[0:00] 1-3-1, and it's such a short psalm. If you dilly-dally get in there, it'll be finished. It's only three verses. It's the shortest of these 15 songs of Ascent, and we'll look at this together. They are short, but as Spurgeon called this, it's a short ladder, but it reaches great heights. It's a psalm that's so easy to read, but so difficult to learn. You'll live the whole of your life trying to live this psalm out and to echo these words of David. So this is a psalm of David. Let's read together these three words, and we'll stand, and we'll sing together. Psalm 1-3-1, a song of Ascent, or a song of going up, of David. My heart is not proud, Lord. My eyes are not haughty.
[0:53] I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me, but I have calmed and quieted myself. I am like a weaned child with its mother. Like a weaned child, I am content.
[1:11] Israel, put your hope in the Lord, both now and forevermore. And we'll consider that psalm together. It's a great psalm. I just hope I can do it some kind of justice as we look at this later. Just before we come, it's not on my agenda or order of service, but let's just pray, and then we'll sing, and then we'll look at this passage together. Let's pray. A loving Heavenly Father, Lord, at times it's good for us, Lord, to be still and to know that you are God. So Father, in these moments, Lord, it's so easy for us, Lord, in this service, Lord, just to be carried along by an agenda, by an order of service to sit and pray and stand and sing. When sometimes, Lord, it's good for us as individuals, not just as a congregation, to be still and to know that you are God, and even just to bring to you the desires or the concerns of our heart and of our mind. Sometimes, Lord, we can only sigh, Lord, that the things of the world impress upon us, Lord, that we're almost stuck for words. Lord, wherever we are at this very moment in time in our walk with you, we pray,
[2:24] Lord, that you will hear our prayers, whether silent or offered up. Lord, we do just ask that you will draw close to each one of us, Lord, at this time as we come to your word. We pray, Father, as well, for your continued leading and guiding for the church here as well. I thank you for them. Thank you for the love and the faith that is shed abroad, Lord, in the hearts of each one of your people here. I pray very much for your leading and for your guiding for them in these days as they think of a pastor, as they think of a youth worker. And, Lord, as we look together at the things that we've been discussing together, analyzing our strengths and weaknesses and possible opportunities and threats to those opportunities. Father, we pray for wisdom beyond our years, Lord, as we seek to make sense of these things. Lord, our desire is to know your leading and your guiding, that the Savior himself might say to us, this is the way, walk ye in it. So,
[3:26] Father, we pray for your direction at this time. And, Father, I do just pray for each member and friend of the church here. Pray, Lord, that you'll be with them in their own personal and family lives.
[3:38] You know, Lord, how members of their family often weigh heavy upon their hearts. Lord, have been witnessing to them for many years, silently or verbally. They see the life that they live in, still they aren't saved. Lord, we pray that you would work powerfully into those families. Lord, it says in your word that there is much rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents. Lord, there would be much rejoicing in this family, Lord, over one dear family member or friend who repents. Lord, we thank you for the encouragements that we have heard of recent days. We thank you for Dan and for Martin who have been coming to us. We thank you for other things that we hear that just thrill our hearts. Lord, we believe that you're smiling upon us. But, Lord, we pray, Lord, for more than just mercy drops around us. We pray for the showers of blessing. So, Father, we pray that you would bless us going forward as personally and as a church. Lord, be to us all that we need in these days. And we ask these things in Jesus' name, above all, for his glory. Amen.
[4:46] Amen. I think that you really needed to waltz. Anyway, let's come before God. Let's ask for his help now as we come to his word. Our loving Father, we thank you for your word. It truly is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. Lord, we have come in this evening, Lord, and our desire is that we would be taught. I pray, Father, that the Holy Spirit himself would be our teacher. He would take the things of God, the things of Christ, and apply them to our own hearts and minds as individuals, and that collectively, Lord, we will be a better church, Lord, for what we hear this evening. So, Father, teach us from your word. Help us to understand this passage before us. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. As you know, many of you know, I've come up from London, back to Scotland. One of the things I really miss, apart from the weather, although they've had pretty bad weather of late in London, was the museums and art galleries. I really enjoyed them. Even the
[5:49] Tate Modern, which is, I remember on a boat trip, the guy giving, on the left, you have this, on the right, you have that, and he said, on the right, you have Tate Modern. It's free to go in there, he says, and when you see what's in there, you'll realise why it's free.
[6:04] There's a lot of rubbish in there, but there's some good stuff. Not much, but there is some good stuff as well. Modern art doesn't quite do it for me. You can get away with murder nowadays.
[6:17] Just, it's crazy. But some of the art galleries are first class, and by the name Lowry, I should be interested in art, I would think, in some form or other. I don't know if you know about the pictures of Thomas Cole. Thomas Cole did a series of images. I'm just going to show you them if you've never seen them before. They are very good. They are called The Voyage of Life, and in these four main pictures, he presents to us The Voyage of Life, the clues in the title. Here is the first one.
[6:49] Here, I'm zoomed in on the first one. This is a section of it, and this is childhood. This is a young child just being born, and everything is nice and cosy. There's a wee hourglass you can see on the front of this, and the angel is steering the boat, and you can remember what that's like. If you zoom out and see the next image, this is the image. Everything's lush and green, and everything's calm. The river is calm, and as a child, everything's done for you. Your mother and father look after you.
[7:30] You're just sailing along. I remember seeing a baby once in a pram in a cold winter's day in Glasgow, and just, it looked so cosy, and thought, wow, I wish I was back in that scenario. Not a care in the world, not a jot. Everything is done for you. The second image is one of youth, and here, the angel is basically turfed out, and the young person takes the rudder of his life, and leaning forward, really knowing where he or she is going. If you zoom out, you will see that there is not so much the celestial city, but this is the dreams that they're going to fulfill. The whole world lies ahead of them. Our two girls have not long graduated from Harriet Watt, and just to see these young people coming up and getting their scrolls, and thinking, I wish I was 22 again. Just with the whole world, they've got their health, their youth, and are qualified, and off they go. And that's what you see here. You can see everything in the horizon. Things are relatively calm, and the young person is very zealous and full of zeal and enthusiasm. Then you come to manhood, and it's funny not to laugh at this.
[8:51] This is manhood or womanhood, adulthood, and the man is suddenly realizing life is difficult. Maybe midlife crisis, whatever, but just life is even our daughters are suddenly, there's bills you have to pay.
[9:08] There's one's just taking possession of a car. Yeah, you need car insurance. Yeah, you need all of these things, and it's just money, and suddenly the youth, you begin to become more like this. And the man in the boat is obviously, we don't know what's happened to the rudder. He's no longer holding the rudder. He's less confidence in where he's going, and he's really relying more on faith. Remember the youth. Remember your creator in the days of your youth. Young folk think they're invincible. When you get older, you suddenly realize life is hard. You really need the Lord's help, and this is where the man is. He's no longer holding the rudder, but behind him, in the wider picture, the guardian angel's still looking down on him from above.
[9:53] The cause isn't lost. He's not aware of this, but he's praying, and he's asking the Lord to keep him going. The last picture is old age, and he's finished, and his boat has taken a bit of a battering.
[10:11] As you can see, the hourglass is no longer there. He's no longer steering the boat, and everything, in many ways, is calm. The waters are calm. He's come, in many ways, to the end of his journey, and the guardian angel arrives at his side again. And then when you zoom out, you see from heaven, if you can just about see a wee white dot, angel coming from heaven to take this elderly person whose journey is finished. His hourglass has run out. He's made it through faith, through his faith in God, and his hope, he's managed to come to the end of his journey. I love those images. I must confess, I would like to set a four of them, and I'll find a place on my wall. They just explain so much of what life really is all about. This evening, we are continuing our series of studies in the Psalms, and this Psalm is very much about navigating life, how we can go about navigating life in the best way, with all its difficulties and trials. How is the best way to do it? Child, youth, as a man, or into old age as well. As you know, we're studying these 15 Psalms from Psalm 120 through to 134.
[11:36] These songs that were sung three times a year as the God's people on pilgrimage up to Jerusalem to celebrate the feasts. In each of these Psalms, they are the experiences of life, the life of a nation, or the life of them as an individual. I'm sure as they sang them, there'll be one or two songs that will mean more to them than others. And we're coming to the end of this. We've only got a few more to do. And maybe there's been, looking back over the series, you might say, I like Psalm 123, or I like this Psalm. Didn't get much out of that Psalm. Couldn't quite relate to that, but I can relate to this other one. They are the experiences of life, and that's why it's our pilgrimage with God, our walk with God. Last time, if you have your Bible open, you'll see that the Psalmist was in the depths. Psalm 130, out of the depths, I cry to you.
[12:31] It's a time in his lowest time in his life, when he's aware of personal sin. Lord, if you kept a record of sins, who could stand? And how many of us know the truth of that? And you remember, that's where he was last time. Hear my voice. He cries out for mercy, and he knows that the Lord is a forgiving God, and is faithful, his unfailing love, his full redemption. And he waits, and he hopes on him. So after his spiritual restoration, you could say in Psalm 130, you have this Psalm in 131.
[13:05] Lord, how do I walk with you? I blew it last week. How can I walk with you and trust in you? What's the best way to navigate my life from here on in? And this Psalm deals with that, Psalm 131. It's a short Psalm. It's the third of four Psalms that David has written in this group of 15. And there's a quoted Spurgeon. It's a short Psalm, but it has a short ladder, but it reaches very high. Easy to read, but so difficult to put into practice. It's a Psalm of personal testimony of David, of the secret of arriving in life at contentment. There's a well-known Christian book by Jeremiah Burroughs called, do you know what it's called? Anybody read that book? It's one of these old dusty ones that are over 100 years old. The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment, it's called. And Christian contentment, any contentment, even Christian contentment is a rare jewel to go through life and say, I am content always is quite something. And David, this is a personal testimony of David. He has become content. And if you know your Bible as well, Paul said the same thing in Philippians, which will eventually come to
[14:34] Philippians 4, I am not saying this because I am in need for, I have learned to be content, whatever the circumstances. And if the mighty Apostle Paul had to learn contentment and King David had to learn it, who had a heart for God, you and I have to learn this as well. If we are to navigate life, the secret of being content in whatever circumstance we find. It's all to do with maturity, Christian maturity. And God, when he gives us new life and we become a babe in Christ, his desire is that we become mature. The writer to Hebrews says things like, by this time you should have been mature. You should have been on solid food, but you're still on the milk of the word.
[15:21] And as Christians, we are to grow into maturity in our walk with the Lord. It's his desire that we grow as Christians, not just in knowledge, but in our character as well. The problem comes, as it comes with teenagers, when you think you know all. You remember that time when you just thought, my mom and dad don't have a clue. They're so old-fashioned. They're just, you might as well bury them just now. This is, I know where I'm going, only to come a cropper. It's just, it's something in our psyche that does this. But the problem is, in many ways, you might be 85, but in your mind, you're still a teenager. You're kind of, Lord, watch me. I can do this. I'm doing okay. And off you go.
[16:14] So, and this psalm teaches us how to navigate through life. And that's what we're going to look at. I have two points. And the first point is this. David in this song shows us three signs of immaturity. So, we'll begin there, and then we'll finish with maturity. But let's begin with immaturity.
[16:35] The first of these is, he mentions what he used to be. And the first one of those is proud. He was proud. So, pride is the first sign of immaturity. Verse 1 says, my heart is not proud.
[16:51] As it says, when you get older, when your mum and dad have to do everything for you, and you just say, well, yep, I'll just take this. That's great. Your desire for your kids, a bit like a bird, just amazed at the wildlife in Musselboro after London, watching in the seagulls and young seagulls, which are still massive seagulls. Well, their desire is that they fly. I've had a seagull in my back garden just staring at you for days and end. You think, this thing's never going to fly away.
[17:26] And the desire of the parents is that it takes wings and flies. We want this for our children, that at some point they'll stand on their own two feet and they'll pay their own bills and they'll maybe move out or whatever. But the problem is when they become good at that, when we become good at something, we become dependent on ourself. And we think, I'm doing okay. I'm actually achieving something here. I got a first in Edinburgh Uni or whatever. I'm earning money. I've got a good house.
[17:55] I've got the car. I'm doing okay. Thank you. That is where our problems, the more gifted we are, the more likely we are to get into sorts of trouble. Well, I'm steering the boat, Lord. I'm doing okay.
[18:09] And then when something happens, I remember being associated with quite a wealthy church, quite a gifted church, we'll say. And I remember thinking, I was used to working in places like like Western Hales and Southeast London and Northern Ireland. And their whole life was hard.
[18:30] Their whole life was just difficult. How they could get through a day was quite something. But it taught them resilience. They were like mongrels. Nothing fazed them. They just got up and they get on with it. Whereas if you've been born with a silver spoon in your mouth and you're going to get 2.4 kids and a Volvo and your kids are going to go to that school and it's all going to work out. If the wind changes direction, you struggle to cope. Everything has gone the way you wanted, but the waves have started to come and you struggle. And for the most gifted folk, this becomes a real problem. And this is what David has had to learn. David was very successful in life. He was chosen by God to be king. After all, he could have been proud. He defeated Goliath. He was anointed king over Israel. He had status. He had many blessings, many battles, victories, much possessions. And yet, if you look at his life, there's nothing in his life that would make you suggest he was proud.
[19:39] You read his Psalms, humility comes across. But by his own confession, he must have been. Look at verse two. But I have calmed and quieted myself. Not implying there was a time when he wasn't calm, when he wasn't quieted. He was turbulent in that way. And the thing is, we're all prone to pride.
[20:07] Pride is one of the oldest sin in the book. It got Adam thrown out of the garden and Satan thrown out of heaven. And yet, it's something that easily besets us. Lord, I'm a teenager, basically. I'd like the boat to go here. And I think this is where it should go. And I deserve it to go here. And we try and steer the boat as best we can. We take control of the rudder of our own life because we think we know best. And we can be proud of who we are. Do people not recognize how successful I am? And we can live a life like Frank Sinatra. I did it my way. Pride makes us grab the rudder of our own lives and steer it as we think best. And yet, the Lord detests the proud of heart. We read that. He opposes the proud, but gives favor to the humble. So, if we are to steer our boat through life, we need to be aware of the pride that so easily besets us. Secondly, self-importance. My heart is not proud. My eyes are not haughty. Haughty just means arrogance. It's an expression of pride, but it goes beyond pride.
[21:19] It can look down on people or perhaps situations and think, I can sort this out. I can do this. The ESV, if you're reading ESV, says, my eyes are not raised too high. In other words, don't see it.
[21:37] I'm above that. And it's a way that it shows itself. And often, we can see faults in others, and we compare ourselves with others, and we think, well, I'm better than them. I'm doing okay.
[21:50] And really, it's pride that can come before a fall. You can look at situations. Our own girls, we've seen them sometimes getting into trouble, and we say, well, it will not do them any harm to realize life is hard, and they need to realize that they need to depend on the Lord, a plan, and organize. We can't always be there for them. We'll be there for the difficult things, but other things they have to learn, and they have to grow. But as long as it doesn't make them too proud, that went well. The Lord loves me, and so forth. Haughty, to be haughty. It comes from the word high, that you've elevated yourself. It's a sign of immaturity when you do not consider others better than yourself. The third one under immaturity is anxiety or ambition. Verse 1, I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me. Pride and self-importance can make us feel as if we know it all. We can't teach us anything. We have arrived. We have it all sorted. We know what's best. That is something that really gets us into trouble.
[23:09] Lord, I don't like the hand you've dealt me. I don't like the situation. I think this would be a better thing. And that can shake our faith, because we have our own life mapped out. And when it takes a course that we don't think is wise or is hurtful, we can see no wisdom in it, then we, because of pride, because of self-importance, then we get into all sorts of trouble.
[23:36] David here recognized that there were many things in his life that he couldn't get his head around. God had already said to him, you're going to be king of Israel. But for 10 years, Saul chases him.
[23:51] I've never been chased by anybody for 10 minutes. But to be hounded for your life, fearful, wondering what was happening, despite the fact that God had given him this promise. And Jonathan knew it, and others knew it, that he would be king. He was chased for 10 years. Think if it was me, I'd say, Lord, yeah, it's been 10 days now. What happened to the promise? Is it real? And when we don't live in an instant generation, if things don't happen right away, we can begin to doubt. We can begin to get annoyed and frustrated because we feel we deserve better or whatever. David knew that there were things that were just too big for him, and God's ways were not his ways. So during those 10 years, for seven years, he's in charge of a small principality of Hebron before he would become the king of the United Kingdom, north and south. But he knew that he can't get his head around us.
[24:57] So he says, I don't concern myself with things too great for me. I don't know if you've ever had to say that. I wonder if this week or what's happening to you over the past number of months, your GP's not doing what they should be doing and various things, and you just don't like what's happening to you, and you think, if only this happened and that happened, and I don't like this and I don't like that, this would be better. Then how do we cope with that? I think we need to read verse one. I don't concern myself with things too great for me. Your ways are not my ways. Your thoughts are not my thoughts. Like Job. I go to the left and right. I quoted this on Wednesday, didn't I? North, south, east, west. I don't find him, but he knows the way that I take. And when he has tried me, I will come forth as gold. And God knows best. So these are three things that shows that we're probably acting more out of pride, self-importance, and ambition. So secondly, we see signs of maturity. And basically, the signs of maturity is we get back in the boat, the first boat, when we were a child, when somebody else took the rudder, and the Lord takes a rudder, and we say, right, Lord, you lead, you guide. And I thought I could do it, Lord. I kicked you out on the bank, and I'm doing okay. And we need to become a child again. So here are three things, signs of maturity, that David mentions. Humility. Verse one, my heart is not proud, Lord. My eyes are not haughty. I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me. Paul says in Romans, for by the grace given me, I say to you, every one of you, note that every single one of you in the church in Rome, do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment. Peter says in 1 Peter 5, humble yourselves, therefore under the mighty hand that he may lift you up in due time. James, another apostle, humbled yourself before God, and he will lift you up. Humility. I remember reading a wee book, and it just came up with a statement many years ago, the way up is the way down. If you want to go up, you have to go down. The Christian life is like that.
[27:37] Humility is everything in the Christian life. A recognition that, Lord, I'm weak. I'm not entitled to anything. I'm a weak person. And humility is a recognition that before the Lord, we are special, but before others, we are nothing special in that sense. You remember David and Saul's daughter?
[28:00] Remember when David was coming back, and he's carrying the ark, and he's dancing, he's wearing a linen ephod. He was dancing before the Lord with all his might, we are told in 2 Samuel 6, 14. And while they were bringing the ark up with shouts and trumping, and Mishal, or whatever, his daughter of Saul, watched from a window. And as she saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, she despised him in her heart. And then David says to, or she actually says to him, Saul's daughter, how the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, going around half naked in full view of the slave girls of his servant, as any vulgar fellow would do. David said to her, it was before the Lord who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the Lord's people Israel.
[28:56] I will celebrate before the Lord. I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls, I will be held in honor. I will be even more humiliated in my own eyes. That is what it means to serve the Lord. Lord, I'm a servant. I'm an unworthy servant.
[29:22] Lead me and guide me. It is not the easiest thing to do. Humility doesn't care about being recognized or being impressive. And we are to walk humbly before our God. Secondly, peace. When we assign of humility or sorry, maturity, is that we are a person of peace. That's quite something. I can't say I've arrived at that point. Calm and quiet. I have calmed and quieted myself. Humility removes all tension to be heard, to be number one. It lays down our weapons and doesn't care if we're recognized.
[30:05] It learns to trust in the Lord, in the big things and in the small things when we cannot see the big picture. Humility trusts in the Lord. And with that comes peace. You have a peace. If you ever wrestled with God and just, Lord, what's happening? And every day you're praying the same thing. Until you come to the point where you just surrender your life into his hands. The tension leaves your body and you just think, Lord, my times are in your hands. I'll leave them there. My days, the days fashioned for me.
[30:37] It is quite something. But it's not easily done. It's not easily done in life to live a life of humility and to know peace. Why is this so hard? Because of the word weaned in this passage. I am like a weaned child. David paints a picture for us here of a child being weaned. The emphasis, that's the main word. It's not the word child in this passage, in that verse. It's the word weaned. Weaning is that point in a baby's life when it's no longer fed by its mother's milk, but by something out of a jar or something else, something you've blended up. It's a change of diet, a change of food. The key word is change. The baby's used to being fed in a particular way. It's been carried along, wrapped in cotton wool, and for the first time in its life, trauma comes in the form of, what are you doing, mum?
[31:45] The food I was getting was fine. Now, what is this? I want this. Everything in the baby cries out, I want this type of food. This is the only food for me. And yet, as a parent, you know the baby has to be weaned onto solid food. And that's what David says, I am like a weaned child. He paints this picture of a child now sitting, who's gone through the weaning process. He stopped kicking and screaming.
[32:18] I remember our girls doing this, and Lucille trying to wean them. And quite a few times, I says, can you just feed her again? She's doing my head and just, it's just, wah. And I thought, surely it must be easy. You know, I knew that couldn't have gone until the 15. At some point, they have to be weaned.
[32:37] But for that moment, for her sake as well as mine, perhaps, I just thought, just feed them. Maybe we'll do it tomorrow. We'll just keep putting this off as long as we can. But maturity comes through coping with change. When things happened that, well, Lord, we liked it this way. Everything was calm. The grass was green. The water was still. But changes come. And immaturity throws the toys out the pram. Spits the dummy. I love that image when a kid spits the dummy. I just laugh at it every time. I'm the one that.
[33:17] And it's that anybody immature can do that. We can all throw the toys out the pram. Maturity is, I get this, don't understand it's a thing too wonderful for me, but I'm at peace. I'm a humble servant of the Lord. That is very hard to arrive at being a weaned child. I don't know if I'm there all the time. My wife is still alive. I don't know if the Lord took her tomorrow or the day after, how I would cope with that. We do not know what we can cope with until it comes our way.
[33:52] But if we are weaned before the Lord, or the Lord has weaned us, and we can say with David here, I am content. It is a rare jewel. A rare jewel of Christian contentment. It's not easy. One commentator describes it this way. It is no easy thing to quiet yourself. Sooner may we calm the sea or rule the wind or tame a tiger than quiet ourselves. It is a pitched battle. The baby is denied expected comforts and flies into rages or sinks into sulks. There are sobs and struggles. The infant is facing its first great sorrow, and it is in sore distress. There'll be many sore distresses that will come our way. But only when we can say, I have weaned myself, I have calmed myself, then we can say that we are mature. James says, what causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires? Lord, you've given me this, but I don't want this. I want that. And we go into a rage, or we go into a sulk, or we become downhearted and despondent. And here is a case of becoming a child again. That's what
[35:10] Jesus says. Remember there was a time in Jesus' life when the disciples came to him, and they'd been with him for a number of years, and remember the question, the humble question they ask, Lord, who's the greatest? Who's the greatest in the kingdom? And the answer they got was not what they expected. At that time the disciples came. Who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?
[35:34] He called a little child to him, placed a child among them. Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. When we become a Christian, we often use the phrase, we're a babe in Christ. I don't know about you, but I remember my humility. Sounds proud to be your humility. But I was quite a humble soul when I became a Christian.
[36:04] And I was in the company of other Christians, and they'd been Christians longer than me, and they are really something. And God was so real, and Jesus was so real, and everything, absolutely everything. Gave him thanks for every cornflake, everything that happened. I looked to him for everything. I hardly breathed. And I was like a baby, and the Lord answered so many prayers.
[36:26] But then you begin to get older, and you begin to think you deserve better. You begin to moan and complain, and you like it this way and that way. And we need to go back to being a child in Christ again. That's what Jesus is saying. Not because we're helpless, but because we're teachable, we're pliable. It is that. A child, it's great when you see some of the Sunday school. I've never been in the Sunday school class, but it must be terrific to have a young child, a mind for molding, and just drinking what you say, whether it's in Sunday school or school. It's hard for us when we'll become older, and we've done it our way, and we've gone through life, and we've taken the knocks, and we've still stood, and we become hard. And sometimes we need to go back to being a child. If we are to steer our way through life, we need to, in many ways, go back in the boat and let the Lord steer us wherever he would take us. And that's where David, David has become a child again, from a king to a child. I am like a weaned child. He's not ashamed to say it. I'm just a weaned child. I need the Lord to lead me, to teach me, to bless me, to lead me, and guide me. I don't understand these ways, but I trust in him to lead and guide. And that is his hope. And that's how he finishes, by encouraging others. Israel, put your hope in the Lord. It's a great thing. You know when you're there, when you want to, when you've learned it, you want others to learn this. One of the pictures I have of people in the area, or members of my family, I've seen him as sheep without a shepherd. It's a thing that stops me getting annoyed at them and thinking, you're making a mess of your life. You're off your head. You need the
[38:18] Lord. I've seen him as sheep without a shepherd, just wandering around. And people are like that today. They need to come back here. There are people who wave their fist at God. There is no God. Why doesn't he do this? Until they become childlike and come to him in humility again, they will never know him.
[38:37] But as we have come to know him, and if we become more childlike in some ways and trusting in him, share that with others. Say, I used to fight and struggle. I used to push for this and run after that. But I've discovered that when I let him steer and guide me in the boat, that I have a peace. I have a calm. Would you not do that as well? Oh, Israel. Oh, brother. Oh, sister. Oh, aunt.
[39:07] Uncle. Oh, neighbor. Put your hope in the Lord. Trust in him to lead and to guide. May the Lord help us to do this. Let's stand and we'll sing our closing song. Yet not I, but through Christ in me. It's a confession, you could say, of David, of a mature Christian who doesn't say, yeah, I did it my way.
[39:28] I was a great Christian. I hope my funeral service is going to be packed and you're going to say nice things. Yet not I, but through Christ in me that caused us to live the life that we live. So let's stand and we'll sing this together.