This is the manuscript of the sermon preached at Christ Church, Los Angeles, CA on Sunday
January 6, 2019, but it is just as applicable today in 2023.
This year will be just like last year—only entirely different! Some things will be the same, much will be different, and some things will be brand-new to us. Be encouraged. The future rests in the good hands of a God who loves you more than you can imagine. You may stumble, yes you may fall but you will get up because God will not allow you to be utterly destroyed. This is God’s promise to you.
Psalms 37:23-24
NKJV The
steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord , And He delights in his way.
Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down; For the Lord upholds
him with His hand.
The words that we just read have encouraged people for centuries, and
they can help us today.
Let's look at the word though at the the beginning of
verse 24: “Though he fall.” Some translations, like the New American Standard
Bible, say, “When he falls.” Here's the way verse 24 reads in that translation;
Psalms 37:24 NASB When he falls, he will not be
hurled headlong, Because the Lord is the One who holds his hand.
Notice that it does not say, “If he falls” it says “when he falls”.There is a big difference between “when” and “if.” If states a probability; when declares a certainty.
David, when he wrote this Psalm, understood that all of us
will fall sometimes. We stumble, we lose our way, we struggle, and sometimes we
trip and fall on our journey. No one is exempt. We all fall sooner or later.
It’s what happens after we fall that makes all the difference.
There are two points I want to make today:
1. God ordains every step we take—the good and the bad, the happy and the sad, the positive and the negative.
2.
God promises that when we fall,
we will not be utterly destroyed.
God ordains every
step we take—the good and the bad, the happy and the sad, the positive and the
negative.
In verse 23 of our tezt;
Psalms 37:23 NKJV, The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, And He delights in
his way.
The verb “ordered” is very strong in the original
Hebrew. The Hebrew word kûn means to establish something so that
it has a strong foundation.
Proverbs 16:9 says
A man’s heart plans his way, But the Lord directs his
steps.
And Proverbs 3:6
says
In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your
paths.
As believers we know that, if we let Him God will direct
our steps.
But this verb ordered is stronger than that. . God not
only “directs” our steps, he also “determines” or “orders” or “ordains” our
steps.
Psalms 121:8 NKJV The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in From this
time forth, and even forevermore.
Ordering our steps includes our lying down and our getting up, our waking and our sleeping,
Ordering our steps includes our lying down and our getting up, our waking and our sleeping,
Psalms 3:5 NKJV I lay down and slept; I awoke, for the Lord sustained me.
It includes our business dealings; our buying and our
selling,
James 4:13-15 NKJV Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such
a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; whereas you do
not know what will happen tomorrow. For
what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then
vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and
do this or that.”
Yes God will direct all our steps if we let Him.
Romans 8:28-30 NKJV And we know that all things work together for good to those who love
God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He
foreknew, He also predestined to be
conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many
brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called,
these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.
All of us wonder what this new year will bring. What will happen in 2019? Will it be a good year or a bad year for us personally?
My guess is that the answer is that this year will be a
lot like last year. You’ll have good days and bad days. You'll have some
victories and some defeats. You may be sick for a while and you’ll be healthy
most of the time. Some of your prayers will be answered; some won’t be
answered. Some of your dreams will come true, some won't. Some of your plans will come to fruition;
others will remain undone. You’ll discover that some of your friends will be
there when you need them. Others will fail you when you need them most. In many
respects, life will be the same this year because we all face the same ongoing
challenges in our walk with the Lord that we had last year. But know this: Your steps in the coming year
are “ordered” by the Lord. He is in charge of the details of your life.
My first point was
that God ordains every step we take—the good and the bad, the happy and the
sad, the positive and the negative.
The second point
is that God promises that when we fall, we will not be utterly destroyed.
Let's go back to our text;
Psalms 37:23-24
NKJV The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord ,
And He delights in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down;
For the Lord upholds him with His hand.
Here's the way the New International Version translates
verse 24
Psalm 37:24 NIV though he may stumble, he will not fall, for the Lord upholds him with
his hand.
Let's say you are out for a walk. I usually go for a walk
with a group of guys on Tuesday. Some times during that walk I don't see or
notice a rock or a hole so I trip, stumble and sometimes fall. Life is like that some time. We all stumble
in many ways and often we fall. However our text says that we won't be “utterly
cast down”.
The word translated “utterly cast down” in our text, means
to be cast headlong into a deep pit.
If you were at the Grand Canyon peering over the edge,
looking down 3,000 feet, and someone pushes you from behind, when you finally
hit bottom, you won’t dust yourself off, get up and keep on going, like I do on
Tuesdays. If you get pushed off the ledge
of the Grand Canyon you will be “utterly destroyed.” Well God promises that
won’t happen to you and me. Though we may face desperate, life-changing
circumstances this year, God will not allow us to be utterly destroyed because
nothing can happen that will break our relationship with him.
Romans 8:35-39 NKJV
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall
tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or
sword? As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are
accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” Yet in all these things we are more than
conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor
life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things
to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to
separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The reason nothing can separate us is clear because He upholds us with his
mighty hand.
Isaiah 41:10 NKJV Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will
strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right
hand.’Think of a father walking along with his young child by his side. There are two ways this father and his child might hold hands. The young child may reach up with their tiny hand to hold their father’s big hand. That works until the child stumbles and lets go of their father’s hand. But if the father places his big hand around his child’s tiny hand, the child is safe no matter what happens because their father’s hand holds them up. They may stumble but their father’s hand “upholds” them.
Our “fall” may be a fall into trouble, or even a
catastrophe. The fall might be because
of the loss of a job, a health problem, the breakup of a marriage, the end of a
friendship, bankruptcy, or any kind of personal crisis. Or it could be the
result of a series of foolish choices that led you in a wrong direction so that
you hurt your walk with God and hurt those around you as well. Sometimes the
“fall” of circumstances can cause a “fall” into bitterness, substance abuse,
anger, rage, abusive language, foolish decisions, lust, or other sinful
actions.
The Bible repeatedly shows how easily this can happen to
even the best people. We see men and women who are faithful one day and fickle
the next. We see worship mixed with worry, courage followed by cowardice, faith
matched with doubt, generosity followed by greed, kindness overcome by
arrogance. We learn that strong people sometimes do very stupid things. Saints
often act like sinners.
Noah built an ark to save his family, and when the flood
was over, he got drunk and exposed himself to his sons.
Genesis 9:18-23
NKJV Now the sons of Noah who went out of the ark were
Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And Ham was the father of Canaan. These three were the
sons of Noah, and from these the whole earth was populated. And Noah began
to be
a farmer, and he planted a vineyard. Then he drank of the wine and was
drunk, and became uncovered in his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the
nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. But Shem and
Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and went backward and
covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned away, and they
did not see their father’s nakedness.
By faith Abraham left Ur of the Chaldees, following God’s
call to the Promised Land, and when he got there, he lied about his wife
Sarah—not once, but twice!
Genesis 12:10-13
NKJV Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram
went down to Egypt to dwell there, for the famine was severe in the land. And it came to pass, when
he was close to entering Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, “Indeed I know
that you are a woman of beautiful
countenance. Therefore it will happen, when the Egyptians see you, that they
will say, ‘This is his wife’; and they will kill me, but they will let you
live. Please say you are my sister, that it may be well with me for your sake,
and that I may live because of you.”
Then the second time;
Genesis 20:1-2 NKJV
And Abraham journeyed from there to the South, and
dwelt between Kadesh and Shur, and stayed in Gerar. Now Abraham said of Sarah
his wife, “She is my sister.” And Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah.
Before Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt, he
killed an Egyptian and tried to cover up the evidence, by burying the Egyptian
in the sand. After David wrote, “The Lord is my shepherd,” he committed
adultery with Bathsheba and had Uriah the Hittite murdered in a vain attempt to
cover his sin.
Then there is Peter, on one hand, he has the courage to
declare to Jesus, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God, then in the
Upper Room, he boastfully declares that even if everyone else falls away, he
will never fall away.
Matthew 26:33 NKJV Peter answered and said to Him, “Even if all are made to stumble
because of You, I will never be made to stumble.”
But this tough guy soon turned to butter. When confronted
by a teenage girl around a campfire, he lost his nerve, began to swear, and
three times denied the Lord.
These stories are in the Bible both to instruct us and to
encourage us. They teach us that even the best people when under pressure can
do very foolish things. No one is beyond the reach of temptation. Very godly
people can make some very wrong choices—and suffer greatly as a result. And
even cause others to suffer with them. It’s good that the Bible shows this to
us—or we would be tempted to think, “I’m beyond that temptation.” Don’t ever say
that. You don’t know what you’re “beyond.” Today’s “victory” may actually set
you up for tomorrow’s “defeat.”
I Peter 5:8-9 NKJV Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about
like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the
faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in
the world.
We may fall again and again, trouble may come again and
again, we may struggle again and again—and again! But it is the Lord’s purpose
that we should rise—again and again and again.
Here's what Scripture says about that;
Proverbs 24:16 NKJV For a righteous man may fall seven times And rise again, But the
wicked shall fall by calamity.
Psalms 145:14 NKJV The Lord upholds
all who fall, And raises up all who are
bowed down.
When you fall, in 2019, and we all will, remember this: God never intends you to stay down forever. He intends for you to “rise up” and keep on walking with him.
When you fall, in 2019, and we all will, remember this: God never intends you to stay down forever. He intends for you to “rise up” and keep on walking with him.
Here are four practical applications of this truth.
1. Every detail of
life is under God’s control.
Romans 8:28 NKJV And we know
that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are
the called according to His purpose.
Psalms 37:23 NKJV The steps of a
good man are ordered by the Lord , And He delights in his way.
2. God loves you
and nothing can separate you from Him.
God loves us with an everlasting love. We talked about that last
week. Nothing we say or do can ever
separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
God “permits” us to fall when he could stop it. If he
permits it, then what he permits must ultimately be for our spiritual benefit.
Not the fall itself, but what we will eventually learn from it. God “allows” us
to suffer when he could stop it. Not that suffering itself is good, but it is
often the pathway to enormous blessing for us.
Romans 8:28-29 NKJV And we know that all things work together for good to those who love
God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He
foreknew, He also predestined to be
conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many
brethren.
3. God will not
let our trials destroy us.
Verse 24 of our text
Psalms 37:24 NKJV Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down; For the Lord
upholds him with His hand.
That assures us that though we may “stumble” or “fall”
temporarily, we will not be utterly destroyed. God will not allow anything to
permanently destroy our relationship with him. We just read that not even death
itself can sever our strong connection with God.
During the worst moments, we hang on to God, by faith,
believing that better days will eventually come.
When we read the book of Job we know that he lost
everything but even in the midst of that he said;
Job 23:10 NKJV But He knows the way that I take; When
He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold.
Here's what it says at the end of Job’s book;
Job 42:12-13 NKJV Now the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning;
for he had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, one thousand yoke of
oxen, and one thousand female donkeys. He also had seven sons and three
daughters.
He was blessed with twice what he lost.
Joseph was cast into prison on a phony rape charge but
after several years:
Genesis 41:39-41, 43
NKJV Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Inasmuch as God has
shown you all this, there is no one as
discerning and wise as you. You shall be over my house, and all my people shall
be ruled according to your word; only in regard to the throne will I be greater
than you.” And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “See, I have set you over all the land
of Egypt.” And he had him ride in the second chariot which he had; and they
cried out before him, “Bow the knee!” So he set him over all the land of Egypt.
Sometimes our trials lead to a promotion. God had bigger
things in mind in for Job and Joseph He wasn't finished with them. He's not
finished with us either when we stumble or fall.
Look at Peter. After all his bluster and boasting he
denied Jesus. He fell and I'm sure he
may have thought that he would never overcome his fall but look at what
happened. Peter would eventually return, and when he did, he would be a better,
stronger man, humbled by his failure, ready to serve the Lord with a humility
born out of painful failure.
John 21:15-17 NKJV So when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon,
son of Jonah, do you love Me more than these?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You
know that I love You.” He said to him, “Feed My lambs.” He said to him again a
second time, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord;
You know that I love You.” He said to him, “Tend My sheep.” He said to him the
third time, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?” Peter was grieved because He
said to him the third time, “Do you love Me?” And he said to Him, “Lord, You
know all things; You know that I love You.” Jesus said to him, “Feed My sheep.
1, Every detail of life is under God’s control, 2 God loves
you and nothing can separate you from Him,
3 God will not let our trials
destroy us, and
4. We will not
utterly fall because God will not let go.
Though we stumble and fall a thousand times, God’s love is
firm because his purposes are eternal. Our salvation rests not on our
performance but on God’s unchanging character.
“No saint shall fall finally or fatally. Sorrow may bring
us to the earth, and death may bring us to the grave, but lower we cannot sink,
and out of the lowest of all we shall arise to the highest of all” (Charles
Spurgeon).
Here are three good mottoes for 2019: Fight on! Hang on!
Walk on!
God will not put you in an unbearable situation in 2019.
But he may allow you to be in a situation that seems unbearable so that you
will turn to Him. Remember that God does not give his strength in advance but
only when needed. Each day this year you will have what you need. We can go
forth into the new year with confidence, hope, and joy.
I said earlier that this year will be just like last year.
Let me change that statement just a little: This year will be just like last
year—only entirely different! Some things will be the same, much will be
different, and some things will be brand-new to us. Be encouraged. The future rests
in the good hands of a God who loves you more than you can imagine. You may
stumble,yes you may fall but you will get up because God will not allow you to
be utterly destroyed. This is God’s promise to you.
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