Guided By God – Dr. Charles Stanley
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www.aberdeen.io 1-800-688-6621 male announcer: "In Touch"
with Dr. Charles Stanley, reaching the world with the
gospel of Jesus Christ through sound biblical teaching. Next on "In Touch,"
"Guided by God." Dr. Charles Stanley: When you
are trying to make a decision in life and you feel like you need
some guidance, you've done all that you know to do as far as
finding out the information, you need a little help. And when that's true,
where do you turn? Well, let me ask you this. When your children are
looking for guidance, or your grandchildren, where
do they turn? Do they turn to you? If they can't turn to you,
to whom do they turn? Because you see, if you can't
turn to the right person, usually you'll turn to
the wrong person. And so, finding true guidance
is very, very important. We live in a world that creates
all kind of problems and situations and circumstances;
and no one is an island within himself or herself. We all need someone we can talk
to, listen to, share our heart with or be willing to share what
God has done in our lives. And so, when I think about that
and I think of all the scriptures that come to my mind,
the one I want to deal with this morning is so crystal clear. It's talking about being
guided by God. How am I guided by God? And that's the title
of the message. "Guided by God." If I'm not guided by Him,
who's going to guide me? Everybody needs guidance at
some point in their life. So turn to Psalm thirty-two. And I want to begin reading in
the seventh verse, which is not about this subject, but it's a
word of encouragement, and read through the eleventh verse of
this thirty-second Psalm. And so David starts out in the
seventh verse, says, speaking of God, "You are my hiding place." You--I have somewhere to run
to when I need You. "You preserve me from trouble; You surround me
with songs of deliverance. I will instruct you and teach
you in the way which you should go; I will counsel you
with My eye upon you. Do not be as the horse or as
the mule which have no understanding, whose trappings
include bit and bridle to hold them in check, otherwise they
will not come near to you. Many are the sorrows of the
wicked, but he who trusts in the Lord, lovingkindness shall
surround him. Be glad in the Lord and rejoice,
you righteous ones; and shout for joy, all you who are
upright in heart." So first of all what I want you
to see here, here's a promise. Here's a promise from
Almighty God. Listen to what He says, "I will
instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go." So, the first thing I want you
to notice here is the source of this promise. Who is the I? The I is God. God is saying in all of His
omniscience, in all of His power, in all that He is, He
says, "I, Jehovah God, the creator of the ends of the
earth, I will instruct you." Not maybe, not I could, not I'd
like to, but I will. This is a commitment by
Almighty God to give us instruction in our life. Now, listen carefully. Are you listening?
Say amen. The value of the promise depends
upon the promiser. A lot of people can make
you a promise. God can make you a promise and
you never have to worry about whether He's going to keep
it or not. So when He says, "I will
instruct you," then who is making that statement? That is Almighty God. The value of any promise
depends upon the character of the promiser. So when you and I promise
someone something, whether we keep it or not says something
about who we are. If we're true to our word and
we're true to who we are, we make a promise, we'll keep it. Here is a divine promise. Here is an eternal promise from
Almighty God to His children, "I will instruct you and teach you
in the way which you should go." So watch this. If God is instructing us with
truth, we'll be able to discern truth from error. If we're only listening to the
voices of the world, we're going to hear a lot of error and
certainly things that will not lead us in the right direction. So think about how
inclusive this is. He says, first of all, He says,
"I will instruct you." "I'm going to give
you knowledge. He says, "I'll tell you what to
do next and what to avoid. I will instruct you. I'll make it very specific. I won't be just
general about it. 'Well, you ought to do
thus and so.'" So here is God who knows you
perfectly; knows exactly what you're capable of doing and what
the temptations are; what your possibilities are; what His will
and plan for your life. He says, "I will instruct you." Then He says, "Not only will I
instruct you," but He says, "I will also teach you. I'm going to show you how to
apply this to your life." It's one thing to have
information. It's something else to know how
to apply it to my life in a given situation. And when it comes to having
someone give you guidance in your life, lot of questions you
need to ask before you choose that person. And so He says, "I will
teach you." In other words, "I'm going to
impart knowledge to you. I'm going to help you understand
what is the right thing to do." He says, "I will instruct you
and teach you in the way which you should go." Not many ways, but of all the
ways you can go, of all the decisions you can make, of all
the directions you can choose; I'm going to teach you
in the way, what? Look, He says, "In the way
which you should go." Not could do, go, maybe go, "I'm
going to teach you in the way which you should go." And most decisions are critical
in this day and time. And sometimes it's a little
difficult. You say, "Well, it's
not right or wrong, but what is
the wisest thing to do?" He says, "I'm going to teach you
to discern wisdom. I'm going to teach you how to
make wise decisions. I'm going to instruct you. I'm going to teach you,"
He says. And then of course, you
and I have the reminder of the Holy Spirit. When you got saved, the Spirit
of God, the Third Person of the Trinity, came to indwell you for
a very specific reason; this is one of them. He says in the thirteenth verse
of the sixteenth chapter of John, "But when He, the Spirit
of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; He will
not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will
speak; and He will disclose it to you what is to come." That is, He says,
He will guide us. So you have the--you have
this assurance, you have the assurance that within you is the
person of the Holy Spirit, whom God sent for a number of
reasons, one of which is to give you guidance and
direction in your life. And so David, writing back
in the Psalms before the Holy Spirit ever came to be in the
believer as He does today, He says, "I'm going to instruct you
and teach you in the way which you should go." You and I have the Holy Spirit,
the third person of the Trinity, living within us,
dwelling within us. One of His primary
responsibilities is to guide you and me in the truth, which means
we have within us the Person of the Godhead, who one of His
responsibilities is that when you and I come to making a
decision, we have the Holy Spirit to guide us. He knows all the facts. He knows truth from error. He knows the difference
between what is good, bad, and indifferent. He knows what the will
of God for your life is. He knows that if you take this
turn, it will be a disaster; you take this turn, it'll be
absolutely joy in your life. Because He knows your future,
He knows this is the right way. It looks like this is
the right way today. He knows what tomorrow holds. And many people make decisions
in life that how many times they say before they come to the end
of life, "If-I'd-a, If-I'd-a, If-I'd-a, If-I'd-a. If-I'd-a made that decision,
if-I'd-a made this decision. Why did I--why--what would
cause me to make that decision?" He says, "I will instruct
you and I will teach you in the way you should go." You and I never have to come
to the place of saying, "I'm hopelessly and
helplessly lost. I don't know what to do." Yes, you do! You turn to God first, who
says, "I will guide you into all truth," and who says, "I will
teach--I will instruct you, I will teach you in the
way which you should go." And then if you'll notice
what He says, and I love this; He says, "I will counsel
you with My eye upon you." I'm--He says, "I'm going to
counsel you. I'm going to counsel you
with My eye upon you." Two things here. First of all, He says,
"I will counsel you." That says something to me about
the closeness of God. "I'm not just going to give you
instruction out there. I'm not just going to answer
prayer, but I'm going to counsel you." Counsel means we're going to
have a relationship. Counsel means He knows past,
present and future. Counsel means on the basis of
His wisdom and His knowledge, on the basis of His love; on the
basis of God's pre-planned will for my life and your life, He's going to counsel us. That is, I don't have to worry
about what's gonna happen or not going to happen if the Spirit
of God is counseling me. And so, listen to what He says. Not only will He counsel us, but
He says, "I'm going to counsel you with My eye upon you." Which says that you and I walk
under the umbrella of the all-seeing eye of a loving
Father who desires and is committed to giving us direction
and counsel for our life. And so it's foolish, it is foolish to make decisions
and forget Him. It's foolish to make decisions
based on your own knowledge and wisdom and understanding because
we can't know the future. And think about the awesome
assurance, the One who is giving us guidance knows your future
through the last time you breathe the last breath. And His guidance is based on
love and wisdom. He always wants
what's best for us. He loves us enough to
have died for us. And He says, "I'm going
to counsel you with My eye upon you." He knows all the circumstances. He knows what you and
I cannot know. This is an awesome passage
of scripture. He says, "I will teach
you and instruct you." And He says, "I will guide you
with My eye upon you." Then He gives us a warning. Look at this: "Do
not be as the horse or as the mule which have
no understanding." That is, animals don't
have any moral sense. The only sense they have
is who's in charge. "Whose trappings include bit and
bridle to hold them in check, otherwise they will
not come to you." He says, "Don't be as the
horse or as the mule," stubborn; in other words, you've got to
control him or he's going to control you, "whose trappings
include bit and bridle to hold them in check, otherwise they
won't come to you." That's right. "Many are the
sorrows of the wicked." And that's His way of saying,
"You don't listen to God. You're stubborn. You're going to have it your
way no matter what." He says, "Many are the
sorrows of the wicked." And what he's simply
saying is this. This is--these are the
consequences of those who absolutely will not
listen to God. And the words he uses here,
"Many are the sorrows of the wicked." And he's referring to people
who won't listen to God. He says, "Many are the
sorrows of the wicked." And he says, "Many are the
sorrows," because there all--all kinds of trouble comes when you
ignore God's counsel, you ignore His teaching, His instruction
and His guidance, then you get into all kind of situations. Because you see, if you ignore
God once, more than likely you'll do it again. And there are many people who
live their lives, watch this, in rebellion to God. They wouldn't ever admit it. They just say, "Well, I just
make my own decisions and I don't have to depend upon God or
somebody else." And you know what they're doing? They're making wrong decisions. They may make a lot of money and
a lot of friends, but he says, "Many are the sorrows
of the wicked." Those who live in rebellion
toward the guidance and instruction and counsel of
Almighty God. And oftentimes, the consequences
are brutal because you think that you're smarter than God. And God tries to make things as
simple as possible, I believe, for us. And yet there are some
decisions that are difficult. Watch this. He says, "I." That is, omniscient God who
knows you perfectly, "I will teach you. I will instruct you. I will guide you. I'll cover you. I will counsel you wisely." A person is a fool
to reject that. To think that you're smart
enough to go through life and make wise decisions in a world
that is so unwise, so ungodly and so full of fear and
anger and all the rest. He says, "Many are the
sorrows of the wicked." That's the fruit of rebellion. And then notice what he says,
what a contrast, "Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but he
who trusts in the Lord, lovingkindness," listen to this,
"shall surround him. Be glad in the Lord, rejoice you
righteous ones; and shout for joy, all you who are
upright in heart." He said, "Here's the difference. You follow My guidance," and He
says, "lovingkindness." And He didn't say--I love this. He didn't say,
"Will come to you." He said, "Lovingkindness
will," what? "Will surround you." Everywhere you turn, you will
see the evidence of God's goodness and kindness. You say, "Well, but you don't
know what I've been through." Would you have been
through without God? So God, He doesn't say that
there won't be any problems and heartaches and burdens, because
problems and heartaches and burdens are what grow us up,
teach us to trust Him. Make changes in our life that we
don't like at the moment, but something happens to us that
later we're grateful for. He says, He says,
"Lovingkindness shall surround you," that means it's going to
protect me on every side. His lovingkindness will
protect us on every side. We may falter at times;
we may disobey Him. But we ask Him to forgive us,
repent of our sin, what happens? He says His instruction and His
teaching and His counsel doesn't stop simply because we falter
at some point and make a wrong decision. Any time we are willing to
confess our fault, our failure, that we didn't seek godly
guidance, we listened to the wrong ones, He's
willing to forgive us and to keep us moving. That's His lovingkindness. He says His lovingkindness
surrounds us. And so how does He--what is
His lovingkindness? He says, here's what happens. Then you'll, "Be glad in the
Lord and rejoice, you righteous ones; shout for joy, all you who
are upright in heart." That is, there is a gladness,
there's a joy, there's a sense of confidence, there's a sense
of contentment, there's a peace. In other words, when we're going
through even difficult situations, if we are following
His instruction, His guidance, and His counsel, we're going to
walk through it, we're going to come through it, and God's going
to bless us in the process. Now, that's an awesome passage
of scripture. And I would say if you were
going to give your college student or your grandson,
whoever it might be, a passage to take with them, this would
be one of them. "I will instruct you. I will teach you. And I will guide you. I will counsel you with
My eye upon you." Let me ask you a question. Who does not need that? We all need it. And we'll need it through the
last day of our life. What an awesome promise of
Almighty God. The tragedy is, many people have
never read that. Many people don't know it, and
many people don't believe it. They say, "Well, you know, I
don't need that old Bible." Oh, yes, you do! Because you see, the reason you
need this Bible is because you need God. You think you don't. When you're flat down, hurting;
things look like they're hopeless; maybe you'll never
walk again, see again, hear again; whatever it
might be, you need Him. But if you're in good health,
you need Him just as well. This is this awesome, loving God
who's made a commitment to you. "If you'll just listen to
Me and obey Me, I'll give you instruction. I will teach you what
you need to know. And I will guide you. Twenty-four hours a day, seven
days a week, through the last moment of your life." If you have never trusted Jesus
Christ as your Savior, many sorrows is in your path. If you've trusted Jesus Christ
as your Savior and are attempting to live a godly life
and listening to Him, joy and happiness and peace, even amidst
difficulties and hardships, there's an awesome sense of the
awareness of His presence. And that's my prayer for you. If you've never trusted Jesus as
your Savior, it's the most important decision you'll
ever make. And all of us who are His
followers know it's the most important decision
we've ever made. One of these days you're going
to die, and then. You know death's coming, you can
ask anybody anything you want to; there is only one person
that you need to ask. There's only one person
who is in control of those final moments. There's only one person who can
take you from this earth to heaven, and that is
Jesus Christ. You may not believe what
you're hearing, but I'll ask you this question. If not Jesus, who? Who else has not only promised
that, but who backed it up with His death on the cross? Whoever you are, at least
consider surrendering your life to Jesus Christ. Watch what He does in your life. Remember, you have two choices;
the right way, and the way of many sorrows. If you're wise, you take
the right way. And Father, how grateful we are
that You love us enough to forgive us of our sins. When we falter and fall, You
keep on forgiving us. When we ask for direction,
divine guidance, You give it. When we stand at the crossroads
and say, "Lord, which way?" You always show us
the right way. I pray that Your Spirit will
take this message and drive it so deep in the heart of every
person who listens, they will wrestle with the truth until
they fall into the category of those who are being instructed,
taught, and counseled by the Lord Jesus Christ, in whose
name we pray, amen. ♪♪♪