KNU International English Church
Josh Broward
March 8, 2009
Imagine a story with me. Somehow your friends convince you to take a once-in-a-lifetime trip. After three planes, an old pick up, and a sputtering boat, you are in the heart of the Amazon Jungle. 1
Your guide leads your group into the thick forest. For the first two days, you walk along in awe as your guide points out the various kinds of plant and animal life. On the third day, you are walking at the end of the line. You see a Bird of Paradise, a rare and beautiful bird. When you take out your camera to take a picture, your backpack comes unzipped, and everything spills out onto the muddy trail.
By the time you get everything cleaned off and back into your backpack, the Bird of Paradise has floated off into Paradise, and you are alone on your jungle trail. You can't see the rest of your group anywhere.
You run ahead to try to catch up, maybe a little too fast. Suddenly the trail just disappears. There is a hint of a trail to your right, so you try that, but no luck. You tumble 20 meters down the side of a hill. Now you’re standing in the middle of the jungle with no trail and no people in sight, and you’re not even sure where you left the trail. You scream, “HELP!!” But the only thing that answers is a little monkey in a nearby tree, and you're pretty sure he's just laughing.
You search desperately in a hundred different directions trying to regain the trail, but eventually you must face the bitter truth. You are lost. Hopelessly lost. It's just you and the wild animals and the jungle.
Max Lucado says that life is a jungle. “Not a jungle of trees and [animals]. … Our jungles are [made] of … failing health, broken hearts, and empty wallets. Our forests are framed with hospital walls and divorce courts.”2 The animals hungry for our life-blood are our bill collectors, our teachers, our bosses, and the forest around us is our hurried pace of life. Our jungle is full of roaring temptations: workaholism, gossip, entertainment-escapism, debt, over-shopping, fear, selfishness, worthlessness, manipulating others for our own gain, judgmentalism, hypocrisy, and apathy.
David understood that life can be a jungle. David's jungle was made of human enemies who attacked him, thoughts that ate at his soul, and even his own sins. Listen to David's prayer about life in the jungle. Let's read Psalm 25.
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If we are honest, life is always a jungle. Sometimes the jungle is a little more tame – like we've cleared away some trees and built a house. The jungle is still there, but we feel like we're in control. Other times, we are completely lost in the deep, dark jungle, disoriented, and wondering where to go or what to do next.
In the jungle, what we really need is guidance. We need to know where to go and how to go. And so, we pray. We pray: “God teach me where to go. Teach me how to live.”
This is what David prays. He is surrounded by enemies. His “problems go from bad to worse,” and so he prays for guidance. David is so desperate for guidance that he uses almost every possible verb:
“Show me the right path” (4).
“Point out the road for me to follow” (4).
“Lead me by your truth” (5).
“Teach me” (5).
“He leads the humble in doing right” (9).
“He teaches them his way” (9).
“The LORD leads with unfailing love and faithfulness” (10).
“He will show them the path they should choose” (12).
“He teaches them his covenant” (14).
“Save me” (17).
“Protect me” (20).
“Rescue my life” (20).
“Ransom us all” (21).
God has guided me in many different ways throughout my life.
The summer before I entered high school, God overwhelmed me with a strong feeling that he was calling me to preach. It wasn't a voice, but it was an overwhelming, very clear feeling that God wanted me to be a preacher.
When I was trying to decide where to go to university, I made a chart of the advantages and disadvantages of my top two choices. Then, I prayed and prayed about that list. Slowly, one set of advantages seemed to become more important.
When I was a university student, I was famous for sleeping in class. But one day, when I wasn't sleeping, I heard God talk to me. My professor was talking about how God said to Abraham, “Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you” (Genesis 12:1). A Voice in my head said, “I want you to do that, too.” The Voice was so strong that I turned around and looked behind me. I was sitting on the back row, so all I saw was the wall about two centimeters from my nose. I thought, “I'm either talking to myself or God is calling me to missions.” I started praying, “God if that was really you, please confirm it in my spirit.” Over the next days and weeks, I felt very clear that God wants me to be a missionary.
When I was finishing seminary, I started searching for a multicultural church to pastor, so that I could get experience to be a “real” missionary. We were thinking about big cities in North America, but one day I said, “Sarah what about that little English church at KNU. I wonder if they need a pastor.” Not long after Gail Patch replied to my email, I had a growing feeling this was the place – that we were supposed to come to Korea and pastor this church.
We signed the contracts, and we started making plans to come to Korea. Then, one of my mentors invited me to come on staff at her church. This was a job I had been trying to get for years, but I had already promised to come here. “Integrity and honesty” protected me (21). That church kind of fell apart, and this church is far better in terms of my calling to missions.
People often ask us how long we will stay here at this church. The longer we stay here, the longer I feel called to stay here. Slowly, a deep sense of calling to this place and to this church is building in me. I can't predict the future, but it seems to us that God is guiding us to stay here for a long, long time.
But most often, God guides me (and most of us) in much simpler, less dramatic ways. Most guidance is not about where to go but about how to go. Most of God's guidance is not about the big decisions of life: where to live, where to work, who to marry. Most of God's guidance is about basic character: how to live, how to work, how to love, how to be a friend.
Most of the time, God guides us by teaching us how to be like him. David asked God to teach him God's way of life, and David's prayer also shows us what God's way is: faithfulness, compassion, unfailing love, forgiveness, mercy, goodness, friendship, integrity, and honesty.
“The Lord is my shepherd. … He guides me along right paths, bringing honor to his name … Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me” (Psalm 23:1-4). God's rod and staff often come to me and to most of us in the form of simple callings and reminders. “Love more.” “Forgive her.” “Ask that man to forgive you.” “Be his friend.” “Be faithful and reliable.” “Humble yourself and serve others.” “Don't push for your way.”
This prayer of David in Psalm 25 is actually an acrostic. Each verse starts with a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It is like writing a poem with the lines starting with A, B, C, or ㄱ, ㄴ, ㄷ. This is a teaching method to help people remember the prayer.
So, today, I'm going to do one of those cheesy preacher things. I'm going to give you an acrostic for prayers of guidance. God will answer your prayers for guidance if you are HOT. (No, I don't mean you have to be sexy for God to answer you.) God will answer your prayers for guidance if you are Humble, Open, and Trusting … H-O-T.
Humble. God “leads the humble in doing right, teaching them his way” (9). Why does God only teach the humble? Well, because, when we're proud, we can't learn. Before we can get help, we have to admit that we need it. Before God can show us the way, we have to admit that we're lost. The path to righteousness starts with repentance.
Open. Sometimes we only pray part of Psalm 25. Sometimes we pray, “Save me! Protect me! Rescue me! … But do it my way. I don't really want to change. I just want you to solve my problems.” If we really want God to guide us, we've got to be completely open to letting him change us.
That takes a lot of T – Trust. David starts with total trust, “O Lord, I give my life to you. I trust in you, my God!” (1)
A man was on an African safari deep in the jungle. The guide was walking ahead of him, hacking away the leaves and weeds to make a path in the jungle. The traveler was hot and tired of walking. Full of frustration and mosquito bites, he shouted out: “Where are we? Do you know where you are taking me? Where is the path, anyway?!” The guide stopped and looked back and the man and replied, “I am the path.”3
God is our Guide. He is our path. When we pray for guidance, we are asking God to show us how to live his life in our life. This takes total trust. We trust that love, faithfulness, integrity, and compassion are the best way to live in the jungle of life. We trust this path because we trust God our Guide.
If you want God to answer your prayers for guidance, you've got to get H.O.T.: Humble, Open, and Trusting. May God make us all H.O.T.
1 The references to and images of the jungle are heavily dependant upon: Max Lucado, Experiencing the Heart of Jesus, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2003), 82-6.
2 Ibid, 83.
3 Lucado, 85.
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