Psalm 18:1-3
What I Will Do
As this year winds down, I am looking at my life and considering some things that
I want to change. I hope you are too. If you are, changes are we will both have
some of the same desires. If not, you are going to have to just listen to me
preach to myself.
I am convinced that the sun is setting.
John 9:4 I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night
cometh, when no man can work.
That verse could have several applications.
1. The day is getting shorter because Jesus’ coming is getting nearer.
a. I believe that is what the Lord meant when He made that statement.
b. As we work our way through the major events of the book of Revelation,
that truth becomes more and more real.
2. But the day is also getting shorter because death is drawing nearer.
a. That is, I believe, what Jesus meant for He knew the time of His
crucifixion was near.
b. However, our death is getting nearer too.
c. It just makes sense that the longer one lives, the less time he has to
live.
d. Whether the sun sets because Jesus came to me or because I go to Him,
I want to be at my peak when it happens.
So what are some of things that we want to be doing correctly when the sun sets?
I. I want to be doing the right actions.
A. Notice the Psalmist, David.
1. He starts this Psalm by listing some things that he is going to do.
2. David knew it was not enough to be saved, that is, to know God and
to be known of Him.
3. He also knew it was not enough to stop doing sinful things.
a. Certainly, we need to abstain from sinful and wicked things.
b. However, there are also positive things that we need to start
doing.
B. What actions did David start doing?
1. \\#Psalm 18:1\\ I will love thee.
a. Of course, David is speaking of loving the Lord.
(1) It may sound strange, but God wants His people to love Him.
(a) God has no emotional insecurities.
(b) However, God created us with both the ability and
need to love so that we could direct our love toward
Him.
(2) The Bible commands us to love God.
Deuteronomy 10:12 And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee,
but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to
serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul,
Matthew 22:37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with
all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
(3) The quality of love makes whatever you do for someone
easier.
(a) Love makes work a joy.
(b) Love makes a sacrifice a gift.
(c) Love makes problems a co-labor.
(d) Love makes boredom together fun.
(e) Love makes laughter out of tears,
builds up hope in the midst of desperation,
restores confidence in failure,
and gives purpose to chaos.
(f) Loving and being love makes life sweet and
worthwhile.
b. As a new year begins, I want to kindle my love for my God and
Savior.
(1) Love is a wonderful emotion. In it’s infancy, love can
seize control of the one who possesses it.
(a) Those in love think often and fondly of their loved
one.
(b) Those in love seek things to do for their loved one.
(c) Those in love do not want to fail or disappoint
their loved one.
(2) These are all attributes I want to have toward God.
(3) Sadly, love grows up and some of those involuntary actions
have to be purposed.
(a) God has designed us to fall into routines and even
something as powerful as love can become routine.
(b) If God did not program us to fall into unconscious
patters of behavior, we would soon max out our
abilities.
i. Suppose you had to concentrate on every action
you made while driving your car.
ii. Suppose you had to concentrate on how hard you
pressed the gas petal, be aware of the exact
angle of your steering wheel, keep a mental
thought to remind yourself to look into your
mirrors, mentally think about when you would
next need to use your blinker, constantly have
to computer how close you are to every object
on the road, be conscious of your foot and the
brake petal, and be thinking about your route
all at the same time.
iii. Why, you might have a hard time talking on your
cell phone!
iv. No, even worse, you would wreck. We just can’t
concentrate on too many things at one time so
God gave us an auto-pilot.
v. We fall into patterns of behavior and do certain
things without thinking about them.
(c) That is the way our emotions work. After a while,
we fall into routine patters of behavior.
(d) At that point, we have to start making decisions to
and plans to keep romance alive.
(4) The fact that you have to work at love does mean that your
love is fading.
(a) In fact, if you will work at it, it means just the
opposite.
(b) In its infancy, love requires no labor. It is all
involuntary.
(c) Anybody can love when it requires no effort.
(d) However, a truer form of love is a love that you
must consciously work at.
(5) David was at the place where he invested in his love for
God.
(a) He made himself think about his Beloved.
(b) He made himself look for things to do for his Beloved.
(c) He watched himself and did not allow himself to fail
or disappoint his Beloved.
(6) In these days of the setting sun, I want to make my love
grow for my Savior.
2. \\#18:2\\ I will trust.
a. Trust is apart of love but it is something different, separate.
b. Love is a wonderful emotion that takes hold on us and draws
us toward someone we actually know very little about. Again,
in its youth, it is largely involuntary.
c. However, trust, real trust, is something that one usually has to
think about.
(1) Many couples go through a shock when they realize that
that they are at the place in a relationship where they
must demonstrate trust towards someone.
(2) Carnal movies are made about that step.
(3) For some it doesn’t come until they start talking about
marriage.
(4) For some it doesn’t come until they have to put their
new mate’s name on their checking account.
d. Feeling an emotional enjoyment about God is something I want to
keep alive and strong, but I also want to have a trust in Him.
(1) I want to know that I CAN trust God.
(a) This is an area in my life I want to work this year.
(b) It is easy to get comfortable where you are.
i. You can comfortable in your job, with your
family, with your friends, in your church, with
what you do for God.
ii. When you get comfortable, you quit growing.
(c) I have seen God do some significant things in my
life, but I want to find bigger things to trust Him
for.
(d) That will require two things:
i. I must get close enough to God that I can discern
what kinds of things He would want me to do for
Him.
ii. Once I have that understanding, I must risk
trusting Him.
(2) I want to BE trusting God.
(a) I do not want to know that I CAN trust God or that I
HAVE trusted God.
(b) I want to be TRUSTING Him.
(c) I want (I think) to have to step out by faith on a
daily bases.
(d) I want to see what God IS doing, right here and right
now.
(e) It is my belief that the eyes of the Lord are always
looking to and for, seeking for someone whose heart
is perfect toward Him so that He can show Himself
strong on their behalf.
(f) I want to be that person in 2011.
3. \\#18:3\\ I will call upon the Lord.
a. David is saying that he will pray to God, asking God for
guidance, help, and supply.
b. I want to have a stronger prayer life in 2011.
(1) Plainly put, I have not prayed nearly enough in 2010.
(2) When I ask myself why, I come up with different answers.
(a) Maybe it was discouragement, maybe neglect, maybe
laziness, maybe it was having too many irons in
the fire.
(b) But this I know. It was sin and I want to do better
in 2011.
c. David was a remarkable man.
(1) As we studied his life together, I felt obligated to
point out that he was not a perfect man.
(2) However, he was a far better man for God than I will ever
be.
(3) All of the things he had to do,
all of the people he had to help him,
all of the wealth he had to accomplish his desires—
yet, throughout his life, he remained a man who relied on
God through prayer.
d. We are reading from the book of Psalms.
(1) Some call the book of prayers.
(2) Whose prayers? Mostly David’s.
e. You and I need to pray about everything.
(1) Nothing is too small or unimportant to get God’s point of
view on it.
(2) Joshua thought that making a contract with a small tribe
of people from a long way off was simple enough that he
could handle it. He was wrong.
(3) Lot thought picking a location for his family to live was
just a matter of evaluating the land and its resources.
He was a business man and figured he could handle it. He
was wrong.
(4) Rehoboam thought he could deal with his disgruntled
workers. He even asked around and got advice before
making his decision. He was certain that he was up to
the task after years of watching his father and
grandfather do it. He was wrong.
(5) Whether our decision is about law, life, or labor; we need
to pray about it.
II. I want to have the right resolve.
A. Let me say some things about the three actions I have already mentioned.
1. Those three actions give us what are probably the three greatest
actions we can express toward God.
a. I believe those actions are essential to having a vibrant,
healthy spiritual life.
b. You will only be as much for God as you give yourself to those
three things.
2. I also think those three actions were in the correct order.
a. We need to love God first (and foremost), then trust God, and
then we can pray to Him.
b. You will not pray much if you do not trust.
c. You will not trust much if you do not love.
3. However, these actions are not as important as the remainder of the
statement that David made.
B. Notice what David said BEFORE he mentioned those three actions.
1. David said, "I WILL."
a. That is a statement of resolve.
b. David was saying that he was IMPLIMENTNG these actions into
his life.
2. Notice the words that make up this statement.
a. "I"
(1) It is used in every one of David’s statement.
(2) It is the subject of every sentence.
(3) David is the king of Israel but he is not using WE for he
can not control the WEs of the world, but he can control
the Is.
(4) Never under estimate the power of self, the power of one.
i. It was one who stood before Goliath when the WEs hid
behind rocks.
ii. It was the one who raised the staff over the Red Sea
when the WEs complained and doubted.
iii. It was the one who stood before Jezebel and her
prophets when the WEs were no where in sight.
iv. Some of the greatest battles ever fought were won with
by the army of ONE.
b. "WILL"
(1) This word is used in every statement as well.
(2) It represents David’s personal resolve.
(3) Nothing good or right ever gets done unless someone wills
it.
(4) You and I will never do anything for long that we don’t
want to do, don’t desire to do, and don’t resolve to do.
(5) If you take the word WILL out of these sentence and
replace it with MAY, you lose the significance of the
statements.
C. The actions of these verses are good actions, but the are all an
interchangeable part of the sentence.
1. The main part of the sentence is the subject and verb, the I WILL.
2. If you do not have that root part of the sentence, (the RESOLVE),
the remainder of the sentence (the actions) mean nothing.
D. If we have the right kind of resolve, we can find the right actions!
III. In my life, I find that I not only need to be resolved to do the right
kind of actions, but I need to resolve to doing them in a certain way.
A. I would like to just make a resolve and always follow through with it,
but I don’t.
B. I have to resolve the details as well. So I must add at least two more
resolutions.
1. I must resolve to doing these actions daily.
a. I have to have a plan.
b. Just to say that I am going to do something seldom makes it
happen.
c. I must ask, "When will I do it? How will I do?"
d. I should love on the Lord daily… trust the Lord daily…
and call on the Lord daily.
e. I realize the danger of determining to do some things on a daily
basis.
(1) It can get to be routine—I can start to fly on auto-pilot.
(2) But to say I am going to do something of this importance
without a firm commitment will likely fail.
2. I must resolve to doing these actions with fervency.
a. I must do these things with emotion.
James 5:16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye
may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
b. I continue to see the error of an emotionless religion. It
seems to me to be a deal religion.
c. Yet, I do not want mere emotion for that is carnally derived
religion.
d. What I want is a spiritual fervency.
(1) I want to feel God!
(2) How to do that will make a whole other message.
<Outline
Index> <Close Window>
