If you believe that, please be seated. That was a trick question. Some of you don't believe it or you'd get saved today. Come on and go with us. Let's have some great preaching today. But first, Charity Fraser is going to come and honor the Lord with a song just before the preaching. Everything we do here today is for the Lord. Charity Fraser. My Saviour leads me. What have I to ask beside? Can I doubt His tender mercy? Who through life has been my guide? Hear my faith in Him to dwell, For I know that there before me Jesus stood with all things well. me. Cheers each winding path I tread. my weary steps may falter, and my soul at first may be gutted from the rock before me. I see. Oh, the way my Savior leads me. Oh, the fullness of His love. Perfect Let my spirit go, dear Lord, so we can fly to realms of day. This my song through endless ages, Jesus, Thank you, Charity. Let's take our Bibles this morning. Open to Psalm number 7. Psalm number 7, please. I will mention, too, in the lobby there's a table set up with things spread out on there. And Pastor Cody and I have been talking since he got here about just the way we do follow-up visits, new visits, old visits, visit visits, all kinds of visits, and people we need to see and people we need to meet. And so we've been working on that and he has put together an organized system for us to be doing that. And I know we have a weekly time every week where folks can come out and help make visits. And I haven't found the sweet spot yet because I always seem to pick the day and the time of the week when everyone's working or busy doing something. So we're going to revamp that a little bit. Those visits are available right now for you to take when you leave this morning and you can be a part of this ministry and take one of those with you. There's a form there to just put the date, your name, The name of the person that goes with you do not go alone Take someone with you and then write some comments in there as a result of your visit with that person Bring this sheet back to the church and then pastor Cody will take it from there So we need your help. We still do always do how many thousands of people live in Taylorville 12,000 a Can't knock on that many doors a week folks. So I need your help and pastor Cody We need your help and the others that help with visiting efforts. We need your help and because because Matthew 10 or Matthew Matthew 28 the Great Commission That's what we're supposed to be doing. So do it not because I'm asking you to but do it because we have an opportunity for you to be obedient to God and and by the way That's the secret for church growth. I've been thinking a lot about that lately. A lot of churches have their ideas of what church growth is and how you get church growth. And everything's got to be just right. You've got to cater to creature comforts, whether it's with environmental things. eating, heating, air conditioning, and eating. I guess I should say that too. The food, you gotta have the food, right? Comfortable seats. Programs, ministries that fit what I need and what I want. And of course the music has to be what I like. And if we get all of those, if we cater to what everybody wants, people will come. And they do come. But the problem is, that's not the way God says to do it. I had a conversation just a week ago with someone who they were a little upset because the Bible was done. You know what I mean by that? The Bible says as Christians we need to provoke one another unto love and good works and encourage and exhort to each other with scripture and hold each other accountable, right? You know I've asked you to hold me accountable because I need that and they didn't like it. And I just told him, I said, well, you know, if you want a church that is just going to make you feel good and not worry about whether or not you grow and not try to help you grow, if that's the kind of church you want, then this is probably not the church for you. And that was the wrong thing to say. No, actually, it was the right thing to say. But, of course, they're repeating it as pastors said, this church isn't for me. So, take that as it is. But, folks, three things, I think three, I held it four fingers. Three things I believe the church should be doing as God gives it to us in the Bible. Outreach with the gospel. Outreach with the gospel. Once we get in here, it's discipleship. It's helping each other grow. And there's a third thing. prayer this is past week I was reading some other folks writings on on the matter and all the all the verses in the New Testament where where Christ refers to this as a place of prayer not a place of ministries and programs and food and fellowship those are all good but those three things need to be present here at Grace Baptist Church and as we look at trying to do what God wants us to do. You know, not everyone's gonna be happy, are they? Like this individual I had a conversation with just this past week. And sometimes we get criticized, don't we? And today I want to just take some time and help us to maybe understand how we can handle criticism. Let's look at Psalm chapter 7, verse 1. It says, O Lord my God, in Thee do I put my trust. Save me from all them that persecute me and deliver me. Have you ever felt like praying something like that? God, would you just save me from everyone else? The criticism, as David uses the word persecution, Now, just a little background to this passage. We know who he's talking about. In 2 Samuel 16, he says, when he cursed, he's talking to David, "'Come out, come out, thou bloody man, thou man of Belial! The Lord hath returned upon thee all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose stead thou hast reigned, and the Lord hath delivered the kingdom of the hand of Absalom thy son. And behold, thou art taken in mischief, because thou art a bloody man.'" And then there's also, that was Cush, but there's also Sheba, of Benjamin. We read about him in 2 Samuel 20 where it says, And there happened to be there a man of Belial, whose name was Sheba the son of Bichri, a Benjamite. And he blew a trumpet and said, We have no part in David, neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse. Every man to his tent, O Israel. So every man of Israel went up from after David and followed Sheba, the son of Bichri. But the men of Judah clave unto their king from Jordan, even unto Jerusalem." David has got some serious problems with criticism and people not liking what he's doing. Now, granted, we're not talking about his sin with Bashi, but we're not talking about his sin by doing the census and numbering the people. We're not talking about sin that he did. When a leader sins, a leader sins. And just like when a non-leader sins, God has forgiveness and restoration. But we're talking about when David's doing what's right, and he's receiving criticism for it, and people aren't liking it, and they're saying things about him that aren't true. Or maybe they're not saying untrue things, but they're working around in the background. They're working behind the scenes. We see what happened here with Sheba. He created a division. only he did it very vocally very very up front and open he stood up with a trumpet said okay everyone listen to me we have no part with this guy you follow me we don't like the direction he's going let's go my direction we have to be very careful about that folks that we don't become a Sheba by the way God does not give a home multiple leaders God does not give a business multiple leaders. He does not give those of you that are teachers. He doesn't give a classroom multiple leaders. And not everyone in your classroom likes what you as a teacher do, do they? But the program is we follow the leader. And we have to be very careful that we're not a Sheba. Maybe we're not gonna stand in front of people and blow a trumpet and say, okay, we don't like the direction he's going, let's follow me. Maybe we just may do it with minus the trumpet and say, you know, yeah, I just don't think, yeah, but what do you think? Yeah, but this is wrong. We're doing the same thing. We have to be careful about that. What should we be doing? Praying and letting God lead, guide, and direct. See, when we begin politicking, we have just kicked God out of the church. Whether it's something that I want or something that you want. When we begin politicking to try to garner people to see it our way, we're leaving out the sovereignty and the power of God. People could say, well, you just need to trust God and that God's going to lead in people's hearts. Yes. One way or another, we can just let God lead in people's hearts. And we seek God's heart in a matter through prayer. All of us, folks, all of us go through times when we are slandered by friends, slandered by enemies, even slandered by family. I bet there's a few of us in here. That's not strange. That's not out of the ordinary. Jesus had said that the world would hate us if it hated Him. He said that men would say all kinds of evil against you. If we live as we should to glorify God, we have to ask, how can we glorify God when these kinds of things are happening? David gives us in this Psalm 7 four practices of godly men when they're criticized and slandered. Let's look at the first one. Number one, confirm the object of trust. Confirm the object of trust. David begins by addressing God personally in verse 1 and reminding God and himself that it is in God that he trusts. Generally, our first response, our human, our fleshly response is to respond to the person. Maybe even retaliate to the person. Give them a verbal tongue lashing, set them straight, whatever the case is. David's first thing he did is he's just, okay, I have to remind myself, who am I trusting in? David looks for his security, his protection, his evaluation of him, his defense. It's in God. It doesn't matter what David's saying. It doesn't matter what people think of me. God evaluates me. That's the evaluation that I'm concerned about. In Psalm chapter 25, Verses 1 through 3, it says, unto thee, David writes, unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. O my God, I trust in thee. Let me not be ashamed. Let not mine enemies triumph over me. Psalm 34, 8, O taste and see that the Lord is good, and blessed is the man that trusteth in him. Isaiah 26, 3, Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee." And again in 2 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 12, "...for the witch cause I also suffer these things. Nevertheless, I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day." There's the trust. And the first thing that we have to do is remind ourselves who our trust is in. Do we know? Do we trust the God of Heaven? Do we really trust Him? Do we trust the Creator of our lives? The Sustainer? The King of Kings? We can trust our jobs, we can trust a friendship, we can trust public opinion of us, we can trust our money, we can trust our stuff, we can trust our health, but can we trust God? Do we trust Him? You see, if we just focused on that here, really, what does it matter if people criticize us? We serve the King of Kings. Not only do I serve Him, He made me and He calls me son. That's good! A.W. Tozer said this, He said, years ago, a military officer and his wife were aboard a ship that was caught in a raging ocean storm. Seeing the frantic look in her eyes, the man tried unsuccessfully to remove her fears. Suddenly, she grasped his sleeve and cried, how can you be so calm? He stepped back a few feet and drew his sword and pointed it right at her heart. He said, are you afraid of this? And without hesitation she answered, of course not. And he asked her, why not? She said, because it's in your hand and you love me too much to hurt me. To this he replied, I know the one who holds the winds and the waters in the hollow of his hand and he will surely care for us. When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark. You don't throw away the ticket and jump off. You sit still and you trust the engineer. Trust in yourself, Tozer writes, and you are doomed to disappointment. Trust in your friends, they will die and leave you. Trust in money, and you may have it taken from you. Trust in reputation, and some slanderous tongue may blast it. But trust in God, and you are never to be confounded in time or eternity. Folks, in our minds, in our hearts, In our marriages, in our families, in our finances, we have to remember where our trust should be. We have to remember that people will let us down. God never will. Sometimes it's a daily task. to refocus our thought patterns, our soul gaze, our meditation upon Jesus and his sufficiency to care for us. Everything in this world fights against that kind of thinking. Our culture constantly tells us that our trust should be in government, our trust should be in this coming election, Just getting the right guy in there and everything's going to be okay our trust should be in our money our self-esteem our Medications our lawyers our police our churches our pastors our trust folks should be in God nothing else our value and our self-worth they're not tied to anyone's opinion of us and but they're all tied to God's opinion of us. So we have to reconfirm the object of our trust. Now, second thing, practice repentance. Let's look at verses 3 through 5 here of Psalm 7. Oh Lord, my God, if I have done this, if there be iniquity in my hands, If I have rewarded evil unto him that was at peace with me, yea, I have delivered him that without cause is my enemy. Then let the enemy persecute my soul and take it. Yea, let him tread down my life upon the earth and lay my honor in the dust. The second thing here is to practice repentance. Now, David had self-evaluated himself. There's another psalm. We've read it before where he says search me Oh God see if there be any wicked way in me David Evaluated himself. He looked to see if he had been in the wrong with these people that were criticizing him second first thing Confirm the object of our trust when we get criticized second thing now we have to evaluate Have I done something to wrong these people? I? And that's what David did. He found himself to be innocent. David is asking God now to judge him, not the other people. God, judge me. If I've committed any wrong in this situation, God, judge me now. He was humble enough to practice self-evaluation or examination. Now, what is our usual response when we get criticized? Respond, right? Retaliate! Set them straight! Fix it! No, first, confirm the object of my trust. I'm trusting in God. And then, David begins to examine himself. Okay, have I done something here? That takes some humility, doesn't it? That definitely takes some humility. He's not crying out to God, this is unfair! It's not right! I wish they'd just leave me alone! But he's saying, God, whatever judgment you mete out against them, whatever judgment you give them, I'll take it too, if there's any blame on my part. Someone once said, before a righteous judge, the innocent have no fear. David was calling on God to judge him if he was wrong. That's a good lesson for us, folks. God determines who's righteous. I just said four words, but we need to understand that God determines who's righteous. And what I don't like about that is it leaves me out of the picture. I would much rather prefer to judge my own righteousness. Wouldn't you like to do that for yourself? But no, it's God. God doesn't need our help to determine our righteousness, because we'll get it wrong anyway. And we should be willing to endure the chastisement of God if we are in error. So in dealing with criticism, we need to search ourselves. We need to see if there's any error on our part in the matter. Don't be quick to get defensive. But consider the matter. We may find areas which we don't do as well as we thought we did. And when that happens, we should be willing and quick to repent. Where David's at right now. Can you pray the prayer that David prayed just now to God? Asking God, okay God, they're wrong what they did. And I am so righteous, judge me, whatever you're going to do to them, do it to me. Because I know I'm innocent. Could you pray that prayer? Knowing that God just may answer it. Third thing we need to do is then rest in His character. Confirm the object of our trust repent and rest in his character look with me at verse 10 My defense is of God which saveth the upright in heart God judgeth the righteous God is angry with the wicked every day if he turned not he will wet his sword if he hath bent his bow and and made it ready. He hath also prepared for him the instruments of death. He ordaineth his arrows against the persecutors. Behold, he travaileth with iniquity, and hath conceived mischief, and brought forth falsehood. He made a pit, and digged it, and is fallen into the ditch which he made. His mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate." David here is talking about God and the guilty. and the character of God that will bring justice, will bring judgment. Notice, David doesn't even mention his problems here in this psalm. Not once. Now, when we're in that position David's in, and we manage to find a listening ear, a shoulder to cry on, You know what they said about me? You know? Whether it's our spouse, or a friend, or whatever. And we tell them all about our problems, and what this person said, and what they said, and what we think they meant, and what we think that person meant, and the tone of their voice, and we judge, judge, judge, judge, judge, and recount all of the specifics of what they did to us. David didn't do that. He doesn't rehash all the details to God. He did this. He didn't say, God, he did this and she did that and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and on and on like we do sometimes. Instead, he just focused on God's character. Our flesh crawls when we think about doing that. And when it does, it's because we have not yet done the first thing. confirmed the object of our trust. It's all about God. He waits on the Lord. He doesn't try to get back. He doesn't stew over it. He just trusts in the Lord. And he waits for the Lord in God's timing to make things right. Philippians 4 6 & 7 it says be careful for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God and the peace of God which passes all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus trust in God in his character in his sovereignty and Let's look at Philippians 4.8, the very next verse. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things. Sometimes we get ourselves into such a mess up here, don't we? And all we're doing is just rehashing, rehashing, rehashing something someone said or something someone did and then we start adding stuff to it and it starts growing and growing, it's getting bigger, it's getting more and more out of control and There's things in there that we don't know to be true, but we know what they meant, right? God says, think on these things, and what's the result? It's actually in the verse ahead of it, verse 7. The peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep our hearts and our minds. We can know the peace that surpasses our understanding because of our decision to just rest in God. Choose to let God have his free reign This isn't talking to someone for this is this is not not talking to someone for months at a time Maybe that's you Well, you don't understand pastor he did or she said Wait a minute your approach is Your method of handling this. So far, it's been months since you've spoken to that person. And you may be even in the same church every Sunday. Your approach, your method of handling this. How's that work so far? Has it gotten any better? Is there a God-glorifying, God-honoring resolution, restoration that's taking place? Has your approach brought anything or anyone closer to unity? We would all do well, folks, to cease from struggling and just let God have His free reign to do as He pleases in our lives. So we should relax, not substitute the wrath of man or the cold shoulder of man, for that of God. Now look with me at verse 17. He said, I will praise the Lord according to His righteousness and will sing praise to the name of the Lord Most High. Here's what David did. Number four, worship God. Now that's something we all feel like doing when we've been criticized, isn't it? But those first three things, we do that, our heart's going to be in a whole different stead. Worship God. There was no mopey, gloomy face here on David. There was no whining. There was no complaining. There was no telling anyone else about how unfair it was. One of the best ways to renew our mind is worship. That means just focusing on God. Worship has the unique ability to transport your soul into heavenly realms again. And so David closes his prayer with worship. And that worship is focused on God, not anyone else. Look at verse 17 again. It says, I will praise the Lord according to his, what? Righteousness. And we'll sing praise to the name of the Lord Most High. David focuses on the character of God. God is righteous. The opposite of righteous is unrighteous, right? The criticism, that's unrighteous. Instead of focusing on that, David's going to focus on the opposite characteristic of God, and it lifts his soul. When people have attacked you, Worship God. When people have said untrue things about you, worship God. When people have misunderstood you, just worship God. I have this verse taped on the monitor of my desk, Psalm 56, 9. It says, when I cry unto thee, then shall my enemies turn back. This I know. And here's all that I have printed out on my little postie note. This I know, for God is with me. Really, what else could matter? What bad thing could happen during the day to counteract that truth? God is with me. And this is hanging on the back of my door in my office. Stick with your work. Do not flinch. because the lion roars. Do not stop to stone the devil's dogs. Do not fool away your time chasing the devil's rabbits. Do your work. Let liars lie. Let sectarians quarrel. Let critics malign. Let enemies accuse, let the devil do his worst, but see to it nothing hinders you from fulfilling with joy the work God has given you. He's not commanded you to be admired or esteemed. He's never bidden you to defend your character. He's not set you at work to contradict falsehood about yourself, which Satan's or God's servants may start to peddle, or to track down every rumor that threatens your reputation. If you do these things, you'll do nothing else. You will be at work for yourself and not for the Lord. Keep at your work. Let your aim be as steady as a star. You may be assaulted, wronged, insulted, slandered, wounded, rejected, misunderstood, or assigned impure motives. You may be abused by foes, forsaken by friends, and despised and rejected by men. But see to it with steadfast determination, with unfaltering zeal, that you pursue the great purpose of your life and object of your being until at last you can say, I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do." In that picture there, there's nothing but God. Everything else has been removed. When you get bad news, you get talked about, slandered, accused, don't forget, get into the presence of Jesus. When we do Philippians 4.8, slanderous remarks will fade into the sea of God's awesomeness as we think on those things. Trust Him. Practice repentance. Rest in His character. and then worship Him. Let's bow our heads, please. Father in heaven, Lord, as we close your word at this time, Lord, I know your word does not return void. God, I pray you would use it in our hearts. As we as a church move forward, hopefully, doing what we're supposed to be doing for you, our lives matching up, you tell us that these types of things are going to happen. And God, we ask that each of us would resolve in our hearts to handle the criticisms whether it's in our homes or workplaces, wherever, we would handle them in a godly way. God, perhaps we need to just reaffirm our trust in you. Perhaps there's someone here this morning that is trusting themselves to get to heaven. And you shatter that myth in your word as well. That it's through Christ that we have access to the Father. Perhaps we're trusting in some other area of our life, Lord, instead of trusting completely in You. God, I pray that folks would make a commitment this morning to just trust You. Perhaps even to trust You as their Savior this morning, to know for sure that they'll spend an eternity in Heaven. God, perhaps there's some repentance that needs to be made here this morning you know people's hearts and God I pray your spirit would be working in our hearts even now and that we would choose victory this morning victory and restoration in Jesus name amen let's stand with our heads bowed in our eyes closed please as the