What Manifests In Your Life?

During Your Troubled Times

WHAT MANIFESTS IN YOUR LIFE?

Psalm 3:1-8

“O LORD, how my adversaries have increased! Many are rising up against me. Many are saying of my soul, "There is no deliverance for him in God." Selah. But You, O LORD, are a shield about me, My glory, and the One who lifts my head. I was crying to the LORD with my voice, And He answered me from His holy mountain. Selah. I lay down and slept; I awoke, for the LORD sustains me. I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people Who have set themselves against me round about. Arise, O LORD; save me, O my God! For You have smitten all my enemies on the cheek; You have shattered the teeth of the wicked. Salvation belongs to the LORD; Your blessing be upon Your people! Selah.”

INTRODUCTION

There is story about a meeting of council of spiritual power called "Devil’s Assembly." Christianity was spreading rapidly and growing fervently, and they needed to devise a way to undermine the work. Their leader, Satan, called for suggestions. “We could bring some more hypocrites into the church” said one. “No,” reacted by some devils, “the Christians may realize that there will always be hypocrites, and are teaching each other to look to Jesus. That won’t work.” Then Lucifer suggested, “We’ll bring them troubles? If we give them troubles somewhat unbearable, they’ll run away for sure.”

Have you ever found yourself at a point in life where you were so beaten and discouraged that you even doubted God to help you solved it?

My beloved in the Lord, we have lost many members of this church because of problems. Whether it’s a personal, family or relational problems still greatly affect our church. I’m really sad for this! I hope that the Lord’s message today will help you strengthen your faith in Him when you encounter any problem, trial, trouble, or dissapointment in life.

Remember this word: "Problems are the spices of Christian maturity!"

Our text is Psalm 3, a lament Psalm that was written by King David. This Psalm is directly linked to 2 Samuel 15, where David is fleeing his son Absalom who is trying to kill him and take over the throne. It is one of only a few Psalms that ties a Psalm to a specific incident in the life of David.

The title above this text is called "The Lord Helps His Troubled People." In our lives we encounter troubles and difficulties and as a natural response we become discouraged and defeated. David certainly had reason to be discouraged and troubled by the turn of events he now found himself in.

David begins this psalm by going to God and telling Him the trouble of his heart. At this point in David’s life there was one specific foe who greatly troubled David, his own son Absalom.

But David states in these first 2 verses that "Many are they who rise up against me." David’s trouble with Absalom had multiplied, no longer was it just his son, but Absalom had raised an army to come against David.

But the problems didn’t stop there. David’s own friends had turned against him telling him that no one would help him, not even God.

Have you ever been in a spot in your life where it seemed you were stuck in a vicious cycle of trouble that turns into discouragement, that turns into more trouble, and that turns into more discouragement? And in this cycle you have friends that give you great advice like "You don’t need God" or "Why do you want to go to church there’s no one there that can help you, it’s full of hypocrites"

Does this sound familiar? When you are discouraged and down, have you ever received excellent encouragement like Job got from his wife?

Job 2:9 Then his wife said to him, "Do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die!"

Now there is some horrible advice, and thankfully Job didn’t follow it and thankfully David never considered it and thankfully as believers in Jesus Christ we don’t have to either.

Today God is giving us a message through His servant David. He wants those of you that find yourselves discouraged to see how David deals with his problem.

We will focus on David’s personal life. We can see in his life some manifestations that make his life a good pattern for our lives today.

WHAT MENIFESTED IN DAVID’S LIFE DURING THOSE TROUBLED TIMES?

I. DAVID’S CONFIDENCE IN GOD MANIFESTED HIS LIFE (vs.1-4)

“Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have strong confidence before God” 1 Jn. 3:21

What did David do during those troubled times?

A. HE BOLDLY WENT TO GOD

“O Lord!…But you O Lord…O my God…(4x)