A Sermon by Pastor Tom Lacey . . .

Let God Guide

Psalm 25:1-10, Preached at Congregational Church of Boca Raton, July 15, 2007

As the crowded elevator descended, Mrs. Wilson became increasingly furious with her husband, who was delighted to be pressed against a gorgeous blonde. As the elevator stopped at the main floor, the blonde suddenly whirled, slapped Mr. Wilson, and said, "That will teach you to pinch!" Bewildered, Mr. Wilson was halfway to the parking lot with his wife when he choked out the words, "I...I...didn’t pinch that girl." "Of course you didn’t" said his wife, consolingly. "I did." He learned his lesson anyway, didn’t he?

Our text today is about the need to let God be God. Nobody can teach you the things that the Lord can. “Lead me in your truth, and teach me,” the psalmist requests. God teaches the good way in which we should walk. If you want real smarts, then God is your instructor. You know, there is intelligent and then there is smart, which reminds me of the story of the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. Each year, at the beginning of the year, you will see a number of students on their hands and knees assessing the surface of the courtyard with pencils and clipboards in hand. "What are they doing?" you ask. Each year, the upperclassmen ask the freshmen how many bricks it took to finish the courtyard. And each year these lower classmen and women spend a lot of time counting bricks or figuring out some way of estimating the correct number. So what's the answer to the question how many bricks did it take to finish the courtyard? One. There is an education and then there is an education. As scripture says, “Take my instruction instead of silver, and knowledge rather than choice gold.” Proverbs 8.10 So let God be God, and let the Lord open your eyes. Do not turn to your own knowledge but seek God’s guidance. He will be your guide always.

What we want to see this morning is that there is no real substitute for God. As Scripture declares, “There is none like me in all the earth.” Ex.9.14 But this isn’t a power thing, at least not this morning. God is the real deal and the only one because God alone has the grace for salvation, the capacity and desire to love us to life. Nothing else cares about us like the Lord. And you know this, which is why you are here. As 1Corinthians 8.6 says, “For us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist.” No substitutes. Only the touch of God suffices to bring life to our spirits. Only God’s lead satisfies our desire for direction. God is the first and the last, the one wonderful Parent by whom we are best loved. One of the great theologians of the 20th century, Karl Barth, confessed to a recurring dream. He saw himself arriving at the Pearly Gates pulling a child's red wagon in which were stacked all his writings. He believed the dream was telling him that in the final analysis, all his knowledge, all his theologizing, was mere child's play compared to God's great grace. The fact is almost everyone here is here because of an impulse inside of us to which God only can respond and which Psalm 25 expresses. This Psalm is a prayer for help of an individual, and is the most numerous type of prayer in the Psalms. The author of many of these Psalms, King David looks for God’s favor and seeks his grace. Like him, we must pray for pardon, seek God’s direction for our lives, and by faith claim his deliverance from troubles.

Psalm 25 begins with a line that is a profound description of prayer: “To you, Lord, I lift up my soul.” In Israel, lifting up your hands in a stretched-out position was a gesture of entreaty used in prayer. To lift up the soul to God is a metaphor for what the gesture means. Prayer then is when we hold our conscious identity, our life, in hands stretched out to God. This gesture says that our life depends completely and only on the Lord’s help, which is why the next line in our Psalm says, “In you I trust.” To let God be God means this one thing most of all: to offer God your life in trust and so to be guided in God’s direction.

There are teachers, and then there are educators. According to a news report, a certain private school in Washington recently was faced with a unique problem. A number of 12-year-old girls were beginning to use lipstick and would put it on in the bathroom. That was fine, but after they put on their lipstick they would press their lips to the mirror, leaving dozens of little lip prints. Every night, the maintenance man would remove them and the next day, the girls would put them back. Finally the principal decided that something had to be done. She called all the girls to the bathroom and met them there with the maintenance man. She explained that all these lip prints were causing a major problem for the custodian who had to clean the mirrors every night. To demonstrate how difficult it had been to clean the mirrors, she asked the maintenance man to show the girls how much effort was required. He took out a long-handled squeegee, dipped it in the toilet, and cleaned the mirror with it. Since then, there have been no lip prints on the mirror.

Psalm 25’s focus is on instruction. We are looking for clarity and guidance to know what is right, and power to do it. We want to experience the presence and grace of God. Well, first of all, prayer teaches us, unlike anything else because in prayer we are being taught by God. Why do I say this? Because what prayer does to and for human life only God can do. More than likely we already know what we are going to be taught in prayer: humility, graciousness, dependence on God; but it is in the asking and waiting on God that we receive the grace we hope for. So pray, and be taught again who God is and who you are. Find the peace you seek, the strength you need, and the Lord who loves. And then get up and get going. Look at Paul. He never sat back and waited for God to give him instructions. He prayed but then he moved on. God almost always seems to have to interrupt Paul on a journey. Paul was on the road to Damascus to persecute the people of the Way when the Light hit him. He had his mind made up to go to Asia when God said, "Whoa," and then Macedonia opened up. Lydia was out there looking for God, a God seeker, a God fearer, when Paul spoke to her. Get up and start doing what you think is God’s will. Trust that the Lord will tell you what to do while you’re moving ahead. God never gives you more directions and more information than you need.

Sometimes this comes to us in more mysterious moments of guidance. A lady named Peggy Piland, writing in Guideposts, tells about an interesting event in her life. She had been planning to make brown-sugar pound cake, her specialty, for her Sunday School teacher, Mrs. Howell, who had been in her thoughts. But suddenly the idea to bake her a cheesecake popped into mind—a lemon cheesecake. The recipe called for fresh lemons. Peggy checked her supplies. No lemons, but plenty of brown sugar. A pound cake would be so much easier, she thought. But again came the nudge. Bake a lemon cheesecake. After a trip to the grocery store to buy lemons, she began to make the batter. She cut a lemon in half, removed the seeds, squeezed the juice into the creamy mixture and stirred. When she arrived at Mrs. Howell’s, Mrs. Howell’s husband let Peggy in. “She’ll be happy to see you,” he said. Then he explained Mrs. Howell had broken her leg and was bedridden. “The doctor says she’ll be fine. But she’s frustrated because she can’t get around like she used to.” Peggy walked in the bedroom carrying her surprise. “I’m so sorry about your leg, Mrs. Howell,” she said. “Maybe this will make you feel better.” As she placed the cake on the table, the tangy scent of fresh lemons wafted through the air. She looked at Mrs.  Howell. Mrs. Howell was crying. “How did you know?” she asked. “Know?” asked Peggy. “Today is our wedding anniversary,” she said. “For the past fifty-five years I’ve baked my husband his favorite thing.” She pointed at the cake. “How did you know it was lemon cheesecake?” These miracle moments are special. Listen to good promptings. Follow the voice of the one who is caring for you. Let God guide you.

Sometimes it is difficult to understand what you are being asked to do, how you are begin helped. A funny story about this occurred one day when the driver of a hospital pick-up truck in Africa was driving to a health center. He noticed an elderly lady struggling along the road carrying a very heavy load of firewood on her head. The driver stopped and offered to take the lady and her firewood to her village. He helped her into the back of the truck and then proceeded on his way. However, when he glanced in the rearview mirror he was astonished to see this lady sitting in the back of the truck with the load of firewood back on top of her head!

Hey, nobody’s perfect, that’s for sure. Nor do we always get what God’s getting at. But we ought to press forward. Make the decision that has your heart in it. Take the step that calls out your passion. Do what is right and best for those who are yours. Get with God and let the Lord mend you and mold you, and make your heart right within you, for God wants to show you the right direction and give you the right spirit for the journey. Let the Lord guide you.

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