4 Marks of Friendship with God - Psalm 25

[00:00:05] Thank you for listening to the Calvary Monterey podcast. To learn more about our church, please visit Calvary.com. In traditional resources from our lead pastor, Nate Holdridge, please visit NateHoldridge.com. Teaching today is our family pastor, Matt Katerlare.

[00:00:24] Alright, well hello everyone! So good to be here. My name is Matt, the family pastor, and I get the privilege of leading our kids and youth teams. And just love this church. My wife and I have been here for almost nine years,

[00:00:38] and I love to be able to do life with y'all and also just love you. We love you and we pray for you and guide your part of this church family.

[00:00:50] So if you're new welcome and intro to Calvary, it would be a great time to check out what we're all about. Alright, so we are about God's Word and that's what we're going to do. The morning is being God's Word, Psalm 25 is where we are.

[00:01:03] So if you have not yet turned there, go ahead and turn there. And I want to pray and then we're going to jump in. I won't read the whole passage. It's a little links here. We got 22 verses this morning.

[00:01:16] So I'm going to pray and then we'll jump in and see what the Lord has to say to us today. So let me pray for us. Father, thank you for the privilege of turning to your Word.

[00:01:27] And thank you, Lord, that God has through your Word that we can know who you are. We can know what you have done and we can also learn what it is that you are inviting us into. And what you're inviting us to experience with you.

[00:01:49] And so Lord, would you illuminate our understanding? Would you turn our gaze towards you? Lord, I pray for things that may distract us or be distracting us or stories that we're believing. Narratives that we're trusting that are Lord contrary to what you have.

[00:02:10] God would you speak in the midst of all that this morning. And we invite you to do it in prayer and in Jesus name. Amen.

[00:02:21] Well, I want sort of story about a British publication who offered a prize for who could give the best definition of what it means to be a friend.

[00:02:30] And so a lot of submissions were given some really good ones that tried to describe and define what a good friend was. Some said, a friend is one who multiplies joys, divides grief and whose honesty never runs out. A friend is one who understands our silence.

[00:02:48] A friend is like a watch that beats true for all time and never runs down. But the winning definition said, a friend is the one who comes in when the whole world has gone out. I believe the key to understanding our song is found in verse 14.

[00:03:07] David says, the friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him and he makes known to them is covenant. Now, I don't always think of my relationship with God in terms of a friendship.

[00:03:20] But this morning, I want to point our attention to that theme because I believe that's what we see in the song. We see David, a man who had a deep personal connection with God writing about the kind of life that has God as friend.

[00:03:39] This is a beautiful poetic song. It's known as one of the Acrostic songs, which is to say that David followed the same pattern of the Hebrew alphabet. All 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet are beginning each 22 verses of this song with a few exceptions. It follows this pattern.

[00:04:01] Maybe as a way for people to help memorize the truths that are found here. But I think it's also a way for David to say, this is what life with God as friend looks like from A to Z.

[00:04:15] This is a comprehensive view of his life lived with God. And is there anyone more qualified to talk about what it looks like to be a friend of God than David, the man after God's own heart?

[00:04:29] My hope for us today is that we will have through this song a greater and deeper appreciation for the kind of friendship that God invites us into. So I have 22 points today that we're going to know, I'm just kidding.

[00:04:44] I thought about it, realized that maybe that's a little much. So we're going to pair it down to four, four marks of friendship with God. So let's look at our first mark, the person who has God is friend is a person who has confidence in him.

[00:05:01] David writes in verse 1 to you, a Lord I lift up my soul. Oh my God and you are trust. Let me not be put to shame. Let not my enemies exalt over me. Indeed, none who wait for you shall be put to shame.

[00:05:15] They shall be ashamed to our want and lead treacherous. Maybe you've heard the story of two men who were out hunting in the northern U.S. And suddenly one yelled and the other looked up to see a grizzly bear charging them.

[00:05:26] The first started to, uh, frantically put on his tennis shoes and his friend anxiously said, What are you going to do? Don't you know you can't outrun a grizzly bear? The friend turned and said I don't have to outrun a grizzly bear. I just have to outrun you.

[00:05:39] And with friends like that, who needs enemies, right? What a disappointment that kind of friend would be. And to find out that your friend is that type of friend in that kind of moment.

[00:05:52] On the contrary, David describes God as friend as someone who he can put his full weight and confidence in knowing that God will always have his back. Notice David says, I lift up my soul to you.

[00:06:09] You see, David's trust in God is characterized by a surrendering of the deepest part of his life to God, trusting his soul into God's hands. David's trust is active, not passive.

[00:06:24] David is not saying when I prayed that prayer as a child or when I made that commitment years ago and now I've kind of done my own thing and if I need you, you'll be there God.

[00:06:36] David is actively lifting up his heart and his life to God and saying, Lord, I trust you. How did this confidence play out in David's life? What did this trust look like? Notice in verse 3 he says, none who wait for you shall be put to shame.

[00:06:53] You see, it's a confidence even in seasons of waiting. How are you about waiting? I think we've all gotten a little worse since Amazon Prime continues to make our shipping times shorter and shorter.

[00:07:10] I'm pretty sure one day they're going to already have the product on our doorstep before we could even think about it. But what is that produced in us? This kind of impatience, this I need it right now and this instant gratification and so seasons of waiting

[00:07:25] may be especially difficult. This last week as a church staff we gathered together as we do on Wednesday and Pastor Manning shared with us a teaching he had heard from a pastor

[00:07:38] and it was all on the theme of waiting and I was really encouraged by this is thinking about, in what ways am I waiting for God? We wrote down prayer requests on post it and posted it onto a dry raceboard and prayed together as a team

[00:07:53] and some of those prayer requests for specific people in our congregation for you. But I love what the pastor said, he said, you know, ask the question, what is God doing in this waiting? We can wonder and just oftentimes be impatient and frustrated and Pastor reminded us,

[00:08:11] man, God is working in the waiting. You know, if you look at scripture and the story of God throughout the pages of scripture, then there's a lot of waiting involved in the Christian life.

[00:08:25] I think of Joseph as one of my favorite examples of someone who waited and waited in seasons of difficulty in hardship. I wonder if Joseph, when he was in prison waiting, if he thought to God Lord, I didn't have a dream about this.

[00:08:43] This was not the dream that you gave me. When is the dream that you gave me going to come to pass? And maybe for some of us it's not a dream but it's a desire, it's a hope, it's a wish.

[00:08:55] And maybe even a good desire that you are waiting for God to have come to pass in your life. And my encouragement and encouragement from the scriptures this week that reported to us is don't waste the waiting.

[00:09:09] Don't waste the season of waiting because God is at work in the waiting. And I think David was able to offer confidence in God even in seasons of waiting because he knew who the Lord was.

[00:09:23] Did you see in verse 1, if you have a Bible like mine, he calls to the Lord and it's all capital letters. This denotes that this is the covenant name for God. Yahweh, Yahweh, this is the name that God gave to his people.

[00:09:42] He would be known by his people but did you see in verse 2 how David personalizes his relationship, God. He says, oh my God, to recognize that there was a theological understanding of who God was.

[00:09:57] But then David says, but you're also my God because I've experienced friendship with you. Now what makes it possible to trust and have confidence in God in seasons of waiting? The fact that you know Him, not just about Him but you know who God is.

[00:10:18] David says, let not me be put to shame. He's speaking more or not about being ashamed of God. But being disappointed or let down by placing his trust in the Lord.

[00:10:29] He's saying, I'm not going to be let down by you because I've seen you work time and time again.

[00:10:36] And for those he says who are wantonly treacherous which is a way to say deliberately deceptive, let them see that the things they place confidence in are going to come to not.

[00:10:49] Now the point that David's making is when he faced opposition, which he'll talk about later on in the song, is that he placed his confidence in the God that he knew.

[00:11:01] Jay I pack her offers a following illustration for as a great writer and theologian to describe really the kind of two people that can no God.

[00:11:12] One he says is like a balcony here, this is someone who sits on a balcony in a foreign land and watches and overhears travelers passing by occasionally interacting with them, yet in the end they're merely onlookers.

[00:11:27] They know the streets, they know the scenery, they could describe it but they never experience it or put it into practice. Their knowledge is theoretical. There's no real decision made with real implication. They never walk the city and enjoy the city.

[00:11:43] On the other hand, the other person is the traveler. This is the person that they know the city by study but they also know it because of experience. They've put their knowledge into practice. They've walked the streets for themselves.

[00:11:56] And Packers says the challenge before us is that we would not be deceived into settling for a balcony or kind of Christianity.

[00:12:04] Instead, we need to become a traveler. One who knows God, not just theoretically but knows him experientially. This happens when we walk with him daily and let his promises and character impact our everyday lives.

[00:12:17] If it's true of you, maybe your Christianity has been marked by more of a balcony. It's time for you to step in and become that traveler with the Lord to be able to put your confidence in him.

[00:12:31] That's the first mark of friendship with God. What's the second mark of friendship with God? Let's look at verses four through seven. David says, make me to know your ways, O Lord, teach me your paths.

[00:12:43] Lead me in your truth and teach me. For you that God and my salvation, for you I wait all the day long. Remember your mercy, O Lord, and your steadfast love.

[00:12:53] For they have been from a world. Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions. According to your steadfast love, remember me for the sake of your goodness, O Lord. Think the second mark of friendship with God is that we can receive correction from him.

[00:13:09] That we can receive correction from him. David recognizes there are many paths and opinions that he could walk in this life. And he says, I want to know and follow your path, Lord. He asks God to lead him into teaching.

[00:13:24] Which presupposes that he doesn't have it all figured out. Right? We know the two absolutes in life. You are not God, or I'm sorry. There is a God and you are not him. Those are the two absolutes in life. David knew that.

[00:13:39] And it's because of this that he needed to be guided by the shepherd. And one of the things that marks David's writings in the Psalms is this beautiful declaration of his need to be led and guided in life by God's word.

[00:13:54] He describes God's word as a lamp, as a path that he wants to walk on. For David, God's commands were not optional. I have two boys 11 and 6.

[00:14:08] We're in the season of birthday parties. Isn't so fun to go to a birthday party and just see the joy that kids can have opening presents.

[00:14:16] And you know a thing that my kids are growing up with that I didn't really grow up with is the gift to receive.

[00:14:23] Right? See, see, there's a lot of awkwardness. You know, you can just include the gift receipt, you know, whatever you do with it, it's up to you.

[00:14:31] If you don't like the gift, I spend a lot of time thinking about and pain for. Go for it. Just take it back, you know. The gift receipt. I feel like sometimes we treat God's commands like they have a gift receipt.

[00:14:45] Oh, you were thinking of me weren't you Lord? Well, I don't really care for this one. I'm going to try to give this one back. I don't think that one fits me. And so I want to return this one Lord.

[00:14:56] David didn't look at God's commands as optional. Tom is Jefferson famously tried to really change the way that the Bible interacted with him. And he ended up taking scissors out and cutting out parts of the gospels that offended him.

[00:15:13] Happened to be sections of Christ's miracles in the supernatural because Thomas Jefferson wanted a Bible that agreed more with him. He wanted a Bible that was more palatable. Friends, we must not do this with God's word.

[00:15:27] This is not what it means to be in friendship with God. A life that desires friendship with God must receive his instruction and correction. Tim Keller in his book, The Reason for God says this about how we are to receive correction from God's word.

[00:15:41] If you don't trust the Bible enough to let it challenge and correct your thinking, How could you ever have a personal relationship with God? In any true personal relationship, the other person has to be able to contradict you.

[00:15:54] He goes on to talk about how this kind of plays out in a marriage, right? Where if a husband would not allow his wife to contradict him, this is not an intimate relationship.

[00:16:05] And he talks about the movie The Stepford Wives. If you've seen the film, the husbands of Stepford Connecticut decide to have their wives turned into robots who never crossed the wheels of their husbands.

[00:16:16] The Stepford wife was wonderfully compliant but no one would describe such a marriage as intimate or personal. And he compares that to when we don't allow God to offend our sensibilities or our will.

[00:16:30] If you pick and choose what you want to believe in, you reject the rest, how will you ever have a God who can contradict you? He says no, but you have is more like a Stepford God.

[00:16:39] A God essentially of your own making and not a God of whom you can have a relationship in genuine interaction with. He closes off the thought by saying, only if your God can say things that contradict you and make you struggle

[00:16:51] as in a real friendship or marriage, will you know that you've gotten a hold of a real God and not a figment of your imagination? What was it about God that caused David to welcome this kind of correction in his life?

[00:17:06] Look at verse 7. He says, lead me in your truth and teach me for you are the God of my salvation, for you I wait all the day long.

[00:17:15] Remember your mercy, Lord, and your steadfast love for they have been from of old. Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions. According to your steadfast love, remember me for the sake of your goodness, oh Lord.

[00:17:28] See the basis for David's willingness to invite God's correction in his life? Once again, knowing who the Lord was, he describes God your salvation, your mercy, you are full of love.

[00:17:41] You are the forgiver of my sins. You see, David saw the goodness, love and mercy of God in his correction. And David knew something we need to remember, friends, our God has our best interests at heart.

[00:17:56] No, this doesn't always mean that what you think are your best interests match God's best for you. Because they're often, I mean, his ways are high above our ways.

[00:18:07] And that can be challenging, that can be difficult. But friendship with God is not having a God that just does everything we want him to do. It's submission to the God who time after time has proven himself as merciful and good.

[00:18:21] I love what David does in verse 6 and 7 because you probably saw that. He's first saying, Lord, remember, and then the next verse he's saying, Lord, forget or don't remember.

[00:18:32] I think some heard of some husbands who try to do this with their wives, maybe theoretically speaking, you go to the store for your wife. And you don't write down the list of things she wants you to get.

[00:18:43] And just theoretically, I know some of you struggle with this, but you go to the store. You forget the one thing because you committed it to memory, but your memory is faulty and you come home and your wife asked,

[00:18:53] Hey, did you get that one? And you'd go, no, but look at all the other things I got.

[00:19:00] Look, I got the milk. I got the eggs. Yeah, I forgot the protein for dinner tonight, but you know what? Carbs are good. You know we go through, we try to justify, you know, we try to do this thing and it doesn't really go over well.

[00:19:13] And I'm praying for the guys that struggle with that, but the thing, the Lord shows us here is David tries. Lord, hey, remember your love, remember your faithfulness and remember not the sins of my youth.

[00:19:28] And where that may not really go over well in a marriage, what happens? David, he shows us that how grace with God could just be kind of illogical. Like it's just amazing that God on one hand can continue to be loving and forgiving and merciful.

[00:19:45] And on the other hand, not hold our past against us, but separated as far as the east is from the west.

[00:19:52] To say, I'm never going to bring that up again. How beautiful is that? To have a friend who you can just fall at the mercy of his grace and lean into his grace, knowing that he's not going to go, oh this again. Oh yeah, I kind of expected this because he did this last week.

[00:20:15] But to have his mercy freshly poured over your heart and over your life, man. It's a beautiful picture of the kind of life that God invites us into.

[00:20:26] You see the progression here. It starts with the instruction. David is inviting the instruction of God, which leads to the conviction of wrong, which leads to a confession on David's part, which leads to receiving the forgiveness and cleansing of God.

[00:20:43] I mean, this is available for each one of us today. If God's instruction, if God's a word is highlighting an area in your life, man. The beautiful thing about Christianity is that repentance is not a one time thing that we settle back in 1982.

[00:21:01] Repentances to be a daily experience of the Christian. Martin Luther was the one that said, all of life is repentance. And the powerful to think about it that way because what does that do? That keeps us close to the heart of God.

[00:21:15] Keeps us close to the character of who he is. And I think that's why we need God's word input into our hearts on a daily basis. It's like a mirror that we can look into and he highlights those things that, man, he's after in our lives.

[00:21:31] But remember, it comes from a heart of love. Hebrews would talk about this. The writer of Hebrews says, and have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son.

[00:21:44] It says, my son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline. Do not lose heart when he rebukes you because the Lord disciplines the one he loves. And he chastens everyone he accepts as a son.

[00:21:57] Does God correct? Does God discipline? Absolutely. But man, it's from a heart of mercy and love. If you want friendship with God, invite this kind of correction and instruction into your life.

[00:22:13] All right, the third mark. So friendship with God is the person that puts their confidence in him. Friendship with God is the person who can receive correction from him. The third mark of friendship with God is the person that can experience communion with him.

[00:22:29] Let's look at verses eight through eleven here. Good and upright is the Lord. Therefore he instruct sinners in the way. He leads the humble in what is right and teaches the humble his way.

[00:22:40] All the pavils of the Lord are steadfast and faithfulness for those who keep his covenant and his testimonies. For your name's sake, O Lord, pardon my guilt for it is great.

[00:22:50] David continues to highlight the character of God in this section. And look at what he says, God, you are good, you're upright. Your paths are steadfast love and faithfulness.

[00:23:01] I want to highlight that those words steadfast love. It's one word in the Hebrew. It's a beautiful word. The word is has said and this is a word that's hard to translate in any language because it combines multiple ideas of love, generosity, enduring commitment.

[00:23:19] The new King James version, this is the version I grew up in, kind of combines two words in one loving kindness. Some of you have that translation perhaps.

[00:23:28] He says describes an act of promise keeping loyalty that is motivated by deep personal concern. And this is the love that we see throughout the pages of Scripture.

[00:23:39] One of the instances of God's has said towards his people is with the Israelites. After God had delivered them out of the grip of Pharaoh and rescued them out of Egypt, they wander in the wilderness.

[00:23:51] And after some time of wandering what happens, they become frightened of the surrounding nations. And they don't think that God will be able to save them. They forget who God was.

[00:24:03] So they threaten to kill Moses and appoint another leader who could take them back to Egypt. But Moses steps in on behalf of the Israelites and appeals to God. What does he appeal to? What part of God's character? Well, in Romans, excuse me, a number is 149 we read.

[00:24:18] Moses says to God, please pardon the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of your has said. Notice Moses asked God to forgive not because the people deserve it because they didn't, but because it's consistent with God's own character.

[00:24:35] Well, you know the story, God agrees and he recommits himself to a people that don't want to be committed to him. And we see this in the Bible. God is loyal and loving for no other reason than it's just who God is.

[00:24:50] Of course he wants his people to respond with has said in return, but even when they don't, God's has said remains. And friends, this is the love that we can enjoy in friendship with God. A loyal love that doesn't fail, that doesn't falter.

[00:25:06] In fact, Charles Spurgeon, Pawsits, and verse 10, the idea of paths are like well-worned rats in a road.

[00:25:15] The idea is that this road has been traveled so many times that there are grooves and there are rats, that the steadfast love and loving kindness of God goes deep and makes a mark on the life of the person who is friends with God.

[00:25:33] David saying, your paths of loyal love and faithfulness have left their mark on me. It's one of the beautiful things when you talk to a Christian saint who's walked with Jesus for years and years and years, decades and decades.

[00:25:47] When you get them talking about Christ's love for them, it's hard for them to talk about that without tearing up. Because this is just an idea or it's really sweet, or isn't that special or whatever it may be.

[00:26:03] But it's because they have felt that love over and over again. And that love has made a well-worned path in their life. That love has developed a rat and a track that they've been walking on. It makes me think of John Newton, the author of Amazing Grace.

[00:26:25] You know, his story, he had a troubled past but offered his life to the Lord and was just astounded by the grace and goodness of God. He said, although my memory is fading towards the end of his life, he said, I remember two things very clearly.

[00:26:40] I am a great sinner in Christ as a great Savior. You see, God's love and grace toward us is like the tracks in a road that warn time and time again never wears out. So how did David respond and how should we respond? Look at verse 12 through 14.

[00:26:57] Who's the man who fears the Lord? Him will he instruct in the way that he should choose. His soul shall abide and well-being and his offspring shall inherit the land.

[00:27:07] The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear Him and He makes known to them His covenant for those who keep His covenant in testimonies.

[00:27:15] What we need to learn from David here is that in response to God's character, his love and faithfulness, this produced in David a deep humility and reverence for the Lord. Here's the deal.

[00:27:28] Humility and a deep reverence for God is the necessary posture of the person who desires friendship with God. There's no other way because humility recognizes who God is and in light of who God is, who I am or we could say who I am not.

[00:27:45] There's a story about a psychologist who is walking around a section of the hospital once making his rounds one evening and he heard shouting from one of the rooms. I'm the king of the universe. I'm the ruler of the world.

[00:28:00] Dr. Investigated, opened a door to find a man standing on a chair saying, I am the king of the universe. Well, the doctor knew this patient and he said, Harry, get off the chair quite down. You're not the king of the universe. I am.

[00:28:14] Harry you're not the king. Yes, I am. Then just what makes you think you're the king of the universe as the doctor? Well, God told me I was king of the universe, shot at Eric, just then a voice erupted from another room down the hall. I did not.

[00:28:28] You know, humility is recognizing who God is and who I am not. Andrew Murray wrote a beautiful little book called Humility and in speaking about humility says this,

[00:28:44] I'm not something that we bring to God or that he bestows. It is simply the sense of entire nothingness, which comes when we see how truly God is all and in which we make way for God to be all.

[00:28:57] And I believe this is what David and the Old Testament authors meant when they talk about fearing God. The fear of God, this understanding of who he is and realizing that we get audience with the creator of the universe to behold the majesty of God

[00:29:19] and to look at the wonder of him knowing us and wanting to have anything to do with us should produce in us this deep humility.

[00:29:29] But what does that humility do? Notice that for David, what it did is it led to him walking in obedience to the commands of the Lord. It's not just enough to listen to God, tell us what's on his heart including his counsel and corrections for us.

[00:29:44] We also need to live out of the things he confides in us, the mark of humility in the life of a friend of God is obedience.

[00:29:51] Jesus said this in John 15, he said, if you are my friends, if you do what I command, this is what communion with God looks like. Let's look at number four. What does friendship with God look like?

[00:30:09] Well, it looks like placing our confidence in him. It looks like receiving correction from him. It looks like having communion with him and lastly, it looks like having a covering from him.

[00:30:27] Versus 15 through 22 will go to 19 to start. My eyes are ever toward the Lord for he will pluck my feet out of the net.

[00:30:35] Turned to me and be gracious to me for I am lonely and afflicted. The troubles in my heart are enlarged, so bring me out of my distresses.

[00:30:43] Consider my affliction in my trouble and forgive all my sins. Consider how many are my foes and with what violent hatred they hate me. They have closed us out this song by describing the covering that God provides through difficult situations.

[00:30:57] Now we don't know when David was writing this song, but pretty much pick any season of David's life and he had people who were hunting them down, who were trying to kill him, who were trying to stop the work of God in his life.

[00:31:09] David knew what it was like to face opposition, to feel unsafe, to feel outnumbered, to feel overwhelmed. And I wonder for those of you here, are you in a season like that?

[00:31:23] Does it seem like wherever you turn there is something or someone that's trying to keep you from experiencing the purposes of God?

[00:31:32] May it could be a relational conflict with someone that it may end. It causes you to just question, what did I do? How did this go wrong?

[00:31:41] Maybe it's a recurring sin struggle that is like what the Bible describes as a besetting sin or one of those weights that continues to try and grab a hold of our life.

[00:31:52] Maybe it's an ongoing temptation. Maybe it's a not reconciling with your past and your sins of the past. Maybe it's a situation that left you confused and baffled on how it got to where it is, a financial hardship.

[00:32:07] Maybe like David, it's a feeling of loneliness that nobody cares. Maybe dark thoughts about your life. Whatever the obstacle in your way, look at what David does here. Verse 15, it says he points his gaze towards the Lord. My eyes are ever toward the Lord.

[00:32:26] This is the first thing we need to do when we're facing opposition or situations where at leave us confounded it, it would be so easy to focus on the enemy or the thing to try and strategize away to bring the enemy down.

[00:32:39] I know for me when I focus on my enemy, I find it hard to focus on the Lord and all his power and all of his might. But David instead turns his eyes to the Lord.

[00:32:48] And secondly, notice what he does, what he models for us is he pours his heart out to God. Verse 15 through 22 are really a prayer that David closes the soul with. Maybe some of you can relate to his cries here, his cries for God's grace to help him.

[00:33:05] A prayer for comfort and loneliness, a prayer for deliverance from anxiety and depression. And on his prayer for forgiveness, which God has the awareness to see that maybe some of his present circumstances are a result of his past actions. And a prayer for God to remove his obstacle.

[00:33:26] Some of you need to make these verses your prayer. Now, to let God's word inform your current circumstances. Because prayer is the weapon that we can use, like no other.

[00:33:43] To come before the Lord unfiltered and to pour out our heart before him, Peter would say in 1 Peter 5, cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. And I can't tell you how many times I fell overwhelmed or burdened, confused by a situation or circumstance.

[00:34:02] After I take it to prayer, something happens. Do my circumstances change? No. But my perspective does.

[00:34:11] It's like that little boy who was in his backyard and he had a bat and a ball and he was throwing up the ball and he was trying to hit it and he swung any missed.

[00:34:20] I thought I'm the greatest hitter in the world. He's trying to pump himself up. So he did another one. He swung any miss. Not being discouraged, though. He says, I'm the greatest hitter in the world.

[00:34:31] He threw another one up and he swung any miss to which then he says, I'm the greatest picture in the world. You see, prayer changes things. It changes me. It changes my perspective. We know Philippians 4, right? Do not be anxious about anything but in everything.

[00:34:54] In every situation by prayer and petition. We think giving, present your request to God. In the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and minds and Christ Jesus.

[00:35:06] David knew what it was like to be in a place where he was at the end of his resources. And he needed to fall upon the mercies of God. That's what friendship with God looks like. It's finding our protection and a covering from him.

[00:35:27] He goes on to say in verses 20 through 20 to you, oh, guard my soul and deliver me. Let me not be put to shame for I take refuge in you. May integrity and uprightness preserve me for I wait for you. Redeem Israel, oh God, out of all his troubles.

[00:35:44] So as David pours out his heart to the Lord, he describes his situation and then he once again pledges to find his protection and covering and refuge in the Lord.

[00:35:55] Even closes by offering a prayer for all of Israel, which I just believe shows a beautiful depth to David's character that he had a deep concern for the blessing and welfare of God's people as a whole, not merely himself.

[00:36:09] He reminds himself even that, hey, I'm a part of something bigger here and Lord, we need your help. We need you. Friends, there are many things our world offers as an alternative to trusting in the Lord and seasons of difficulty.

[00:36:24] And I will say, I best these are band-dates and at worst their bondages that are waiting to latch on and pull us under.

[00:36:33] So instead of a scape, instead of looking to cover your pain run to God, pour your heart out to him and find refuge under his covering, he's safe. He's the one that knows what you're going through and invites you to pour out your heart to him.

[00:36:50] Mary Ann Evans was a 19th century British novelist and she wrote about friendship. And in one excerpt from one of her novels, she describes the beauty of the kind of friendship where you can be honest.

[00:37:05] And you can feel safe. She says, oh, the comfort and the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words but to pour them all out just as they are.

[00:37:17] Chaff and grain together, knowing that a faithful hand will take and sniff them, keep what is worth keeping and then with the breath of kindness blow the rest away.

[00:37:28] And I think that's a captures the idea of what God can do when we just pour out our heart before him. When we can just be honest with what it is that we're facing with what we're going through.

[00:37:40] Remember that definition of friend at the beginning? What is a friend a friend is the one who comes in when the whole world has gone out?

[00:37:47] You see what we need to see and what David saw through a glass dimly was that there would come one who was the truest friend that would lay down his life for those he loved.

[00:38:03] And that was Jesus. You see, what we're describing here is a friendship with God is really only possible because of the true friend Jesus. Who, for those of us in the world we deserved to be cast out to be called out because of our sin.

[00:38:22] But Jesus was the one that came in when no one else could to fulfill what no one else did that that the full and satisfying payment for our sin.

[00:38:32] When the whole world deserved to be placed out he laid down his life for the world by dying on the cross and rising again.

[00:38:38] It's because of Jesus that when we should have been counted as enemies of God because of our sin he came and died so that we can now be called friends. And that's the good news of the gospel available for you today if you haven't invited him in.

[00:38:54] If you have seen God as less of the friend and maybe you feel God's disappointed, maybe he's annoyed with you.

[00:39:03] The picture of God is one that's a cranky God up there just wishing you'd kind of get it together man let this song change your thoughts in your thinking because this is the God that we see time and time again through scripture.

[00:39:18] And this is the God that for so many of us in this room we've experienced his kindness and his goodness. And the scripture say that's what leads us to repentance. So what does it look like to have God as friend?

[00:39:36] It looks like placing your trust in confidence in him, giving up the reigns of your life. It looks like allowing his correction and instruction in your life. Letting him contradict you, making his word your standard to live it out in obey it.

[00:39:50] It looks like friendship by being in communion with him. Having a posture of humility and reverence knowing that you are approaching the creator, the universe who is wholly and majestic yet at the same time letting his love, his loving kindness, his loyal love, wash over your heart.

[00:40:08] And lastly friendship with God means looking to him as your covering and protection that he is safe. And he provides a safe refuge in the storms of life. What a good friend we have. Thank you for listening.

[00:40:24] If you would like more teachings and information about Calvary Monterrey, please visit Calvary.com. You can also find books, teachings through the Bible and articles from our lead pastor at natcouldridge.com. Thanks again for tuning in. We'll see you next week.