In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of seeking and experiencing a personal relationship with God. He uses the analogy of observing and identifying a rabbit to illustrate the scientific approach to discovering the truth. The psalmist's personal experience is highlighted, where he sought the Lord, was heard by Him, and delivered from his fears. The speaker encourages listeners to also seek the Lord and learn about His personality and nearness through the curriculum of their spiritual journey.

This is a delightful autobiographical song where David sits down and does some personal speaking. What he's really saying is that, why don't you just stop a minute folks, I want to tell you something. I want to share with you some of the things that have really been happening in my life. There's no question about it that one of the great encouragements, one of the great aids to spiritual experience is to have somebody who has a valid experience take the time out to share it with somebody else. And I believe that the scriptures are very careful to point this out. Now on other occasions we've looked into the life of David and on some occasions we have seen that the Bible has been excruciatingly honest about David's experience and has certainly told us where he went wrong in no uncertain terms. But in this particular passage of scripture we have another excruciatingly honest passage of scripture but this time it is David opening his own heart and saying now look, this is how it is, this is what God did for me and this is the way in which he operated in my life. Now it doesn't necessarily say that he's going to do the identical thing for you and it doesn't necessarily mean that everything that he did for me, says David, he's going to do for you. But these are the principles of his operation, this is how he works, this is how he goes about it. So see what he's done, learn the principles and then just find out if it could not be that your own life would be enriched if you begin to see the sort of things that God can do with just ordinary people. Well with that in mind let's look and see what David says. First of all he speaks personally about some personal experiences. Then secondly he speaks personally with some passionate exhortations. I'm sure you noticed on three occasions in this psalm there's an exhortation that begins with the word oh. In verse 3, oh magnify the Lord. Now when you come out with that word oh there's some passion in the thing. He's really encouraging people to do something and he's saying it with real intensity, oh magnify the Lord with me. Then verse 8, oh taste and see that the Lord is good. And then in verse 9, oh reverence the Lord, ye his saints. And I'm so glad that he doesn't just relate personal experience but he then gets into some passionate exhortation. You know sometimes when people give a testimony all they do is relate their own personal experience. They never get around to exhorting somebody else to do something about what God can really be accomplishing in their lives. And then thirdly he comes up and speaks personally about some positive intentions. And there are two that we'll notice although you could find others in this psalm. And one positive intention that he has is this. This is a personal commitment, a very very positive statement he's making. I will bless the Lord at all times. That's dogmatic, that's straightforward. This is a very positive intention. And the second one, I will teach the truth. Verse 11, come ye children hearken unto me, I will teach you. And here he's coming up with some very definite, very positive, totally committed statements. And I would suggest to you that as we look into this psalm it may well be that we can examine our own personal experience and find out how well we articulate it. That we can also find out to what extent we are exhorting other people in a positive way to enrich their own spiritual experience. And then perhaps we can come up and discover what positive intentions we really do have as far as our spiritual life is concerned. All right, now what was the personal experience that he enjoyed? First of all in verse four he speaks personally. This is what he says, I sought the Lord and he heard me and he delivered me from all my fears. Now notice the three basic things that he says. I sought him, he heard me, and he delivered me. This is a statement of personal experience. I believe that everybody is looking for something. Everybody is seeking something. Not everybody knows what he's seeking. Quite a few people know what they're seeking but they're not quite sure which way to look. And not a few people are seeking the Lord but they don't really know how to find him. Now there's a very simple basic principle of scripture which is this. The Lord says this, if you seek me you will find me, but here's the operative word, if you seek me with all your heart. Now you will come across some people who say, oh I was looking for the Lord, I was seeking the Lord, I never found him, he's not there. But if you check very carefully on what it was they were doing you will find that they didn't really apply the God-given principle to their own experience. If you seek me, you will find me, provided you seek me with all your heart. Now your heart involves various areas of your personality. It involves your mind. I believe that anybody who's really going to have an experience of the Lord has got to be intelligent about it. And if he is going to seek with all his heart, that is going to involve the use of some grey matter between his ears. He is going to have to get some intelligent appreciation of intelligent truth. And I'll tell you one way that he's going to do it. You will get intelligent appreciation of intelligent truth if you intelligently study the revelation of truth that comes from God contained in the Word of God. Now I would suggest to you that a number of people speak quite happily about seeking the Lord, but they are not using their whole hearts because they never use their minds. They have a vague emotional feeling. They have a vague psychological sense of need. But they are not going about it the right way because they have not been feeding their minds with the truth as it is in Jesus, as it is revealed in Scripture. And therefore they don't really come up with any conclusions because they are seeking vaguely in a thousand and one different areas and opening their mind and experience to as much error as they're opening themselves to truth. You've got to start looking in the right general direction if you're going to find what it is you're hoping to find. If you seek me, you'll find me. If you seek me with all your heart, that means using your minds. But then the second part of your heart is that you have emotions. You will find God if you really seek him with all your heart, with all the emotional intensity of which you are capable. I don't know if you have this saying over here in the States, but in England we use the expression, Saint's heart never won fair lady. Do you have that expression over here? I don't know, maybe you're not sure. But we have it in England anyway. Saint's heart never won fair lady. Now sometimes you'll find some gentlemen in England, not in America as far as I can see, who don't really seem to be too sure as to which way they ought to go about, in a very gentlemanly way, acquiring to themselves a wife. And so they're rather faint-hearted about the whole thing. And they never really seem to get around to it. I can think of some friends of mine back home in England, very eligible bachelors. And there's only one basic reason as far as I can see, when it really came to winning a fair lady, they were chicken. Or sensible, I'm not sure which, but But that's the position. Now I would suggest that this kind of approach is also applicable to the spiritual life. I would say this, Saint's heart never won an exciting Christ. You see, a lot of people never really find the Lord in terms of personal experience for one very simple reason, there is no emotional intensity about their search. They aren't really, with all the passion of their being, saying this, there is ultimate truth, and I've got to find it, and I'm going to intelligently look into it, and I'm going to do it with such intensity that I'm going to give the impression that I really believe the truth is there to be found, and it is so important to me that I'm going to put everything else secondary, I'm going to find the truth. Now it is not surprising that a lot of people never find the Lord for the very simple reason, they never seek Him with all their heart. But the third part of your heart is your will. You see, it is possible with tremendous emotional intensity and tremendous intellectual intemperaty to search for truth, and then suddenly find it, and say, oh wow, there it is, God. And God is God, and will settle for nothing less than being God, and suddenly you're confronted with a challenge which is this, will I get rid of my puny little idols and allow God to be my God? And this is not a challenge to your intellect or to your emotions, it is a challenge, a direct challenge to your will. Now God says quite simply, if you seek me, you'll find me, if you seek me with all your heart. So with a definite intelligent search of revealed truth, with unbelievable emotional intensity because you believe it is so important, and with the willingness to act upon what you know, that is how you begin to seek. And let me tell you something, the principle, as we find it from David's personal experience, is simply this, if you seek with all your heart, God will lean out of heaven, cup His great almighty hands around His almighty ears and say, okay, I'm listening, what do you want? Now let's do his personal experience again in light of this, I sought the Lord. He heard me and rolled up His mighty sleeves, and notice what he said, and delivered me from all my fears. Now I have underlined, or circled rather, in my Bible, all the tremendously superlative statements of this psalm. You'll find the word all on a number of occasions. I've ringed it. He delivered me from all my fears. That's a personal testimony. There is a personal experience. I have no grounds for rejecting it, I have no grounds for refuting it, this is an honest man making an honest statement, and he is outlining a biblical, spiritual, eternal truth. Now the whole point of it is this, if God can do that sort of thing for him, He can do that sort of thing for you, if you'll go about it the same way. Seek Him, He'll hear, and deliver you from all your fears. Now then, do you have that kind of personal experience? Now his second personal experience is this, verse 6, this poor man cried, and the Lord heard, and saved him out of, notice the little word here, all his troubles. Now that doesn't say that he got rid of all his troubles. Sometimes you get this impression from preachers, my dear friends, I want to present to you the Lord Jesus, come to Him, and He will take all your troubles away, and heaven above will be softer blue, and earth around will be sweeter green, and all this little world of yours will be absolutely hunky-dory. No, that isn't what it says. What it says is this, if you seek the Lord, and cry unto Him, and lay hold of Him, and ask Him to do what you know intelligently from scripture He has promised to do, He will do it. And one of the things that He will do will be this, He will move into your life in the area of all your trouble, and He won't take your trouble away, in actual fact He'll give you some new ones, but He will save you in the midst of them all. And it is one thing to think that God is going to take away your trouble, and another thing to know that God is going to save you in the midst of your trouble. You'll get rid of all your troubles when you get to heaven, but before you get to heaven you've got to learn how to behave in heaven, and that's why you're down on earth. And down on earth you're given all kinds of difficulties, and all kinds of problems, so that you can begin to discover the sort of God He is in the midst of all your problems, and as you cry unto Him, and lay hold of Him, and say, oh God do what you promised, you will then begin to discover how real He really is. But notice that there's one little phrase that is very important here, this poor man, was he a poor man? No, he was the king. It was unbelievable how many resources he had available to him, it was unbelievable the inheritance that was his, it was unbelievable the promises that God had made to him, and it was unbelievable all the things that stretched ahead. The talent he had in every field was absolutely fantastic, but why does he call himself this poor man? Because he knows his own heart. And he says, oh when it really comes to my own standing before God, I am totally impoverished, I am utterly in need, I am desperate for God. This poor, impoverished, desperate man called upon the Lord in the midst of all his troubles, and God intervened on his behalf, and demonstrated how fantastic God is in the midst of all a man's troubles. That is a statement of personal experience, which cannot be refuted, which should not be rejected, but should be carefully checked on, and then applied in principle to my own experience. Have you had this kind of experience, where you sought the Lord with all your heart, and He heard you, and delivered you from all your fears? Have you had the kind of personal experience, where in the poverty of your own spiritual condition, which you freely admitted, you cried unto the Lord, and said, oh Lord, for Christ's sake, do something in my life, and He intervened on your behalf, and delivered you in all your troubles? Because that is just the sort of thing that God wants to do. Well now, secondly, let's look at the passionate exhortations that come. And of course, it's quite obvious that the one follows the other. When I have had a personal experience, it is quite obvious that I'm going around, get around to some exhorting. You can't exhort somebody to have what you haven't had yourself. I think perhaps on very rare occasions this has happened, like the rare occasions that I've heard of, of preachers being converted through their own preaching. There was a famous evangelist in England called Billy Bray. And Billy Bray was a very outspoken sort of character. He lived down in Cornwall, the very southwest tip of Britain. And one day he was in church, and the preacher was preaching away, and suddenly a strange look dawned on the face of the vicar as he was preaching his sermon. And as he was preaching his sermon, a strange radiance spread over his face, and he stumbled over his words, and stopped, and looked around rather helplessly. And Billy Bray, who was a very spiritually alert man, and a very outspoken man as well, jumped up in his pew, clapped his hands above his head, and said, how are you? The vicar's being converted. Now this is somewhat unusual, but of course it's the exception that proves the rule. You can't really help anybody spiritually further than you've done yourself. You can't really exhort somebody to have a kind of experience that, quite frankly, you haven't experienced yourself. But I'll tell you what you can do. When you have experienced all that the Lord is in your life, you can then quite naturally begin to exhort people to have the same experience. This, of course, does not always follow, because some people have a tremendous experience of the Lord, but are so utterly selfish that they could care less about anybody else. They say, well, of course, I'm not gifted to exhort other people. I'm not gifted to encourage other people. I'm not gifted to talk to other people. What they usually mean is this, I am more selfishly concerned about what people will think of me than I am concerned about what they need to hear because of what I've experienced. And I would suggest to you that the natural development of a personal experience is a passionate exhortation. If the Lord has really worked on your behalf and has really operated in your life, then share the good news. Now notice the three exhortations. Verse three, O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together. Magnify the Lord. What does that mean? Well, I'm sure all of you are aware of the little instrument called a magnifying glass. And perhaps on some occasions you've had a little splinter in your finger, and you couldn't quite see what it was, but there was just a little irritating thing there. And so you got a magnifying glass and a pair of tweezers, and you began to look around, and you magnified the thing, and suddenly that thing became crystal clear to you. Now, what he's saying here is this. The Lord isn't desperately clear to a lot of people. He's around. He's almost like an irritant for some people, but he's almost invisible. Now, what some people need is something that will bring him into sharper focus, and bring him into a larger, more understandable frame of reference. And so what he says is this. Come on, folks. Come on, let's get together, and let's do something that is going to bring the Lord into sharper focus to other people, and let's do something together that is going to make him be more clearly seen in all the beauty of his being. Magnify the Lord. Do you remember the song that Mary sang when she said, Oh, my soul does magnify the Lord, and my spirit doth rejoice in God my Savior. Now, this is what David is saying. The same sort of thing. He's saying, I've got such an intense desire to make this fabulous Lord more clearly understandable to people, and more clearly understood in all the beauty of his being. Now, notice very carefully that he doesn't want to do it on his own. Oh, he says, Come on, I want to exhort you. I want to exhort you to magnify the Lord with me. He said, I want to do it with somebody else. Now, what does this mean? I would suggest to you that this is basically an exhortation to a reality of worship. He wants other people to begin to praise the Lord. He wants other people to begin to worship the Lord. He wants other people to get as excited about the Lord as he himself is. Now, there is a fallacy in certain areas of the church today. The fallacy is this, that religion or spiritual experience is very personal and therefore is very private. It is a total fallacy. You won't find it anywhere in Scripture. What you will find over and over in Scripture is this, that when a person has a personal, private experience of the Lord, it is going to stimulate him to a tremendous concern for unity, for oneness, for a corporate being with other people of like mine. You know, one of the strange things that you'll find in some people is that they say that they have an experience of the Lord, but they would rather spend time with people who don't know the Lord than they would spend time with people who do know the Lord. Now, this is strange. I'm not talking about people who've got such an insatiable desire for evangelism that they've no time to share with others in worship. I'm talking about people who, quite frankly, say they love the Lord, know there are hundreds of people who congregate in a certain place who love the Lord, but really have got to twist their arm to get them there. Now, let me tell you something. When there is a real experience in your heart of the Lord, you not only will want to rejoice within him and magnify him and praise and worship him, you'll want to encourage other people to do it, and you will want to do it corporately. I believe that this is a great exhortation to corporate prayer. I believe it's a great exhortation to sing together. I believe it's a great exhortation to witness together. I believe it's a great exhortation to testify together. I believe that what ought to happen every time Christians get together in a home, that they can do all manner of other things and then at least they'll want to sing together and at least they'll want to pray together and at least They'll want to share together because they have such a passion for their experience of the Lord to be shared and for him to be magnified And all the time they'll say oh, let us magnify the Lord together. Let us exalt his name together Do you have any passion? That gives you an insatiable desire to draw other people into a deepening experience of the reality of worship Because that is a natural corollary of a personal experience, but then secondly he exhorts people to do something else verse 8 Oh taste and see that the Lord is good Now that is a great exhortation It's a kind of it's a kind of little phrase that you can use over and over again in so many different ways And I would suggest to you that this is an exhortation to specific experimentation You know some people tell me that that science and scripture are mutually exclusive And some people tell me that science and the Bible are a total loggerheads now You'll only find this kind of attitude in people who've decided for one to the exclusion of the other So sometimes you'll find scientists who've decided that the Bible of course really doesn't talk sense in this area therefore science and Bible are mutually Exclusive and you'll find some Christians who are so frightened stiff of what science might find out that it may undermine their rather Infantile faith that they simply say the Bible is this and science the world all these scientists a lot of rogues and knaves anyway Now that just isn't true either way around and you will find scientific principles all over the place in Scripture I would suggest to you that a very simple scientific principle is included in the words. Oh taste and see If you want to make a scientific approach to something you would probably make an experiment And I think I'm right in saying that the way you would go about an experiment is it first of all you would observe When you have observed certain things then you would form a hypothesis And then when you have formed a hypothesis, then you would work out a system of experimentation and then when you have worked out a system of Experimentation then you would come to a conclusion Then you would try again to confirm that conclusion and you try to eliminate all kinds of impossible Impossibilities until in the end on the basis of experimentation you had come up with a firm conclusion Now that is basically what taste and see is saying Just supposing you see a little brown object out in the grass of your front yard And you say to yourself, and this is observation. There is a little brown object As far as you're concerned, you're not a very inquiring sort of person You're just an easygoing sort of guy so you could care less what that little brown object is It could be all kinds of things. It could be a mound of brown sugar Or it could be a parcel with a time bomb inside you could care less you just happen to observe There is a little brown object and your kids come in say hey dad There's a little brown object and you say so I have observed I would suggest that anybody like that is somewhat blast sort of person. They're not really inquiring not terribly interested But after your kids have chemistry Hey dad this little brown object in the middle of the front yard you immediately start observing a little bit more And You notice that that little brown object is twitching And so yourself while that you say to yourself that rules out the possibility of brown sugar and in all probability That means it is not a time bomb unless of course it is a nervous time bomb So you observe a little further and Then you as you observe a little further you will begin to notice that this little brown object not only twitches But appears to have two somewhat elongated things on the top of what appears to be a head And so you say to yourself those things look like is now then you've got observation you have amassed certain data now What you do well if you're an inquiring sort of person I'll tell you what you do you then form a hypothesis your hypothesis is is on the basis of the information that is available to me That little brown object that twitches that appears to have a head and things that one would possibly call is it would appear to me That that is an animal now then what kind of animal I know it may be a rabbit Now then you form an experiment if that is a rabbit, and I throw a stone That's rabbit will run away that little brown object The twitches with the long things on the top of what appears to be a head if I throw a stone it will be nervous And I'll run away, and let me say it might be a brown cat Might be an antelope Could be a lot of things you say yes, that is true But if it is a rabbit it will be about this size, and it will have a little white tail Situated where tails are usually situated So you throw a stone and what happens that is experimentation and you know what you had thought in your hypothesis Comes to be true as you throw it you begin to see that the thing springs to life it begins to run It is about this size It does have long ears you can see the shape of its head and the clincher thing about it It does have that little white tail now. What have you done? You have engaged in purely scientific approach? You will not be totally convinced it is a rabbit, but you will have done something very simple you will have observed You will have formed a hypothesis you will have experimented And you will have come to conclusion which is all a long-winded way of saying taste and see Now all that the psalmist is saying here with tremendous passion is this listen listen. I've observed something the Lord is fantastic He's great Not only they observed is fantastic in me is fantastic in him and him and her and her and her and in fact all these People come together with me and magnify the Lord all of us have observed the Lord is absolutely tremendous Now then with all the passion in my being I want to say something to you if you can observe All the things that have happened in our lives. I want you to be honest about it. I want you to inquire about it I want you to perform a hypothesis. I'll tell you what I want you to do I want you to form the hypothesis that every one of us is telling the truth that the Lord is tremendous And I want you to form this further Hypothesis that if the Lord is tremendous to them it could just be he could be tremendous to me But now I've got to have an experiment now a lot of people are busy forming spiritual hypotheses The Lord is tremendous to them the Lord is tremendous for her the Lord is tremendous for her. This is what they say so And they never get into the realm of experimentation But when you get somebody with real passion who's urging you and exhorting you say come on taste and see Taste and see so what is the experimentation the experimentation is simply this you say okay Lord if you're there and if you've done that for them and you say you'll do this for me on the basis of the Information that I have observed and the basis of the information that I have amassed Understand that if I commit myself in repentance and faith to you on the basis of what I know you will do this, okay I'm going to taste and I'll find out Do what the world should see The world should see a lot of people who had a personal experience of the living Lord Passionately exhorting other people first of all to come and magnify the Lord with them and then to taste and see that the God they Love is as fantastic as they say taste and see That the Lord is good how many people have you exhorted late recently to do that? How many people have you given an appetite out of this year passion of your exhortation to do that? Then he comes up with his third exhortation verse 9 Oh fear the Lord he his saints for there is no one to them that fear him now Notice it would appear that the the different kind of people are being subjected to his passionate exhortation Of course the person that we're saying basically to taste and see that the Lord is good is possibly someone who hasn't tasted and therefore has Never seen he's never engaged in a simple scientific approach to spiritual experience But now he's talking to people who are saints those who know the Lord those who've been set aside Sanctified by God and you know they they and we all need a lot of exhorting We need a lot of encouraging we need to be constantly reminded. We need passion in our experience and you know what we need all the time we need to have people exhort us to a Tremendous exhortation of practical commitment. Oh Fear the Lord ye his saints now fear the Lord doesn't mean be frightened of him It means respect him and trust him and reverence him and commit yourselves to him I Wonder how often by the very nature our commitment and the very passion of our exhortation. We are leading people to a deeper commitment Because this is what happens when a person has a personal experience and has born within him by the Holy Spirit of passion for others He will then be constantly longing to see other people coming to a deeper experience of the Lord Oh trust the Lord and if you want an incentive it says this Oh fear the Lord ye his saints But there is no one to them that fear him That doesn't mean to say that they count one to one to one to one to one because there never was a person who didn't What it means is this there is no lack to them Who fear him? So there we have the three passionate exhortations based on personal experience And now we come finally to the positive intentions what he intends to do number one intention I Will bless the Lord at all times his praise shall continually be in My mouth my soul shall make her boast in the Lord the humble shall hear thereof and be glad Now I wonder if it could honestly be said that this is your basic positive intention Let's analyze it what he is saying first of all is this I will bless the Lord continually Not when everything's going right I'll bless the Lord and when something goes wrong that I don't like I'll question the Lord I will bless the Lord at all times Not when I'm getting my own way when I say oh, it's great to know the Lord But when I'm not getting my own way, I'll say and why doesn't he do something about what's gone wrong But the overall attitude will be this I will continually bless the Lord. I will praise the Lord I will thank the Lord. I will rejoice in the Lord continually That's what he's saying The second thing he's saying is it he will bless the Lord vocally now notice very very carefully He says I will bless the Lord at all times his praise shall continually be in my heart No, it doesn't it says his praise shall continually be in my mouth you say are you stretching it here? Okay, look at the next verse the humble shall hear and be glad You know one of the great dropout areas of Christian experience is in the mouth of the Saints When a person has an experience of the Lord and has a passion for the Lord He ought to have an intention for the Lord, which is quite simple a vocal Articulation a sheer praise and communication of the reality of the Lord I will bless the Lord at all times his praise shall continually be in my mouth the humble shall hear and be glad Do you know what that means? It means I'm going to have something to say about the Lord at all Times the standard of conversation of many Christians is Not very high Now don't misunderstand me. I don't mean that it isn't high when it comes to talking business or church affairs I don't mean it isn't high when it comes to talking Sport I don't mean it isn't high when it comes to talking fashion or homes Or other materialistic thing what I'm really saying is it when it comes to a point of really honestly being able Adequately to articulate with my mouth so that people here praise to who the Lord really is the standard is low Why is it for two reasons lack of understanding of the Lord and lack of intention? to a commitment to vocalize my experience of the Lord I will Bless the Lord at all times his praise shall continue to be in my mouth. That is a positive intention That is before God my commitment Did you ever get around to that? No, I know it'll be costly and I know it'll hurt and I know it'll embarrass I know you might lose some of your friends And I also know that God will be glorified and you will be enriched and people will be reached who are not being reached now But then the third thing that I want you to notice about this positive Intention to bless the Lord is that he's going to bless him not only continually and vocally but also unashamedly First to my soul shall make her boast In the Lord, I was talking to a 12 year old and a 14 year old about this yesterday And I said, what do you think that means and they came up with a lovely expression? And I think it was lovely because it was just what I've been thinking as well And this little 12 year old I think it was looked at me and he said what I said What does it mean when it says my soul shall make her boast in the Lord? They said it means my soul's gonna brag on the Lord. I like that My soul's going to brag on the Lord Now listen, would you honestly say that continually joyfully vocally exuberantly and adequately you brag on the Lord Because maybe there's a lack of intent here Maybe there's a lack of willingness. Maybe there's a lack of knowledge, but let me tell you something There's a lack of spiritual experience if you lack this kind of intent But when the experience is real and the passion is burning in your soul Then you're going to come to a point of intention. You're going to say God, I don't care what happens. I am going to continually vocally and unashamedly brag on you Then the second intention I will teach the truth and this really takes up the section from verse 11 through to 22 You'll notice on my notes. I put verse 23 I got carried away and I'm going to give an exposition of one verse that hasn't been written yet And That's passion All right. Now look what he says. My intention is to teach the truth. I Want you just to notice two kinds of pupils. He talks about verse 11. Can you children listen to me? Please notice how to address children When it comes to the things of the Lord notice, please how not to do it now then children What should we talk about today? Do you have any problems you would like to discuss? Or you don't have any problems. All right, let's just sit and look at each other Are you bored? Yes, I'm bored too, but that's how it is with the Lord. We're bored Lord Now I'm not quite sure when children cease to be children, but I notice I'm pretty childish myself And so I would suggest up to about my age and possibly a little bit further We ought to have a slightly different approach and it is this Come on children Listen to me. Oh, you say how arrogant that's right This sound arrogant, isn't it? You see how it's already that's right. I don't mind. That's right Do you know what the world's looking for it is looking for someone who brag on the Lord? Unashamedly continually vocally and really make people sit up and take notice Children listen kids Listen to me. I want to tell you something. The Lord Jesus is absolutely fantastic Invocate your age, you know how I know because he saved me when I was seven And I've had 34 years experience and I might be dumb, but I'm not so dumb that I'm totally wrong about him After 34 years experience. Listen kids. Are you listening? That's the way to go about it. Make them listen And Give them something that will really make them sit up and take notice the pupils who I will teach are simply children Who will listen? And I've discovered about children that the way to get them to listen is to make them listen Now the variety of ways of doing that and we don't have time to get into it secondly Secondly Not only children who want to listen but adults who want to live These are the pupils to whom I will teach the truth Children who want to listen adults who want to live look what he says first Well, what man is he that desires life and loves many days that he may see good Well, I tell you men are funny and women are funnier But I never yet met an adult who doesn't really want to live. I Come across some people are so depressed. They want to end it all some people do But basically the reason they're ending it all is that they wanted to live so desperately and couldn't they decided out of sheer desperation to end It really the reason they wanted to die was they wanted to live so desperately and life is a disappointment to them Now then if you can think in terms of all the children who want to listen when you really stimulate them enough and there aren't many who Don't and then you think in terms of all the adults who really want to live and there aren't many who don't fit into that category, I think you'll begin to understand who the potential pupils are for the person who says I Will teach the truth No, you see I always thought that so many people were so disinterested no, it isn't that they're disinterested in the truth It's simply that they're desperately bored with our presentation of it that they can't understand why we are so patently and enthused about it But if you go to people who are kids and you make them listen you just live at their attention on you By getting to them in the right way And then you go to adults and you begin to talk with them positively and say hey Do you really want to live listen to me? I? Would suggest to you that there'll be no shortage of pupils The only shortage you'll have will be shortage of time to get around them all so he talks about the pupils And then he talks about the curriculum now. I don't have time to go into the curriculum now But it's the beginning of the school year so whilst your kids are getting into their curriculum Why don't the adults get into theirs and the curriculum is just two things basically number one. I'm going to teach the personality of the Lord I'm going to tell about his eyes I'm going to tell about his ears I'm going to tell about his face, and you could go on all the things that it talks about the Lord I'm going to tell about his angels. I'm going to tell about his nearness. I didn't have room to list them all here But the curriculum is simply this I am going to teach the personality of the Lord all his attributes What he does what he promises what he says, and I want to teach people this And secondly I'm going to teach people the power of the Lord verse 18 I'm going to teach you saving power the Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart and saves who? He saves people who are of a contrite spirit I'm going to teach people who want to live and I've got to teach children who want to listen I'm going to teach them the saving power of my wonderful Lord. That is my intent Now I'm going to teach his keeping power verse 20 He keeps all his bones and not one of them is broken this of course was applied prophetically to the Lord Jesus on the cross But basically what it is saying is this not only does the Lord save people But he keeps them in actual fact the Bible says that when God saves somebody he can preserve them to his eternal kingdom think of that It says that he is able to keep you and Present you faultless before the presence of his glory now We need to teach people not only that God saves, but that God keeps people for all eternity And then we need to tell them about the redeeming power of the Lord verse 22 the Lord redeems the soul of his servants to redeem means to it means to buy a person for yourself and Take them out of their situation where they are and set them free into a glorious liberty now That's the curriculum that a person who is turned on to the Lord Jesus by this fruit of God is going to teach he's going to teach the personality of the Lord and he's going to teach the power of the Lord the power to save the power to Keep and the power to redeem. I'm glad that David took time out in his busy schedule To write this autobiographical psalm aren't you? It does me so much good to check on his personal experience And to understand something of his passionate exhortation and then to line myself right alongside him with positive intentions and say this as Far as I'm concerned. I sought the Lord he heard me and delivered me from all my fears this poor man cried the Lord heard and Saved him from all his troubles as a result of that. I want to exhort you and I would say Oh Magnify the Lord with me. Let it exalt his name together And in addition, I want to say Oh taste and see that the Lord is good animation I want to say this Oh fear the Lord ye his saints and then I want you to know my basic intentions are this I Will bless the Lord at all times His praise shall continually be in my mouth My soul shall make her boast in the Lord and all over the place people humble people are going to hear and be glad and say Thank you And my second intention is this I will teach children who want to listen and I will teach adults who want to live There's my personal testimony for you folks. I wonder how many of you would say Amen, it's mine, too Go on. Let me hear you Three that's good. Okay, let's pray together Dear Lord, what a joy it is to know that we know the Lord And what an increasing joy it is to know that we want to make him known What a great thrill it is to know how to make him known and just give us that burning fire within It will settle for nothing less than Psalm 34 as our autobiography I Ask it in Christ's name Amen