-Transcript-
00:26 Amen. Glory to God. Welcome to the program.
00:30 Welcome to the cafe. Pastor Clark Covington here with another episode of KJV Cafe. Who’s excited? I’m excited.
00:37 I hope you’re excited too. Amen. What a great day to praise God.
00:41 I love, love, love looking at God’s Word because it just lifts me up and it lifts you up too. I’m sure that’s probably why you’re tuned in. Amen.
00:50 I hope so. So hopefully you’re ready to dive into His Word. We’re going to look at a wonderful short passage of scripture today from the Psalms that should just bring us comfort and joy.
01:01 It’s Psalm 16:7-11. And here we see such a blessing. Let me start with just reading this first and then I’ll just give a little introductory remark.
01:13 Amen. Psalm 16:7-11, I will bless the Lord who has given me counsel. My rains also instruct me in the night seasons.
01:27 I have set the Lord always before me because he is at my right hand. I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoiceth.
01:35 My flesh also shall rest in hope for thou will not leave my soul in hell. Neither will thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption. Thou will show me the path of life.
01:47 In thy presence is fullness of joy.At thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore. That’s Psalm 16:7-11.
01:56 Oh, what a beautiful Psalm. Here David is writing about how great God is and he’s giving God praise for the role God is playing in his life and specifically the role that God plays in his life in providing him with never ending joy, with the fullness of joy that only comes in God’s presence.
02:19 Now as we head towards the end of the year here, when we reflect on the year we’ve had, can we say we’ve been joyful through it all? Can we say that we’ve had joy in those seasons of difficulty?
02:34 You know, as I look back on the year that I’ve had, that our family has had, there has been many, many challenges.
02:40 There’s been many blessings, but there’s been many challenges this year. All this year was full of many challenges to the point where we got to the end of the year, my wife and I, and we were just really content to have a very, very quiet season. I mean, really content to have nothing going on.
03:01 As relatively young folks here, you know, usually I like to stay a-moving, stay a-bustling, you know, get involved in stuff, be doing something all the time, but oh, we were just thankful to God to have that quiet season.
03:13 That was the kind of year that we had. Maybe you had a year like that as well.
03:18 And yet when we look back on the challenges that we faced this year, are we able to say we’ve had joy? Are we able to look at the most difficult challenges and say, in those challenges, I can remember having joy in my heart, praising God, having a comfort and a peace that surpasses understanding?
03:37 You know, I feel like confidently I can say that to you this year. And there’s some years maybe in the past, not being as mature in the faith, that maybe I couldn’t say that to you.
03:43 But this year, I believe I can say, you know what, those hardest times, and oftentimes our hardest times aren’t when we’re going through something.
03:57 It’s when someone that we love is going through something, like our child or our spouse or whoever it may be. That’s the hardest times, is it not? And even in those times, I can reflect back this year saying, yes, I had this joy. And it’s what David’s saying here in the Psalms, that God provides the joy.
04:08 Verse seven of Psalm 16, I will bless the Lord who hath given me counsel. My reigns also instruct me in the night seasons. I love that verse so much because we see a process here for godly joy.
04:27 And the process is that godly joy doesn’t just come out of the blue, amen? It doesn’t just smack you in the face one day.
04:36 God says, here’s some joy, right? It comes from seeking counsel from God, amen. God is an orderly God. God is a God of incredible order.
04:45 Oftentimes if you spend time thinking about what God has done, where God has brought you through, you will be blown away by his order.
04:57 And I won’t for time’s sake get into too much of it, but I look at the steps the Lord took me through miraculously in the ministry, and they were like little baby steps, and they were in a very particular order that allowed me to grow in the ministry without being overwhelmed, without being kind of too deep into it, so to speak, where I feel like I don’t fit or I couldn’t do right or whatever. He allowed me time to grow in the ministry.
05:26 And God’s design, you look at a plant, and you look at a seed in the soil, and you look at the seasons there of the sprouting and the growing and the blossoming, and you look at all of this, that’s basically a showing of God’s organization, amen, of his order.
05:39 And just like a plant has that water and that sunlight, it has this process that it grows. And by the way, that plant provides us with food, and there’s so much to God’s order that’s actually just incredible, that brings him glory and honor, it should.
05:56 But as we look at God’s order, we see when it comes to joy from him, we have to go to him in counsel. David says here, who hath given me counsel? Who counseled David?
06:05 God, amen. As a Gentile, who’s our apostle? Our apostle is Paul, right? Paul, the Pauline epistles, those letters in the New Testament written by Paul.
06:15 Corinthians and Ephesians and all the rest, amen. Paul wrote those things, Philippians, another one. That’s where we get our counsel, right? Did Paul spend time with Jesus? Absolutely.
06:29 More specifically, after his conversion on the road to Damascus where he literally met Jesus, amen, he spent three years in Arabia, whereas I understand that he was instructed by Jesus that man didn’t give him this doctrine of God turning to the Gentiles, turning away from his chosen people and allowing the Gentiles to be saved. Man didn’t give him that. The disciples didn’t give him that.
06:53 They were all in the program that the Jews were the only people, that they were God’s chosen people. But Jesus Christ himself gave him that. So Paul got counsel from God.
07:02 David gets counsel from God. Everybody that has great immense joy in God in the Bible is getting great counsel from God in the Bible. Now how can we expect God’s blessings when we don’t turn to him for instructions? Think about that.
07:17 How can we expect God’s blessings when we don’t turn to God for instructions? You know, imagine this, okay? Imagine you, let’s say you’re a father, okay?
07:31 And you as a father build a house for your son and you put that house kind of far away because that’s where your son wanted it and so forth, that’s where your son lives.
07:40 And you give him every accoutrement, every nice thing you can think of. You just build him an amazing house, the best quality house.
07:49 And you do this, you don’t charge him a thing, you set him up right, you get him going. You have a way of helping him to go to every room to understand what’s there. And then you go back to your house.
08:01 And it’s funny, you never hear from your son. You never hear from your son and he never calls you. And one day out of the blue, he calls and says, hey, how come you’re not blessing me?
08:12 And you’re wondering, hey buddy, where have you been? Because I put you where you’re at and I gave you what you needed and I never hear from you.
08:24 And now you want to know why I’m not blessing you? Well, that’s a simple example, but is that not how the heavenly father feels?
08:37 When we get put in our earthly vessel, our bodies, and we are given a life and we’re given talents and skills and we’re given an abode and all of these resources and God just endlessly sets us up for success.
08:45 He really does, amen. He gives us what we need, amen, time and time again.
08:50 And again, if you look back and throughout your life, you’ll see God’s hand in giving you what you need. And then we never turn to him. We never seek him.
08:56 We don’t get in his word. We don’t go and inquire of the Lord, okay, what thus sayeth the word of God. We don’t get in the Bible.
09:02 We don’t spend time in prayer. We don’t spend time in meditation. And then we have the audacity to ask God, why aren’t you blessing me? I’m sure God’s up there laughing in heaven, amen.
09:11 See, and that’s really funny. You want a blessing. I just want to know where you’ve been.
09:17 I’d love a relationship with you. I’d love to talk to you. Again, think of you being the master builder and you build this beautiful house for your child and then your child comes to you and just wants a blessing.
09:28 You probably want to know, well, how’s the house going? Well, what’s going on there? What have you been up to? You know, you see, you see the relationship.
09:38 God desires a personal relationship with us. God desires a deep and meaningful relationship with us.
09:45 And that is a two-way street because God being perfect has all knowledge and therefore will not force our hand. And you say, well, why wouldn’t God force our hand?
09:51 Well, because if God forced our hand, then it wouldn’t be authentic love. It would be forced love, amen.
09:56 It’s not real if it’s not free will, you know, and God, again, having perfect knowledge understands that. So he says, I’m not going to force their hand. Therefore, if there’s a hundred or let’s say a thousand, okay.
10:07 Let’s say 2000. And if out of 2000, let’s say there’s 10 people that truly love God. And let’s see, what would that be? 1,990, I think that, that are just off in the world.
10:21 God’s saying, I’ll take those 10 because those 10, that’s a pure love rather than say, I’m going to force all 2000 to bow down and worship me because that’s not pure love.
10:29 That’s an order. That’s an ordinance, you know, and that’s, that’s not good.
10:34 Amen. That is, that’s what the lost people want. They want to achieve success in like the corporation to be CEO and everyone kisses up to them and they say, well, it must be how cool I am.
10:43 No buddy, you’re the boss. And that’s why they’re doing that. And if you were nobody, they wouldn’t be doing that.
10:48 Maybe a few would, but most wouldn’t. And I won’t go down that street cause that’s a little kind of a rabbit trail, but just understand that God desires us in our free will to seek his counsel. And when we seek his counsel, then we have joy in that council.
10:54 And this is a getting counsel from God is a routine that is rooted in what in dependency on God. Amen. So God calls us to get counsel from him.
11:14 And God calls us to be dependent upon him. That means that we can’t be the captain of our own ship. That means that we can’t, you know, go where we want to go anytime we want to go there.
11:27 That means that God wants us to follow his guidelines and his ways. That means that he desires to see us to, to desire him, amen, to go and knock, you know, to go and, and seek him to go and research and study our Bible.
11:43 And that when he knocks on the door of our hearts, we’re more than willing to open.
11:46 We’re saying, oh, we’ve been waiting for you, Lord. Oh, wow. This is great.
11:50 You know, because we desire you rather than being all caught up in sin and wanting nothing to do with the light. Verse eight, I have set the Lord always before me because he is at my right hand. I shall not be moved.
12:03 Getting counsel from God is found most potently in the quiet times, the night seasons, early in the morning.
12:11 If you want to have, uh, you want to speak to God, I told my congregation last night, you want to speak to God, speak to God at 5.00 AM. And that is the best time, you know, speak to God at midnight, you know, when everything is quiet, right?
12:19 That is that time where you can really get a hold of God’s word and meditate upon it and pray and listen for that still small voice.
12:32 Again, you won’t hear it audibly, but you, in your heart, in your mind, in your soul, the Lord will show up, I believe if you’re close to him, uh, and we were called to draw an eye to him and he’ll draw an eye to us and to cleanse our hands. That means that we need to repent. So we need to get right.
12:47 We need to repent. We need to get counsel from him. We need to draw close to him.
12:51 We need to be dependent upon him and all of this need, need, need all of this instruction, all this obedience as it’s shaped up and it’s shipped out and we do it and we live it out. Guess what? God shows up and shows out. Amen.
13:00 All of a sudden we got joy left, right, and center. All of a sudden it could look like to the world that our whole life’s falling apart and we’re happy and jolly as a little child in a candy shop because we are blessed by God
13:14 and we have that peace that surpasses all understanding and we have that presence of God in our life. And we’re like David saying, look, I will bless the Lord with giving me counsel.
13:31 My reigns also instruct me in the night seasons. I have set the Lord always before me, that dependency always before me because he is at my right hand. I shall not be moved.
13:35 That confidence that comes from knowing that God is with you and having that joy and confidence. You know, part of joy is having that feeling of safety and security. Amen.
13:42 Think of a child and having that childlike joy. What does that come from? Part of it is I’m with mom and dad. I’m secure.
13:47 Amen. That’s part of the childlike joy. We have that one.
13:50 We’re with our heavenly father. We’re secure. We know we will not be moved.
13:54 As David knew, he wouldn’t be moved in this psalm, this beautiful psalm. And so we need to think upon this and put it into action because this is one part of three parts I have here, and we’ll get to the second two parts in the next message of how to have joy forevermore, how to have joy today, tomorrow, and throughout all of eternity. You don’t have to wait to heaven to be joyful.
14:13 You can be joyful in Jesus today. And it’s a process that starts with committing ourselves to seeking Him, being dependent upon Him, looking for Him, living for Him, and rejoicing in Him and who He is.
14:26 I thank you for listening. Tune in next time. Take care. God bless and amen.