our lives.

And so David said, "When I thirst for You, God, my whole being is going to long for You in a dry and a parched land where there's no water."

And then he said, "I've seen You in the sanctuary, and I've beheld Your power and glory."

That word "seen" means experientially. I've seen You. I've come to church.

And here's the point that David's making, and that is it's one thing to be taught how true worship functions. It's another thing to trust God and to do what true worship calls us to as a person.

And what this Psalm is going to help us do is end the confusion that people allow in their hearts to keep them from living in the benefits of true worship.

The truth is, if God wants to be so good to us, what is it that keeps us from rejoicing in the goodness of God like David's talking about?

Well, it's lust. It's greed. It's fear. It's rebellion.

It's those things that keep us from trusting God to be good to us the way that God wants to be good to us.

And so David is trying to say to us, listen, if you want to be satisfied in life more than you are satisfied with the greatest enchilada and tamale that's ever been made, I'm going to tell you how to do that.

You need to rejoice in what God wants to do on the inside of your heart.

And I want to share an example today that I think you'll find helpful.

My mentor was my father-in-law as a pastor, and he told me, "Jim, whenever you share your stories," he said, "the ones that helped you the most, you need to share the most with your congregation."

He said, "Because when you do that, the truth of how that helped you is going to become a part of their life, and you're going to see it help them in the same way."

So I want to tell you a story this morning about my big brother.

He was five years older than I was. And when he was 15 and I was 10, he was the most valuable player of our varsity football team, though he was just a sophomore.

What made it even more amazing is he was only about 5'6" and 126 pounds soaking wet, but he was so focused and so disciplined, and the coach loved him so much that he made him his most valuable player.

Roll the clock forward his senior year. He's 5'9", he's 165 pounds, he's a tri-captain of the team, and he ends up winning a college scholarship to play football.

Roll it forward just a couple more years, and he's 5'11", 205 pounds, running a 4.5 40-yard dash, and his team wins the national championship.

Roll it forward another year, and he's a standout player again. They win the second national championship, and his team gets voted the number one small college football team in all of America.

So imagine how, as a 15-year-old, I'm looking at my 20 or 21-year-old brother thinking, man, this guy's the bomb. I could never be like he is.

And I remember I was 5'9", 135 pounds. You've heard the story, the guy's so skinny he has to run around in the shower just to get wet, right?

And my brother knows that I have a serious confidence problem in my life.

And he has a talk with me and he says, "Little brother, I wanna talk to you about something important."

He said, "Because if you don't get this right, you're gonna settle far short of what you're capable of and you're gonna settle for less in your life."

"But if you get this right," he said, "you are going to be amazed at how much satisfaction and success you can enjoy in life."

And here's what he said.

He said, "I want you to love focus and I want you to love discipline."

And he said, "I promise you, if you will be confident and if you'll live disciplined, that confidence will bring forth more competence, and that competence will create more confidence, and that confidence will bring more competence until you look up one day and you are absolutely amazed at what you become."

Now, I never became as amazing as he was as an athlete, but I was a two-sport co-captain in my high school. I ended up being a college athlete myself.

And I can tell you that even more importantly, I wouldn't be the husband, the father, or the pastor I am today without my brother's help.

And this is kind of a cool thing that happened.

My brother died when he was 39, and his son kind of got away from God for some time. But his son's back in my life now, and you know what? I have a chance to help my brother's son live his best life.

And I told him the confidence and competence story.

And I'm telling you, I can't wait to see what God does with his life.

But here's what I want us to see this morning, and that is some things are going on around us, but they're not near as important as what is going on on the inside of us.

And David teaches us in these final verses how to live confidently and end the confusion in our life.

And here's the first thing he says. He said we have to remember what God's done.

Remember, he's in the desert. Remember, he's in a difficult time when he says, "Listen, on my bed, God, I'm gonna remember you and I'm gonna think of you through the watches of the night."

I bet there was a time whenever you woke up in the morning and you didn't just wanna jump out of bed and make things happen.

I bet there's been a time in your life you just wanted to keep lying in the bed.

And if you lie in bed, here's the best thing you can do. You can start remembering God and thinking about God through the watches of the night.

The Hebrew word that "remember" is translated from means I'm gonna mark and acknowledge the reality of this.

The word "think" means I'm gonna meditate and I'm gonna ponder what God can do.

And when you start your Christian walk, honestly, what you need to do is you need to look across the congregation and find people who've gone through the same difficulties that you've gone through in life, but God's restored them.

And you need to say to yourself, I'm not going to let confusion win in my heart because I can look across the sanctuary and God told me that He would be as good to me. He'd give me every good gift that I ever needed.

And when I look at that couple, you know what? God can do that for us.

His eyes go over the whole earth and He's just looking for somebody to show Himself strong on their behalf.

Can you say amen?

See, but the confusion has to end, and confidence in who God is has to come.

I remember as a young Christian, I would read stories of Abraham. And at first, I didn't let those settle in my heart deep enough.

But then I started understanding God is saying to Abraham, "If you'll leave your country, if you'll leave the way your father trained you to do things, and if you'll let me raise up a whole new way of living, I promise you I'll bless you more than you ever dreamed you could be blessed, and you'll be a greater blessing than you ever believed you could be to the world."

And I remember as a young Christian saying, okay, that means I've got to tithe. Nobody in my family ever tithed.

That means I've got to forgive. We were good grudge holders in the Graff family. Can anybody say amen?

And suddenly you started doing things differently and things started coming out differently in your life.

And I want to encourage you that it's one thing to be taught God's Word. It's another thing to say like David, "You're my God, and I'm going to long for the right things on the inside so you can bless my life."

Joseph was such a great example.

I'm sure I'm speaking to people today who've been betrayed, you've been abused, you've gone through difficult times.

He had all of his siblings have him thrown in a pit. They didn't even care if he lived or died.

But what he did is he kept believing God.

And we're told in Genesis 39, four different times, that the reason Joseph got out of his pit and the reason that he reached the place of blessing he did is because God was with Joseph.

And Joseph wouldn't let anything keep the sovereignty of God from bringing forth what could bring forth in his life.

And David's saying, if we want God to bless us like that, you know what we need to do?

We need to end the confusion and we need to say, "God, I'm gonna be confident that what I'm taught in the Word is something I can trust you to do in my life."

You know, if my brother was here or if King David was here and they were talking to you about what you're going through in your life, I think this is what they'd say today.

They'd say, "Never accept the conclusion that's being determined by confusion in your heart. Never let that confusion determine the outcome that is going to be experienced in your life."

Because if God can do what He's capable of on the inside of a heart, God can bless anybody in amazing ways.

And can I tell you what I've seen as pastor, and we all do it, when we go through hard times, it's so easy to start pointing the finger every direction, isn't it?

Because there aren't any perfect people that were made in this world, and that includes you, right?

And so when Adam and Eve sinned, what happened?

First of all, Adam blamed Eve. Then Eve blamed the snake. And then the snake didn't have any legs to stand on, so he just had to go ahead and take the blame.

But listen, that's what happened.

And here's what God wants us to understand, is when we go through difficult things in our life, we can't keep talking about what and we can't keep blaming people.

What we need is the right who in our life.

And when we get the right who in our life, everything can begin to change at that point.

It says, "Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path."

In other words, when people make mistakes, aren't you glad to be in a church this morning that isn't here to see through people? It's here to see people through into what God can do in their life. Amen?

But see, that's church.

When you mess up, don't run from God, run to God.

When you mess up, don't run from the church, run to the church.

And what is going on in your life can be fixed if who you're looking to is right.

Listen to James chapter 5. It says, "Is anyone among you sick? Let them call for the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well and the Lord will raise them up."

You notice the Bible doesn't just say you have anybody pray for you, but you have the right who gets you through that difficult time in your life.

And then you notice, don't even just pray for them, but anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord.

When someone's anointed with oil, it's a reminder to them that I can pray for you, but I can't bless you. Only the Holy Spirit can get you through the difficulty you're going through right now.

So I want you to follow Him in your heart.

But how many of you here have followed the Holy Spirit in your heart and He's made it more amazing than you ever dreamed He could make something in your life, right?

Because that's what He does.

And David would say to us, listen, don't ever let confusion have the last word. Don't ever let it bring about the conclusion that you settle for in life.

Then he said a second thing, and that is he said, after you remember who God is, what God can do, he said wholeheartedly receive help from God.

He said, "Because you're my help, I'm going to sing in the shadow of your wings. I'm going to cling to You because Your right hand upholds me."

You see, the Bible says that God has called us to live in the shadow of His wings.

In Psalm 91, the Bible says God's going to do some pretty amazing things if we honor living close to Him.

And he uses the shadow to describe what it means to be close to him.

When I'm on this stage, right there is my shadow. And how many of you know the shadow's always close, right?

And God says in Psalm 91, He said, "If you'll live in my shadow, I'm gonna tell you what I'll do for you, if you'll live in my shadow."

"If you'll live close to me, because I wanna be good to you. I don't care who you are, if you will live in my shadow, I'll rescue you from what sin has done in your life. I'll be with you through whatever trouble you go through. I will show you how much power I have to save your life, and I want you to know I'll put the enemy underneath your feet."

"He'll get off your back and he'll be underneath your feet where he belongs." Amen?

But that happens once the confusion goes and the confidence comes.

Hey, God has a great history. I can trust Him in this trial.

Number two, God wants to help me.

Here's what David said. He said, you know what? God can handle anything in my life.

And notice he didn't say, "I can handle anything," yet David confidently declared, "God can help me get through anything in my life."

So here's the point.

God's blessing requires more than embracing hopes in our heart. It requires us embracing help in our heart.

I remember years ago, Jeffrey and his friend Jake wanted to go down to the river and they wanted to fish.

But they were junior high kids and they didn't want to walk. So they asked if they could take my four-wheeler down to the river.

And I said, "Sure, you guys can take it. Just one condition. Don't park too close to the river or you might get my four-wheeler stuck."

What do you think two junior high kids did?

They got as close to the river as they possibly could.

And I was studying and I looked in my backyard and I saw these two kids coming that kind of had the body of Jake and the body of Jeffrey, but they were two black kids coming to see me.

And I thought, now I know Jeffrey's white and Jake's Hispanic, but who are these two black kids coming in my backyard?

And they got my four-wheeler stuck.

And you know what they did? They kept trying to get out, trying to get out. They didn't want to think that, you know, Dad told me not to do this.

So they just kept trying and trying. And the more they tried, the deeper they sunk into the dirt.

What they didn't know was there was a compassionate man named Ed Longenecker, who's Laurie Johansson's grandfather.

He would delight in helping two, let's just call them immature young junior high kids. He would delight in helping them get out of the mess that they made.

And he did.

He took his tractor and he got a chain and they got delivered.

Here's what I'm saying today.

God wants to rescue you. God wants to be with you in trouble. God wants to show you His salvation.

Don't try on your own. Trust in Jesus and He'll be so good to you in your trial. Amen?

The value of saying no to confusion, however it's working in our hearts, and the value of saying, "God, I can trust you to be good and I'm confident you'll be good to me."

David said, it's so great.

So he said, when you get in your desert, whenever you are thirsty and you really need help, remember God has history. You can count on Him.

God wants to help you.

And then here's the final thing. David says we need to relate to God with grateful honor in our hearts.

David said, "Those who wanna kill me are gonna be destroyed."

Talking about either Saul or Absalom.

He said, "They're gonna go down to the depths of the earth."

And he said, "They'll be given over to the sword and become the food for jackals."

Now, that's David who wrote that. It wasn't me, so don't, you know. Don't say anything.

But here's what David learned, and we all learned this at some point in life, is that people who make bad decisions and people who follow wrong longings, things don't go too well for them, right?

And David said, I'm just gonna stop a minute.

And instead of getting angry, bitter at his father-in-law, at his own son, David said, I'm gonna pray for them because bad decisions are only gonna take them to bad places.

And then he closed by saying, "But the king is going to rejoice in God. And all who swear by God are going to glory in God."

Listen, I don't know how you started your Christian walk.

How many of you were cussers? And you'll just be honest with me that you cussed a lot.

I knew I was reaching a lot of cussers in this church. Thank you for your honesty this morning.

I remember as a young basketball player, man, I was witnessing about Jesus.

And then in one of our games, I drove the lane and I should have made a reverse layup, but I missed it.

And I said, "Blankety, blank, blank," and I hit the thing.

And the next day, did I ever hear from the rest of the players, "Oh, there's that Christian, Jim Graff, huh?"

But listen, can I tell you something?

What they didn't understand is I had a God with me who was gonna forgive me of all my sins and bless my future.

And all who swear, "I love Jesus," are gonna end up blessed in the end because of it.

Can you say amen?

David said, listen, I'm gonna rejoice, not because of who I am, but because of who has invited me into this relationship with Him, that wherever I am, whatever I've done, He's here to bless me.

And he said the king will rejoice in God.

But notice this morning, we aren't called to rejoice because circumstances are wonderful. We're called to rejoice because the God who can control circumstances is wonderful.

It's why Paul wrote in Philippians 4, "Rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I'll say..."

How many of you ever had a hard time making the choice to rejoice and you had to hear it again, right?

Why do we do that?

Because of who God is.

Here's my closing story this morning.

When we were building this church, I knew the Lord spoke to me to build this building out of the same thing He created the world out of, nothing but faith.

And we had no debt.

There's a guy named Henry Yankee who gave us a tithe off of his pension account and it paid off our airport building.

And I thought we'd spend some time designing, and the Lord spoke to me and he said, "No. You need to build now."

He said, "And I want you to build that building out of the same thing I made the world out of, nothing but faith."

So I went to Dr. Solis hoping he talked me out of it, but he said, "No, that was the word of the Lord."

I went to Doc Hardin hoping they'd talk me out of it. "No, that's the word of the Lord."

So I started getting to work, and I went to every bank in this town and I asked them for a loan based on our income, based on the growth of the church.

And every single bank turned me down.

I wanted to say, "God, I'll just give up now because there's no way I can make this happen."

But my father-in-law called me and he said, "Jim, I want you to come to Houston. I want you to talk with the president of a bank who's in our church named John Sitton."

So I was sitting in John Sitton's office, and as I was sitting in John Sitton's office, he looked at me and his eyes got real big and he said, "Jim, tell me what the Lord has said to you."

And so I went through a history of the words that God had given to me about this church.

And he just sat back and smiled and he said, "Jim, the Lord is calling you to take a big step of faith. You need to take it."

And then he looked at me and he said, "I'm a banker. Let me tell you something."

He said, "What you need is you need a new bank who comes to Victoria."

And he said, "You need to ask them for a loan because they'll give you the loan because they're looking for lots of new customers."

And I said, "Yes, sir, there's only one problem. I haven't seen a new bank come to Victoria my whole time there."

About a month later, Pacific Southwest came, and they were on the corner of Navarro and Mockingbird.

I drove my car in. I asked the bank president for a meeting.

In 30 minutes, I had the loan, y'all, and the rest is history.

Here we are.

Don't let confusion determine your conclusion.

Say that with me.

Don't let confusion determine your conclusion.

How many of you are glad God is speaking to you in your heart?

He is good.

The enemy can't stop Him.

And because of that, God is going to work for good in the midst of all things.

Let's give Him another good hand clap today. Can we do that?

Let's give Him joy.