Conduct <-- Character <-- Commitment - Oct. 17th, 2021
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CJ Walker
Savoring the Psalter • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 1:26:05
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· 31 viewsLive with integrity now, in light of one day leading others with integrity also.
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Formal Elements / Descriptive Data
Text (focused on a complete thought-unit of Scripture providing the sermon’s authoritative basis & biblical affirmation): Ps101
A Psalm of David.
1 I will sing of mercy and judgment: unto thee, O Lord, will I sing.
2 I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way. O when wilt thou come unto me?
I will walk within my house with a perfect heart.
3 I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes:
I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me.
4 A froward heart shall depart from me: I will not know a wicked person.
5 Whoso privily slandereth his neighbour, him will I cut off:
Him that hath an high look and a proud heart will not I suffer.
6 Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me:
He that walketh in a perfect way, he shall serve me.
7 He that worketh deceit shall not dwell within my house:
He that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight.
8 I will early destroy all the wicked of the land;
That I may cut off all wicked doers from the city of the Lord.
Central Idea of the Text (CIT; details of text summarized in a complete, past tense sentence): “A manifesto of ethical standards of King David for himself (vv. 1-4) and for his administration (vv. 5-8), only perfectly practiced by Messiah in His future kingdom” [Ryrie, KJV Study Bible, p. 902]
Proposition (major idea of sermon summarized in a complete sentence using present active, future indicative or imperative mood; the message): Live with integrity now, in light of one day leading others with integrity also.
Statement of Purpose:
(1) Major Objective (MO; focuses on only one of six possible [doctrinal, devotional, ethical, evangelistic, consecrative, or supportive]) – Ethical (need of congregation for proper relationship with the Lord and neighbors).
(2) Specific Objective (SO; focuses on only one; calls for specific action [“I want my hearer to . . .”]) – Live and lead others now being committed to strive for how they will one day be in Christ’s coming kingdom.
Title (Topic/Name) (2 to 4 words with key, arrow, or unifying word usually common to all major ideas; innovative, interesting, contemporary; indicative of general sermon content; not sensational or cute): Conduct <— Character <— Commitment.
Structural Pattern (1 of 8 possible [enumeration, exploration, biographical, narrative, analogical, causal, problem-solution/question-answer, elimination]): Exploration
Informal Elements / Rhetorical Data
Initiation — Life Interest — Beginning Movement/Episode/Issue:
Life Material (LM) = “LIFE MATERIAL”: The telling/re-presenting of supportive life-material; compelling, fresh, interesting, believable; clearly related to the general conflict, mystery, question, problem, etc. being dealt with; use various sources or types; connect with listener’s experiences; strong, interesting opening sentence(s):
Limitations: observing from a distance; consider the scandals rampant in our nation’s leadership. Discuss an “American David” who, for all his strengths remains with a black blot of sin and corruption on his biography. Scandal is no stranger to the Biden administration and family. A hundred years ago, in 1921, scandal was not absent from then Republican sitting president, Warren Harding. As relevant as a hundred years ago as to today’s sitting leaders, Psalm 101 presents an ideal that none, not even the greatest of leaders has achieved in perfection.
Life Issue (LI) = “LIFE ISSUE”: Posits question; creates problem; establishes mystery; arouses curiosity, anticipation; imposes conflict; establishes suspense, ambiguity, or bind:
Does that mean that we then discard the unattainable? Chock it up to futility and say, “Why try?” Let’s just give in to the whims of whatever breeze blows for the hour. Why board up when the storm is approaching? Why not just ride the tide, and do whatever is right in every persons eyes at the moment? Rather than aim for the humanly impossible, just throw conviction to the wind and get all you can while the gettin’s good.
Continuation — Progress — Middle Movement/Episode/Option:
LM:
Sadly, this type of mindset has issued from the top-down, and you find it in so many living rooms today.
Come with me to the living room of an average American home. Husband and wife look at each other, then she blurts out desperately: “It would be hell to go on living like this.”
In another living room the young wife says, “I have a wonderful family, a fine husband with a good job, two fine children, home paid for—if only life had some meaning.” [Ralph L. Lewis and Gregg Lewis, Inductive Preaching: Helping People Listen (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1983), 186.]
Here is a man who has given up his character, who sits in the shadows of his man-cave or his corner where he thinks no one else sees, and rips his wife’s heart out because He just cannot control his thought-life. Here is a wife who decides she’s not getting what she needs at home, and so begins finding consolation on a willing shoulder, only this shoulder then turns into a couch, and the couch a bed, and now, she’s an adulteress.
Go with me to another home, where two partners are simply trying to “do life together” and from the outside, it looks like they are enjoying the pleasures of sin for a season, and to the world it looks as though they have it all, and yet, because their relationship is unbiblical, ungodly, and not built on the biblical foundation that marriage is honorable in all and the bed undefiled, but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge, the day comes when, in bitterness and anguish, the sin has lost its sparkle, and the heart has been devastated beyond human help.
Oh friend, the scandal doesn’t just visit the White House, or the State House, no the scandal sits in your own living room, waiting to devour. Scandal comes from the greek “scandalizo” which means to “stumble.” Friend, David knew it all to well, the world, the flesh and the devil would love nothing more than to see you stumble, and fall in sin, and then be pulverized by the weight of it until you are completely devoured.
Biblical Material/Exposition (EXP) = “EXPOSITION”: Summary of biblical material & identification of text(s) by vs. no.; exposit only from selected text; 3rd person pronouns; past tense; expresses the “then-ness” aspect:
David knew the higher a person rises in any capacity of leadership, the more he must die to his or her self, and see the dangers of even a little leaven in the ranks. Godly leadership doesn’t begin at inauguration, it begins at home.
The dangers that David sought to keep out of his administration as the newly appointed King of a very much hurting and divided nation, first at Hebron, then at Jerusalem after the death of King Saul, are spelled out for us in Psalm 101, which one preacher said we could rightly call, “Leadership 101.”
In verse 1, David knew he would be in danger of losing his song - the sweet psalmist of Israel, without a song to sing to the Lord!
In verse 2, David understood that without the Lord to help him walk uprightly, like Noah did, or like Job did, then he would never be whole in his life. How many are the ways we find in this day of medical marvel to numb ourselves to the point where we think we’re functioning okay, but deep down inside, there’s a vacuum that goes unfilled and at the end of the day, we say, “There must be more to life than this.” Notice his words, “O when wilt thou come unto me?
In verse 3, David knew that the way down begins not with our feet, but with our eyes. He desired to hate what God hated, to not allow wickedness to cleave (or be superglued) to him.
In verse 4, David understood that who he had in his close cabinet, his friends if you will, would either lead him closer to the things of God, or further away. Like our Savior, he was ready in his heart, as the King to say, “Depart from me, ye that work iniquity, for I never knew you.”
In verse 5, David made a commitment that slander would never find a seat at his table. Those that cut others down with their words would have no place in his courts. Here is a father that taught his son among other things that, “a proud look, and a lying tongue doth the Lord hate” (see Prov. 6).
David knew, according to verse 6, that he would only be as strong as those he surrounded himself with. He made a commitment to seek out those who walk in faithfulness. If he was to keep his way perfect, then those he walked with everyday must also be walking that same road with him.
In verse 7, David knew the damage that lying does to not only a home (Amnon, Tamar, Absalom), but also in the palace. God hates lying. There’s simply no place for those who lie and do not the truth in the ranks of leadership.
David, in verse 8, made a commitment to deal with sin speedily, and even result to capital punishment if need be to keep his administration free from scandal, and sin, and lies. His would be an open administration, and it would impact the entire city, the entire nation of Israel would either rise or fall on David’s leadership, whether he led with integrity or not.
Tentative Resolution (TR) = “TENTATIVE RESOLUTION”: Temporary, incomplete, or incorrect conclusion; using present active, future indicative, or imperative mood, strong verbs (avoid “to be” or “to have” etc.):
Our changing world is full of compromise, of twisting the clearly revealed truths of God’s Word to fit our own fancy, and we are the easiest people to deceive ourselves into excusing sin that is right in the midst of our lives, our homes, our places of work and service, our community, and we tend to turn a blind eye rather than turn up the lumens on what God says He clearly hates.
Transitional Sentence (TS) = “TRANSITIONAL SENTENCE”: Indicates change & progression of thought or direction; needs to achieve smooth, logical transition:
If you were to take Psalm 101, and use the opposite of every idea and principle expressed, would you not have tomorrow’s headlines, from the White House, to the School House, to the Church House, and God forbid, even to your house and my house today?
Consummation — Climax — Ending Movement/Episode/Option:
LM (most effective material used closer to climax):
I mentioned Warren G. Harding earlier. Now, the books have yet to be written on Joe Biden, but I tend to believe that if everything could be known that has been done in secret up to now, we would learn of things that would make the worst of us blush with shame. Harding died prematurely in office, and was succeeded by his vice president, Calvin Coolidge during the “Roaring Twenties” leading up to the Great Depression. After his death, Harding’s once popular reputation was tarnished by scandal after scandal that came to light once he was gone. But it doesn’t matter where you look friend, what about the sports world? What pop-icon has come through with a sinless reputation? What CEO or CFO has conducting every business transaction without sin? What well-meaning small-business owner has in every situation said and done the right thing? None. What church has lived her life without sin in the ranks? What congregation has come through unscathed? Only two in human history that I am aware of, and I can only say that based on the omniscience of Jesus Christ, who wrote two letters among seven to the churches of Asia in the first century that came away unscathed by His flaming eyes of Judgment. The first was a church persecuted to no end, Smyrna, and the second was the church of gospel mission, Philadelphia. No condemnation recorded for these two congregations.
You see, though we may throw stones, and say “all have sinned,” friend, there does remain those who seek to do things God’s way, though they are not sinlessly perfect. David, even with his black blot, can say with utmost integrity at this juncture of his ministry, that he would walk in his integrity. We say, rightly so with the Savior, there is none good, save God, but friend, that doesn’t change the fact that the Bible, in divine inspiration, did call one other man in the Bible good, that man’s name was Joses. You might also know his surname, Barnabas. What makes the difference between a Joses (Barnabas) of Acts 4 and an Ananias of Acts 5? What makes the difference between a David and a Saul as king of Israel? What makes the difference between a George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Ronald Regan and that of a Warren Harding, Andrew Johnson, or James Buchanan? What is the difference between a Ward Snyder and a Kenneth Copeland? Is not the heart of the matter the matter of the heart?
What makes the difference between a home wrecked with sin and scandal, and one blessed by the Lord? Oh, friend, it is not whether that man or woman, that president or vice-president, that Governor or Lt. Governor, that Principal or teacher, that athlete or astronaut, that policeman or fireman, that Pastor or church member, that husband or wife, that father or mother, that son or daughter is sinless. But rather, what commitment have they made in their heart to the God of heaven that shapes who they are when no one else is looking, and thereby informs and impacts everything they say or do, because their heart and mind are filtered by the Word of God.
EXP:
You see, it starts at home. It begins where you live and dwell. Maybe its just you there by yourself, maybe there’s a family there with you, but regardless, obedience to the good and right way begins with a commitment like David made here, “I will walk within my house with a perfect heart” (Ps. 101:2). If you want to know how to pray for our leaders as well as how to conduct yourself, then Psalm 101 is where you need to go. By the time you get to the office, or the schoolroom, or the grocery store, or the workplace, or the church house, friend, its already too late. You need to have a right walk with God behind the closed doors of your home. We cannot control the world, but friend, our homes ought to be a little taste of heaven on earth.
Final Resolution (FR) = “FINAL RESOLUTION”: Disclosure of proposition, answer, solution (*possible deductive/direct material; *application accomplished [explicitly/implicitly]; *carry-out stated purpose [MO/SO]; *1st & 2nd person pronouns; action-centered; relevant; *possible recapitulation):
If you will be the follower of Jesus you need to be, then you will learn to be like David, a man after God’s own heart. Why was he known that way to Israel and the world? I believe Psalm 101 justifies him before the eyes of all, even his worst critics.
Allow me to take this a step further though. Ryrie notes in his study Bible regarding verse two, “within my house. Where godliness should begin but, ironically, where David forfeited it by sinning with Bath-sheba (2 Sam. 11).” This why we agree with his earlier statement that this Psalm is a “Manifesto of ethical standards of King David for himself (vv. 1-4) and for his administration (vv. 5-8), only perfectly practiced by Messiah in His future kingdom” [bold added]
While that is certainly true, I would like to apply it even further in light of our understanding of Messianic prophecy yet to be fulfilled. If Jesus is coming again, and He most certainly is. And since when He comes we will each give an account for our lives at the Judgment Seat of Christ, and we most certainly will. And since John reminds us that having the hope of one day being like Jesus as we one day see Him face to face in all His glory, we purify ourselves, even as He is pure, as we most assuredly should live each day being ever the more conformed to His image, looking more and more like Jesus tomorrow if He tarries that I did today. And since, upon His glorious appearing, we too, have been saved as though yet by fire, will enter into that blessed thousand year reign of Christ with a pure, redeemed, ransomed, resurrected body and soul and spirit, and one day, the future promise of what Christ accomplished on the cross to save us from our sins will be fully and finally realized at that glorious consummation, where sin will have no presence in the body, mind, soul, heart or spirit of the Lord’s redeemed. And since, it will be with that glorified body that those who are faithful to Him here and now in the least of these, will be made rulers over much by Him when He comes to rule and reign, and us with Him with a rod of iron. Then friend, just like integrity must start at home before a president is ever inaugurated into office, so too, we cannot afford to wait until Jesus comes to inaugurate us into the Kingdom of His inheritance, but must here and now, as He encouraged us, seek first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto us.
How we conduct ourselves as those who name the name of Christ matters. It is based on the character that is developed in us as His disciples. That character of integrity only comes when we bathe at the feet of Jesus, striving to build our lives on the rock, the foundation of His eternal words which can stand against all the storms of life, leaving us blameless in the end, having endured all that the false accuser of the brethren might hurl with his fiery darts at us, standing in the whole armor of God each day, before we cross the threshold of our homes into our places of influence. Oh friend, only when we understand that we are to strive to live under the Kingdom law of Jesus Christ (Matthew 5-7) here and now, and when we fall, we deal with, find His grace, forgiveness and strength to get up and keep going for the Master, ever looking for that glorious redemption of our bodies that is promised through His resurrection power, can we live as 1 Jn. 2:28 says,
28 And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.
Psalm 101 gives us a great place to begin and continue that journey for Him.