What’s OK….it is ok, to be fearful, it is ok, to doubt, it is ok to worry, it’s ok to get angry. It is even OK to fail.
By now you’re think has the Pastor lost his mind, these are all types of sin, are you telling me it is OK to sin….the answer to that would be NO but hear me out today.
Becoming a mature Christ-follower is a process. I have seen many become paralyzed by the possibility of blowing it and other failing to recognize their sin become more deeply entrenched in it.
Let me begin this morning with this verse, you have heard me share it numerous times
Psalm 37:23,24
The LORD directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives. Though they stumble, they will never fall, for the LORD holds them by the hand.
As we read this verse, we need to capture a few very important things
- If you desire to be truly the best Christ-follower you can be, God is going to direct your steps…
- That means every day the Lord is leading you, the people you meet, the circumstances both good and bad you find yourself in, the challenges you face, God has led you there! Process that for a moment. The blessings you receive every moment of every day as well as the jerks you come across have all crossed your path because God has led you. There are no coincidences, there are no accidents, God has a plan for every moment of your life….i know you are saying even all the garbage and pain I go through? The answer would be yes but I will deal with that more later.
- Not only does God guide us into all of this stuff but he also enjoys the process of our growth in it. A later Psalm, 139 tells us he knows everything about us knows every word we say, attitude we have and he still loves us and as I often say, he loves us the most!
- Guess what you will stumble, either your flesh will get in the way, Satan will try to trip you up or you will simply blow it because you haven’t been this way before But he wonderful promise of God is when you blow it, God will lift you up…the apostle Paul puts it this way Philippians 1:6
“And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.”
Whenever you are doing something, you have never done before but it is something God has called you to do, you will mess up, your pride or fear may get in the way but God will not allow you to fail, he will come in heal you, forgive you, and keep moving you forward.
Here is what I mean…bear with me. I will do this quickly Psalm 23
The LORD is my shepherd;
I have all that I need.
2 He lets me rest in green meadows;
he leads me beside peaceful streams.
3 He renews my strength.
He guides me along right paths,
bringing honor to his name.
4 Even when I walk
through the darkest valley,
I will not be afraid,
for you are close beside me.
Your rod and your staff
protect and comfort me.
5 You prepare a feast for me
in the presence of my enemies.
You honor me by anointing my head with oil.
My cup overflows with blessings.
6 Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me
all the days of my life,
and I will live in the house of the LORD
forever.
This is a very positive Psalm but bear with me as we read between the lines. David is saying to us he had some battles but these battles didn’t defeat him instead they drew him to the Lord to cause him to win…..It was ok
It was OK for David to fear that God would come through that God would abandon him not meeting his needs…he learned in that season that God had given Him and will continue to give him all that he needs….how do we learn that by being afraid that God will not be there not supply the need and realizing that the fear would get him nowhere he had to choose to trust the Lord and God proved Himself as he chose to cry out to God and God didn’t fail
As we read other Psalms, we see David was exhausted, he had nothing more to give. He was sure his enemies would run over him in his weakness. He got angry that the wicked were prospering while he was suffering but, in his anger, it drew him to God for answers and God gave him the strength and guided Him to a place of peace even though the circumstances didn’t immediately change, always he was able to trust the Lord as He led him into a place of peace
David found himself in darkest valleys places where he doubted his own call, he doubted God would save his life He doubted at times even if he would live but, he learned to cry out to God, maybe even as a last resort but he is saying here that…
Psalm 23:4
Even when I walk
through the darkest valley,
I will not be afraid,
for you are close beside me.
Your rod and your staff
protect and comfort me.
God met him allowing him to walk through these dark places know that God was right here with him. God was personally with him in tangible ways that he could feel, it was as if we could feel God correcting, leading, and pushing him on which is why the rod and staff where there and he could feel the physical protection that brought to him.
David was one of the very few in the Old Testament period that could feel and know the presence of the Holy Spirit. There were times that he felt alone, abandoned. He felt the enemy all around and no sense of escape it was in those times that he realized if his life was going to be lost, he at least might as well put his life completely in God’s hands. What God did was show him that his battle was not a physical one but instead a spiritual one, that God, as David chose to put his fear in God’s hands he placed a wall between the enemy and him, prophetically giving him the understanding of the coming messiah, the prince of peace who would create a meal between David and his enemy that defeated his enemy, we know the meal as communion.
Psalm 23:5
You prepare a feast for me
in the presence of my enemies.
You honor me by anointing my head with oil.
My cup overflows with blessings.
It is God’s anointing on David not his strength, wisdom, or battle insight that wins the battles it is not even David’s goodness but instead God’s anointing that you and I have naturally because of the Holy Spirit in us
Last like most of us David had doubted God’s love for him
Psalm 23:6
Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me
all the days of my life,
and I will live in the house of the LORD
forever.
But he learned that God’s love never fails, it brings us into His presence, heals, delivers and sets us free. It brings us to the place of fulfilled dreams
You see it is OK to be fearful, doubt, get angry, worry, even fail if we always remember God! It is in those places that he will take away our fear, doubt, anger, worry and even our failures and restore us causing us to grow because what our flesh and the enemy meant for evil God turns it around using it as a lesson drawing us closer to Him.
Can I ask you to do that today. Can I ask you to give him your worry, fear, doubt, anger, and even your failures so that he can bring you to a new place…a place where the 23 Psalm has real meaning for you, because you know God in that way.