Psalm 16:8
All I Need
Psalm 16:8 I have set the LORD always before me:
because he is at my right hand, I shall not be
moved.
Please take note of the sheer encouragement that verse affords.
1. I have set the Lord ALWAYS before me. That means I have put
God where He belongs, right in front of me, leading me,
guiding me, protecting me.
2. He is at my right hand. The right hand in the Bible is the
position of strength and readiness. I do not have to go find
my God. He is already right there.
3. I shall not be moved. Nothing is going to move me from God’s
path and from God’s favor. Nothing.
That is a good verse to read, memorize, and preach from, not just to
start a New Year, but to start a new month, a new week, a new day,
and even a new hour.
We have made it to a New Year, but perhaps more than in any recent
year, this New Year is beginning with some uncertainties.
For at least 10 months (and probably longer), our world has been
dealing with Covid, a virus that has already taken loved ones from
far too many families.
Hospitals seems to be backed up. ERs have ambulances lined up on the
outside while the admitted patients on the inside are lined up along
the wall, sometimes for 24 hours, hoping to get a room.
Regardless of why it happened, a lot of businesses have been
restricted or completely shut down, leaving many families without
jobs and income.
Despite what the Democrats and the liberal media say, it seems there
is a real potential that our republic either has or will unravel.
I have gone to the grocery story twice in the last week and been
unpleasantly surprised at how empty the shelves are. It makes me
think that if 2021 has even half as many shocks as 2020, we will be
out of food all together.
And even if all of these issues were miraculously fixed today, it
seems to me that the debt our country has already created would act
like an massive anchor on a kayak stuck in the ocean. If it does
not sink us, it seems certain it will hold us back.
All of that means that if we wanted to worry, there are things we
could worry about—BUT WE DON’T AND WE AREN’T. We don’t want to
worry and we aren’t going to worry.
This evening, let me give a list of things we need. As I have all
ready said, these would be good to have anytime; but considering both
what is behind us and what looks to be ahead of us, let me encourage
you to make sure you have what you need today.
What do we need?
I. We need salvation.
A. I know that I am talking to the Sunday night crowd attending
church on a holiday weekend in rural Alabama during hunting
and football season with a pandemic on the side.
1. It would be logical to assume that anyone who hears this
message is not just a Christian but on edge of sainthood.
2. However, I have been in the ministry long enough to know
that is not the case.
B. Perhaps someone hearing me preach this message is doubting
whether they are saved or not.
1. You may be one of those that I have spoken to about it.
2. You may not, but you are doubting.
3. If you are not sure of your salvation or if you know you
are lost, you need to settle it tonight.
C. Listen carefully to what I am about to say.
1. If you don’t have assurance that you are saved tonight,
you should assume your lost and get saved.
a. Salvation is not like a picture.
b. You don’t get it, hang it on the wall, and then admire
it from time to time.
c. Salvation is like a loaf of bread in a beggar’s house.
(1) It’s what’s for supper!
(2) It’s what’s for lunch!
(3) It’s what’s for breakfast!
(4) It’s what’s will meet our needs when we have
needs between meals!
d. You take salvation out every day of your life and
feast on it.
(1) If you can’t feast on what you have, what you
have is not salvation.
(a) Maybe it is just religion.
(b) Maybe it is something else, but it is not
salvation.
(2) If what you have you’ve carried with you for
years, but you never even wanted to feast on it,
then what you have is not salvation.
(3) If what you have does not give you satisfaction
when you do feast on it, what you have is not
salvation.
2. What you need to do is:
a. Quit wondering if you have trusted Jesus as your
Savior and start trusting Him.
b. Quit wondering if you have repented and repent.
c. Draw a line in the sand and say it does not matter
whether I was saved years ago or not.
(1) I have no certainty of it, and I must have both
salvation and the assurance of salvation
tonight.
(2) If I have not trusted Jesus, I trust Him now.
(3) If I have not repented, I repent now.
(4) And then keep on trusting and keep on repenting.
d. Get the loaf of salvation, feast on it, and never put
it back into the bag!
e. Feast on it every day the rest of your life, then you
will know that what you have is salvation!
II. We need the Bible.
A. We, Christians, have always needed the Word of God.
1. We HAVE needed it for doctrine, for reproof, for
correction, and for instruction in righteousness.
a. Doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction are
fine for the head and body, but the spirit and soul
also need something from the Bible.
b. I do not mean to any way add to the Bible, but
notice that all of these are to the head and the
body:
(1) We need doctrine and instruction for the head, to
help us know and think correctly.
(2) We need reproof and correction for the body, to
help us to behave properly.
c. But there is a whole other realm of us, the spirit,
that can also be helped by the body.
2. A good baptist’s spirit needs to be helped by the Word
as much as our head and body do!
a. You and I have lived in a time when all we have
gotten" by with what the Bible gives us in the way of
doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction.
b. I’m not saying that is the way it ever should have
been, but I am saying it is the way it has been.
c. As long as we knew what the Bible said about
salvation, understood some basic Bible doctrines,
lived with a reasonable amount of holiness, we could
get by.
d. I don’t believe that is the way we ever should have
lived, and I don’t believe we will be able to live
like that much longer.
3. Jesus made the statement:
Matt 4:4 …Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that proceedeth out of the
mouth of God.
a. The bread that we cannot live on alone was earthly
bread.
!1) Earthly bread feeds the body. (Without it, you
will get weak and die.)
(2) Earthly bread feeds the mind. (Without it, your
mind would get confused and delusional.).
b. Jesus was saying we need more than what the body
need and mind needs.
c. We need something for our souls and spirits.
d. The WORDS of God’s Word are to be food for the soul
and provide courage and power to the spirit.
B. Let me give you three things the Word can do for your soul and
spirit, things that we are going to really need to be able to
get to in the days ahead.
1. The Psalmist said it is the Word of God that will keep us
from being ashamed or give you courage.
Psalm 119:6 Then shall I not be ashamed, when
I have respect unto all thy commandments.
a. I think God was saying the same thing to Joshua when
he used the word courage.
Joshua 1:9 Have not I commanded thee? Be strong
and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be
thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee
whithersoever thou goest.
b. This world is trying to shame Christians, to make us
back down.
c. It has been going on for years in other countries, but
it is happening here now.
(1) What? Don’t tell me you are one of those
Christians from the Dark Ages.
(2) I suppose you believe that it is wrong to be a
homosexual and that giant fish swallowed a man
and where did Adam get his wife anyway?
d. We sit inside a comfortable church with friends that
believe just like we do and sing hymns thinking we
would never backpedal on Jesus, but a faith that
hasn’t been tried has no idea how hard it is to stand
even before a little mockery, let alone the fear of
pain and persecution.
e. Even King Ahab, one of the most wicked kings in
Israel’s history was smart enough to make one wise
statement:
1Kings 20:11 …Let not him that girdeth on his
harness boast himself as he that putteth it off.
f. The world will try to shame us into quitting on God.
(1) Question: Where are we going to get courage to
stand against this mocking world?
(2) Only the Word of God inside you will keep you
from folding like a metal chair.
Psalm 119:10 …O let me not wander from thy
commandments.
11 Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I
might not sin against thee.
2. The Word of God can give us joy in the midst of our worse
suffering and discouragement.
Psalm 119:16 I will delight myself in thy
statutes….
Psalm 119:47 And I will delight myself in thy
commandments…
Psalm 119:92 Unless thy law had been my
delights, I should then have perished in mine
affliction.
Jer 15:16 Thy words were found, and I did eat
them; and thy word was unto me the joy and
rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy
name, O LORD God of hosts.
a. I say "can" but we have to learn how to draw joy out of
the Word.
(1) For some, the Bible is dry and boring.
(2) I remember soon after my salvation, listening to
the pastor preach and wondering where in the
Bible he found that.
(a) I would check him out.
(b) I found myself reading before and behind his
proof verses to make sure that what he was
saying fit.
(c) Some people’s favorite preaching is the when
the preaching is loud and fills the church
with a choir of amens.
i. Don’t get me wrong.
aa. I like that too.
bb. In fact, I love it.
ii. But even more than that, I like to hear
the preachers who take the Words of
God a part and made them sensible to
me.
iii. I feel like I have been to church when
I walk away with a sermon I want to
preach.
aa. I know.
bb. But that is me.
cc. I like the emotion but I love the
message.
iv. My favorite time of year in Bible
college was neither revival nor the
mission’s conference, but the Bible
Conference.
(3) I am not trying to boast.
(4) I am trying to explain that the Bible should not
be required reading for a Christian.
(5) It should be and could be the Source of joy.
b. When was the last time you got happy with the Word?
(1) Those preachers who stir the crowd to saying all
of those amens, are stirring them to happiness.
(2) Those people shouting "amen" all over the place
are getting happy in church.
(a) Granted, sometimes it seems that some of
the shouters must have come in happy
because I never heard the preacher say
anything worthy shouting about.
(b) But coming in loaded with happiness and
having a hair-trigger shouter is probably
better than coming in with wet power and
a broken firing pin.
(3) It seems many of God’s people never get stirred
about anything spiritual.
(a) Everyone knows that I am not a sports fan,
but if little Joshua grows up to be a
linebacker I will be in the stadium, and
I will be vocal.
i. I won’t be vocal because I developed a
love for the sport.
ii. I will be vocal cause that one of mine
on the field, and I will want him to
know that I am in the stands pulling
for him.
(b) When we open the Bible, we are reading the
history of what happened when Jesus put on
the uniform of mankind and took the field in
the greatest bowl game ever played.
i. We are reading it so the game has
already been played.
ii. The outcome is already know, and the
score has already been posted.
iii. When we get a little excited at church,
it is kind of like we are screaming at
the TV set while watching a game that
was 20 years ago—except our game was
played 2,000 years ago.
iv. You say why do it then?
v. Because I want Jesus to know that I am
still pulling for Him.
vi. He did not need me 2,000 years ago and
He does not need me now, but I still
want Him to know I am pulling for Him.
vii. When I read the story of His exploits,
when I hear His story in a song, when
I hear the preacher preaching about
Him, I want Jesus to know that I am
proud, pleased, and pulling for Him.
c. Yes. Yes! The Word of God can and should give us joy
and delight.
3. From the Word of God with these other two comes the third
thing the Word can supply to us: POWER.
Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is quick, and
powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword,
piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul
and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and
is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of
the heart.
a. The kind of power that God’s Word gives is not brute
force, at least not from men.
b. The primary power of God’s Word is conviction.
(1) Conviction within the lost to be saved.
(2) Conviction within the saved to stand.
c. Most of the time when we speak of conviction, we are
thinking about God’s power on a lost person; but do
not under-estimate God’s conviction within a saved
person.
d. It is the power of that kind of conviction that makes
a Christian stand when they would rather sit, speak
when he would rather be quite, stay when he would
rather leave, and do when he what he would rather
not.
C. I don’t mean to be a negative Ned, but part of my calling is
to prepare the people to stand in difficult times.
1. To do that, Christian are going to need more from their
Bibles than doctrine, reproof, correction, and
instruction.
2. We are going to need courage, joy, and power.
3. We need the Bible!
III. We need to hear from the Holy Ghost.
IV. We need our Christian family.
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