God, Which Direction Should I Go? Part 2

Today on Summit Life with J.D.

Greer. What's his promise? He will direct your paths, which means that after I've done everything God told me to do, I just make the decision and say, thank you, God, that it's not even on me to figure out how to get this right. I'm doing everything you told me to do. Now you promised to direct my paths and I'm trusting in you to do what you said you would do. Welcome to Summit Life, the Bible teaching ministry of pastor and author J.D. Greer.

I'm your host, Molly Vidovitch. You know, I've started to rely more and more on the different GPS apps on my phone. And I know that I'm not alone in this phenomenon. I think we have all come to rely on these types of directions. But I don't think it's because I don't know my way around, but more because they get real time traffic information and can correct my course.

It's more of like a guide than just simply a map. And today, Pastor J.D. lovingly shows us that what we need is a relationship with a constant guide like that who at every point can provide the next step in the next direction. So let's join in as he concludes his message that we began yesterday from Psalm 25 called God, God, which direction should I go?

You have got to be so familiar. You've got to be so dexterous with the scriptures that in the moment you just instinctively know what to do. And if you're looking for an action step on this one, it is that you get so saturated with scripture that when life cuts you, you bleed God's word and it just becomes a second nature to you and it becomes an instinct to you.

That's your action step. Because listen, you will never live out the will of God any more than you know the word of God. You cannot live out the will of God any more than you know the word of God. And if you're telling me I want to know the will of God, but you're not devoting yourself to the word of God, then you're kidding yourself because it is more of an instinct than it is an instruction.

And God says you become the kind of person who understands my ways and you'll end up choosing what I want you to choose. So those who experience the guidance of God are those who are trained in the ways of God. Second characteristic, number two, those, he says, who are obedient to the commands of God.

Those obedient to the commands of God. Notice verse nine. He leads the humble in what is right.

And he teaches them his way. Verse 10, all the Lord's ways show faithful love and truth to those who keep his covenant and decrees. Humble.

Verse nine. Humble means you believe God's way is best. The opposite of that is pride, right? Pride assumes that your way is better than God's way.

Right? Obedient means that you are obeying God in the areas where you do know what he has said. If you're taking notes, write this down. God's promise to give guidance in the area scripture doesn't address is extended to those who are obeying him in those areas the scriptures do address. If you're the kind of person, and I imagine we have some here this weekend, who's praying for God's wisdom and some decision over here about a job or a relationship or a future plan, yet you've got some area back here that you are living in defiance to what God has clearly said, you need to stop talking about this because God doesn't want to talk about this until you have dealt with that.

We have couples that are sometimes praying about their future while they're living together, not married. I'm like, why are you talking to God about his direction over here when you're clearly disobeying him back here? God's like, I'm not going to tell you what scripture doesn't address until you're humble enough to obey what it does address. So stop asking for my help when you're living in defiance. Stop asking for my help when you're living in defiance to what I've said. We have people who are praying about God's wisdom for a job, yet they're not obeying God in the principles of generosity. God's like, why are you talking to me about my provision in areas that I haven't addressed when you are disobeying me in this area that I have addressed?

There is a humility that God leads that is demonstrated by obedience to God's commands. I'll give you a third illustration here. There's an old book by George MacDonald, and he's a British writer 150 years ago called The Princess and the Goblin. Anybody read that book, The Princess and the Goblin?

It's a kid's book, but it's kind of hard for a kid's book to read, so I wouldn't go grab it tonight necessarily. So Princess and the Goblin, there is a goblin kingdom that's trying to take over the human kingdom. And there's a princess, and she is sent away so that she can be protected to the house of her fairy godmother. And her godmother says, listen, if the goblins come and attack you, she gives her a ring and a ball of yarn. And she says, it's a magical ball of yarn, you put the ring on, and you follow this yarn, and this yarn will guide you to safety. So whenever she's scared, if she hears something happening, she puts the ring on, falls from under her pillow, and starts to follow, and it usually takes her to her godmother who lives in the bedroom upstairs. Well, one night she hears the goblin coming in to get her, so she puts the ring on, but this time the thread doesn't lead her upstairs to her godmother's room, instead it leads her out into the woods, which is really, really terrifying to her. But she keeps following it, because she's like, surely my godmother is trustworthy, so she keeps following, and then it takes her to the entrance of a cave, a cave she recognizes as the entrance into the goblin kingdom. And then she begins to follow it even farther, and it goes deeper into the cave, and it comes to this gigantic-like prison, and it goes through a prison door, and she's, I mean, she's freaking out, she's like, what am I doing? But when she gets into this prison door, she discovers another friend that the goblins have taken captive, and she's able to set him free. But she grabs a hold of the thread, and she keeps following it, and it keeps going deeper down into the dungeon, this cave. And her friend is like, what are we doing? And she's like, I have to keep following this thread.

Now, I'm going to totally blow the story for you, but eventually it leads her to her godmother, and they're able to destroy the goblin kingdom, and they all live happily ever after. George MacDonald's point in the whole thing was, when you're following God, there is a trust in following a thread that sometimes leads you to places that you don't understand, and that you don't want to go. For example, you've been following the thread. You've been following the thread of what God wants, and you always thought it would lead you to marriage. But it keeps leading you, for some reason, to singleness. And right now, you're like, I don't want to follow that thread.

I'd rather put it down, and I'd rather go over here, and I'd rather deal with this. And God says, you've got to keep following that thread. That thread will lead you where I want you to go, but sometimes it's going to take you through places that you weren't expecting to go. And you've got to trust me enough to keep going. Maybe you're in a business situation, and you're tempted to compromise your integrity. Maybe you feel like, I've got to cheat to get ahead.

Or maybe you know that if you tell the truth to your boss, it might cause you to lose your job, or it might change your career. David actually addresses that one directly. It's verse 3. No one who waits for you will ever be disgraced.

Those who act treacherously without cause will always be disgraced. In other words, you've got to keep following the thread, even when it means telling the truth and being honest is going to cost you, because that's the thread that keeps you in God's will, and that's where God has promised to bless and take care of you. Ultimately, you've got to decide who you trust with your future, because waiting on God means doing things His way, even when it leads you into the woods and down into the cave and into the presence of the enemy itself, because you would rather be there trusting God than you would be to be out on your own.

Give you one more here before I move on. Maybe you've got somebody in your past to whom you refuse to extend forgiveness, even though that you should. I'm telling you, listen, that is keeping you from experiencing God's blessing and His fullness in the present. And I know it feels like it's taking you into a dark cave, but that is the place at which you will experience the provision and the goodness of God. I think here of the Old Testament story, and I realize I'm giving you a lot of Old Testament stories, and if you're new to church, you're like, what are all these stories about?

They're awesome. You should read the Bible. There is Naaman in the Old Testament, is a Syrian general who is Israel's enemy. And he has a little girl that he's taken captive, a Hebrew servant girl, which means that he had likely killed her parents and taken her captive. Well, Naaman gets leprosy. Now, you imagine if you're this little girl, and this guy who is your master, your slave master, has gotten leprosy, your response to him would be like, ha! Serves you right.

Right? I knew this was going to come, but instead, this girl goes to him, and she says, oh, that my master would be able to find Elisha the prophet. He could heal you. Which shows the most remarkable thing about this teenage girl, which is that somehow she had developed the capacity to forgive him. And she had forgiven him even when it felt like it was taking her direction.

She didn't want to go. And through that forgiveness, not only was Naaman cleansed of his leprosy, ultimately it led to a great act of deliverance for the people of Israel itself. What it's showing you is that when you follow that thread, and that thread is leading to forgiveness, even though it feels like, I don't know if I can go there, when you go there, you will experience the goodness and the blessing of God, because God's promise goes with His instructions to obey. So it's those that are trained in the ways of God, those who follow the thread of obedience to God, whatever the cause. Here's number three, those who are trusting in the promises of God. Those who are trusting in the promises of God. Verse three, no one who waits for you will be disgraced. Wait implies that sometimes you're in a place where you don't see it fulfilled yet. And that's a hard place to be, I've been there.

And you're like, I don't see it working out. He's like, just wait, you gotta trust me. Verse 14, one of my favorites, the secret counsel of the Lord is for those who fear Him. Secret counsel implies that there's things that God will share with you, an instruction He will give to you when you seek to be close to Him. Tim Keller says this phrase indicates these are those special moments of spirit guidance that the Spirit of God will sometimes supernaturally give to you in a moment. Now I don't have time to give you a full message on this. I'm not trying to promo a book, but that's why I wrote the book Jesus Continued, was to really try to explore a few of these things and show you how the New Testament reveals when the Spirit will give you special guidance.

But here's just a 30,000 foot flyover. A lot of times in the Bible, a lot of times in the New Testament, that special spirit guidance comes from the church itself. In fact, that's the number one way, probably. Acts 13, verse two is your example. The Holy Spirit said to the church, separate Barnabas and Paul for the work that I have for them. What's interesting is that when God had something for Barnabas and Paul, He didn't tell it to Barnabas and Paul, He told it to the church. Which means that, in my life, I've had a lot of people in this church give me instructions that they're like, you know, I've been praying for you, and I just felt like God put this on my heart. And it turns out it was a Spirit-given instruction about what I should do. I can tell you that if you cut yourself off from the fellowship of the church, you were cutting yourself off from the opportunity to be guided by the Spirit. And I don't mean just coming and sitting and listening to me each week.

I mean you're involved in a small group, you're connected in relationships. That's the Spirit's means for speaking into your life. That's one way. Another way is sometimes to deal with these circumstances. In the book of Acts, you see Paul saying, I thought I was supposed to go over here, but the Spirit of God closed all these doors and showed me I was supposed to go this other way. A third way is inner promptings that the Holy Spirit puts in your heart when you pray. Nehemiah, another Old Testament guy, is your example here. Nehemiah knows that God wants him to go and rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.

What's interesting is that you read the book of Nehemiah cover to cover in the Bible, and you will never one time find God telling Nehemiah that's what he wants him to do. All it says, Nehemiah 2.12, is the Spirit of God put this on my heart. It gave me a burden. It gave me a burden that I knew had to be from him, a desire, a passion. Some of you will experience as you pray a passion for a particular ministry or for a career to see Jesus made known in this area here, and you will recognize that as a prompting of the Spirit of God. What he is promising in Psalm 25 is whatever secret counsel you need, God will make it known to you. So you've got those who are trained in the ways of God.

You've got those who are obeying the commands of God, those who are trusting in the promises of God. Some of you are like, okay, well, but what does that mean in the moment that I actually need to make a decision? I'm in this moment, I gotta make a decision. What do all these things mean? Here's what they mean.

It means that when you're in that moment, listen to this, you take advantage of everything that you have at your disposal, every bit of wisdom. You're consulting the scriptures. You're listening to the church. You're praying. You're making good T charts and thinking what the wise decision here. Watch it, here's the catch. And when you've done all that, you just make the decision.

Whatever seems wisest to you, you make the decision and trust that God is guiding you in that decision just like he said he would. That's the key right there. I love how Acts expresses this. It's talking about a decision some of the early Christians made, Acts 15. And here's how they said it. They said, it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us.

I love kind of the, almost the flippancy of that. We thought about it, we prayed about it, and then it seemed like this was good to the Holy Spirit and to us, and so that's the decision we made. And they're just trusting that the Spirit of God was guiding that, and if he wanted something different, he would have shown them. The burden is not on you to figure it out. God says, put that burden on me.

I can guide you even when you're not a good listener. Here's one of my favorite verses on this, and it's pretty close to a life verse to me. Proverbs three, five, and six. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and don't lean, don't lean on what? Your own understanding or your own ability to figure out what God wants. Trust in God's ability to show you, not in your ability to figure it out. In all your ways, acknowledge him, and he will, what's his part? Direct your paths.

Verse six has two phrases in it. One is yours, one is God's. Yours is, in all your ways, acknowledge him. Obey what you know to obey.

Seek the wisdom that is at your disposal. What's his promise? He will direct your paths, which means that after I've done everything God told me to do, I just make the decision and say, thank you, God, that it's not even on me to figure out how to get this right. I'm doing everything you told me to do.

Now you promised to direct my paths, and I'm trusting in you to do what you said you would do. It's led me to develop something over the years I've referred to as the sheep prayer. The sheep prayer is Proverbs three, five, and six put into my prayer for guidance. You said sheep prayer. When God chose an analogy for you in the Bible, an animal, what animal did he choose?

I've already given you the answer. Sheep, right? Your spirit animal's a sheep, okay?

Not an otter or a lion or any of that stuff. You're a sheep. Now, bad news and good news. Bad news, what do we want first?

Bad news? Bad news, sheep are idiots. Anybody that knows sheep knows sheep are like the dumbest animals. They're just basically walking feed bags. They can't defend themselves. They can't run. They have terribly bad eyesight. They can see about four feet ahead of them. They just, they step into streams and they drown. They turn over in the back and they get cast and they can't, they die.

They're just helpless. And when God in heaven was looking down at you and said, I need an animal to represent them, I'm gonna choose sheep. That's the bad news, right? Is that even the wisest of you, when it comes to guidance and figuring out, then you're an idiot, all right?

So bad news. Good news, you have an awesome shepherd. And if sheep get to where sheep need to go, it's never because of their competence as sheep. It is always because of the competence and the compassion of their shepherd.

Because even the wise sheep is still an idiot, okay? Here's how that comes out as a prayer. Lord, I got this decision. And I've done my dead level best, God, to figure out and listen to you in every possible way. And I've got all kinds of counsel and I've prayed about it. And God, this is what I think I'm gonna do.

And so God, I'm choosing this. But God, you said I was a sheep, which means that I had no confidence in my ability to make this decision. But I do have confidence in your compassion and your competence as a shepherd to guide me. So if this is not the right decision, I'm trusting you to take your rod and your staff and get me where I need to go. And thank God, Proverbs 3.5 says, it's not on you. You don't have to lean on your own understanding, but you can trust in the Lord and his willingness to guide you. That's an awesome place to be.

And I'm telling you, it is stress-free. Listen, God gave up on your decision, making ability back at the Garden of Eden. And that's where God looked at you and said, okay, if they're gonna get to where they need to go, it's not gonna be because of their wisdom as sheep.

It's gonna be because of my willingness and my compassion and my competence to guide them. That is an awesome place to be in trusting God. And that's what Psalm 25 is promising you. The question is not how God guides you.

You don't even have the capacity for that. The question is who God guides. And that's what he's showing you. It's the one who is trained in the ways of God. Those are obedient to the commands of God. There's trust in the promises of God. That's what it means to, in all your ways, acknowledge him.

And he promises he will direct your paths. I got one more analogy for you here. The last one. Y'all remember one of these things right here? You remember this?

Some of your blood pressure's going up, just pulling this out right now. This is called a map. For those of you that are under the age of 30, this is what people used to use to figure out where to go. This led to more marital difficulty with our parents than any other thing that we've ever seen. Because all of us have images of driving, like where's 150, I think it was back there.

It was just, it was terrible. Because this is overwhelming, right? Remember how overwhelming this was, trying to figure out where the different roads were?

This is what most people are looking for when they ask God for his will. They want a map of where to go. Maps can be overwhelming. I was listening to, or I was reading a book by Elizabeth Elliot called A Slow and Certain Light. And she was a missionary down in Ecuador and in the Amazon jungle. And she said that she ran across some American tourists in the middle of the jungle who asked her for directions about how to go somewhere. And she was like, y'all, this is a jungle. There are no directions. I can't tell you, like, you know, there's no landmarks.

It's just woods and stuff everywhere. And they said, well, just draw us a map and we're confident we'll make it where we need to go. She said, I'm confident you won't. And so they said, just give it to us. So she finally just drew him a map.

She just handed it to him. Said, I never saw him again. She said, as far as I'm concerned, they might still be somewhere in the jungle still wandering out there. She says, in some places, you don't need a map. You need a guide. You need a guide who understands everything so well that they can guide you in places and the map would just overwhelm you. What Psalm 25 offers you is not a map.

It offers you a guide. And it says, this God will walk with you. And if you trust in him and you obey him, he will control things and he will arrange decisions. He won't let other people, he won't let you mess it up if you commit yourself to him as your shepherd and you trust in his ability to guide you. Let me close with one last thing here, one last characteristic that may be, may be the most important of all of them.

It's just a beautiful one. It's number four, his last characteristic. Those who are depending on the grace of God, right? So we've got those that are trained in the ways of God. There's obedient at the commands of God. There's trust in the promises of God.

Now we've got those depending on the grace of God. Several times throughout the Psalm, David is gonna talk about God's rescue of him. He's gonna talk about God's deliverance and his forgiveness. And then he kinda comes to a climax in verse 10. That verse I showed you, all the Lord's ways show faithful love and truth. If you've got your Hebrew Bible open, you'll notice that word faithful love is the word hesed. Hesed, it means covenant love, unconditional love.

I know that everything that God is doing in my life now is based on unconditional love. You see, listen, what haunts many of us in our pursuit of God's will is this suspicion that God still has mixed feelings toward us, is that maybe, maybe he's still holding some grudges against us because of sins we've committed or mistakes we've made in the past, or maybe he's just disappointed with us. And so when you're looking to God, you're like, well, he's probably, he didn't want life to be all blessing for me because I deserve some bad things too, and you know that.

So here's what that looks like. It means that at any blessing that you go through, in any good chapter of your life, you're always waiting on the other shoe to drop, right? Because you almost see God in heaven going, well, you can't expect life to be that good.

Are you serious? You don't deserve that. And so you got this good thing, I'm gonna have to pay you back with a little bad thing over here and I'll get even with you. Friends, what King David would tell us and what the good news of the gospel is, is that how God guides you from this point on and what God gives to you is no longer based on the worthiness of how you've lived, it's based on the worthiness of how Jesus lived.

That's what I said. That's covenant love, is that Jesus took the punishment so that you could get the blessing so poor David could say all the Lord's ways, all of them, show faithful love and truth because all the wrath was poured out on Jesus in my place. The New Testament way of saying this, Romans 8 one, there is therefore no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. It means that all that God had against me, all the reason he would have to condemn, all the bad things, they got poured out on Jesus. That means I don't need to wait for the other shoe to drop and a blessing because the other shoe dropped on Jesus and it dropped on him so that all that remains for me is blessing and goodness, which is why I so love that verse I gave you at the beginning and told you to pray for me. Proverbs 10 22, the blessing of the Lord makes one rich and he adds no sorrow with it because he poured out all the sorrow on Jesus, the man of sorrows, so that what would remain for me is nothing but joy and happiness, so that I could say that all the promises of God are yes in Christ Jesus, that he has blessed me with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. I could know that in everything that I'm doing, that I'm walking in his blessing, that every good and perfect gift is coming from above, from the Father of lights in whom there is no shadow of turning, which means there is no mixed feelings in him, there's no second thoughts, it's all goodness, all blessing, all day long, or to quote David one final time, that surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever because all the condemnation and all the evil was poured out on Jesus so that I could walk in the assurance of his constant intention to bless me every second of every day for the rest of my eternity.

That's a great place to be. The question is not how God guides, but whom God guides. Guidance is not as much something God gives to you as something he does for you. Are you the kind of person that he guides?

You're listening to J.D. Greer on Summit Life. You know, I think we can all agree that 2021 was not significantly better than 2020. Our world continues to face heartache and hardship and uncertainty, and it may feel like hope is in short supply, but thankfully it doesn't have to be.

Yeah, I know what you mean, Molly. We have all had to find a new normal as we enter yet another year of not knowing what the future holds. I will tell you, my family could not have made it through thus far without the support and encouragement of our family, our local church here, the Summit Church, and folks like you, our Summit Life audience. You know, the Christmas season, it reminds us that our God is not a God who is a far-off God, a God who is unfamiliar with pain, a God who leaves us alone in our loneliness. He enters into it with us, and we've been able to make that known to a lot of people around the country because of your support, whether that's a financial donation, whether it's your ongoing prayer, or if it's just simply engaging with the content that we share, sharing it with others. So as we close out 2021, I would love to ask you to consider becoming one of our first 500 gospel partners in the new year. That's a monthly giving commitment that enables us to take the gospel to new places. One of the things we love to say around here at Summit Life is you don't give to Summit Life as much as you give through Summit Life. You're giving to impact people with the gospel, and it's our joy to be able to be a partner with you in doing that. So I wanna thank you for those of you that are involved that way, and I wanna invite you to prayerfully consider being one of those 500 gospel partners going into this year that'll enable us to take the gospel to more people and more places. There's still time to join our team of monthly gospel partners, and we'd love to get you a copy of our new 2022 Summit Life Planner as our way of saying thank you when you donate once or give monthly to support this ministry at the suggested level of $35 or more. Give us a call at 866-335-5220. That's 866-335-5220.

Or give online at jdgreer.com. That's J-D-G-R-E-E-A-R.com. I'm Molly Benovitch inviting you to join us next time when we're learning about how to approach God when he seems like he's not listening to us. It's another message from our series called Help, Friday on Summit Life with J.D. Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by J.D. Greer Ministries.