00:00:00.000 - 00:00:53.000

[ Music ] [drumming] Lord it's in you, oh Lord I'm trusting. Lord it's in you, oh Lord I'm trusting.

00:00:53.000 - 00:01:07.280

Lord, it's in you. Lord, I'm trusting. I'm trusting in you, Lord, to see me through. Oh, Lord, it's in you.

00:01:07.280 - 00:01:20.160

Oh, Lord, I'm trusting. Lord, it's in you. Oh, Lord, I'm trusting. Lord, it's in you.

00:01:20.160 - 00:01:36.660

♪ Lord, I'm trusting, I'm trusting in you, Lord, to see me through ♪ ♪ Oh, the road may be rough ♪ ♪ Oh, Lord, I'm trusting ♪ ♪ The road may be rough ♪

00:01:36.660 - 00:01:52.780

♪ Oh, Lord, I'm trusting ♪ ♪ Oh, the road may be rough ♪ ♪ Lord, I'm trusting, I'm trusting in you, Lord ♪ ♪ To see me through ♪

00:01:52.780 - 00:02:04.540

♪ 'Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus ♪ ♪ I'm trusting in you, Lord ♪ ♪ I'm trusting in you ♪ ♪ Oh ♪

00:02:04.540 - 00:02:17.040

♪ Just to take you at your word ♪ ♪ I'm trusting in you, Lord ♪ ♪ I'm trusting in you ♪ ♪ Oh Lord it's in you ♪

00:02:17.040 - 00:02:29.660

♪ Oh Lord I'm trusting ♪ ♪ Lord it's in you ♪ ♪ Oh Lord I'm trusting ♪ ♪ Lord it's in you ♪

00:02:29.660 - 00:02:43.380

♪ Lord I'm trusting ♪ ♪ I'm trusting in you Lord ♪ ♪ To see me through ♪ ♪ How I prove him o'er and o'er ♪

00:02:43.380 - 00:02:57.380

♪ I'm trusting in you, Lord ♪ ♪ I'm trusting in you ♪ ♪ Oh, for grace to trust him more ♪ ♪ I'm trusting in you, Lord ♪

00:02:57.380 - 00:03:08.140

♪ I'm trusting in you ♪ ♪ Oh, the road may be rough ♪ ♪ Oh, Lord, I'm trusting ♪ ♪ The road may be rough ♪

00:03:08.140 - 00:03:22.440

♪ Oh, Lord, I'm trusting ♪ ♪ The road may be rough ♪ ♪ Lord, I'm trusting ♪ ♪ I'm trusting in you, Lord, to see me through ♪

00:03:22.440 - 00:03:37.200

♪ I'm trusting in you, Lord, I'm trusting in you ♪ ♪ Come on, tell 'em ♪ ♪ I'm trusting in you, Lord, I'm trusting in you ♪ ♪ I'm trusting in you Lord ♪

00:03:37.200 - 00:03:48.580

♪ I'm trusting in you Lord ♪ ♪ I'm trusting in you Lord ♪ ♪ I'm trusting in you ♪ ♪ I'm trusting in you Lord ♪

00:03:48.580 - 00:04:00.720

♪ I'm trusting in you Lord ♪ ♪ I'm trusting in you Lord ♪ ♪ I'm trusting in you Lord ♪ ♪ And I will trust in the Lord ♪

00:04:01.620 - 00:04:28.060

I will trust in the Lord. And I will trust in the Lord until I die. I trust in the Lord. I will trust in the Lord.

00:04:28.060 - 00:04:46.060

I said I'm trusting in the Lord. ♪ I'm waiting in you, Lord, to see me through ♪ ♪ And I will trust in the Lord ♪ ♪ And I will trust in the Lord ♪

00:04:46.060 - 00:05:04.060

♪ Oh, every day I will trust in the Lord ♪ ♪ Until I turn my eyes ♪ ♪ In the Lord ♪ ♪ Oh, I will trust ♪

00:05:04.060 - 00:05:12.060

♪ In the Lord ♪ ♪ Oh, I'm trusting every day ♪ ♪ I'm trusting in you, Lord ♪ ♪ To see me ♪

00:05:12.060 - 00:05:20.060

♪ One more time, I will trust ♪ ♪ In the Lord ♪ ♪ Oh, every day ♪ ♪ I will trust ♪

00:05:20.060 - 00:05:33.060

♪ In the Lord ♪ ♪ Yes, I will, I will ♪ ♪ Trust in the Lord ♪ ♪ Until I die ♪

00:05:33.060 - 00:05:51.060

♪ Trust in the Lord ♪ ♪ I will trust in the Lord ♪ ♪ I'm trusting, I'm trusting ♪ ♪ I'm trusting in you, Lord, to see me through ♪

00:05:51.060 - 00:06:12.060

♪ I'm trusting in you, Lord, to see me through ♪ I'm trusting in you, Lord, to see me through. Amen. Let's all say "Amen."

00:06:12.060 - 00:06:46.460

Amen. The passage of Scripture, around which the message is woven, It's found in Psalm 73, verse 18, which reads in the King James Version, "Surely thou didst

00:06:46.460 - 00:07:10.460

set them in slippery places. Surely thou did set them in slippery places. So the subject of the message is set in slippery places.

00:07:10.460 - 00:08:02.460

The Psalter, the hymn book of the Bible, is composed of five books. Our text comes from the first psalm of the third book. The psalm begins with the affirmation that God is good. We often say that in greeting one another, "God is good," and the other follows the statement all the time.

00:08:02.460 - 00:08:28.460

The pharmacist has been victimized by frustration. He sees the wicked prosper. He sees them do wrong. They're not sorry about it.

00:08:28.460 - 00:08:45.460

They do not repent. Instead, they are proud. They strut about like peacocks. Because of what happened to the psalmist,

00:08:45.460 - 00:09:24.460

the psalmist says in an earlier part of his song, "I almost slipped." He had a firm grip on life, early in, but he almost slipped because of the unjust actions that he saw prevailing in the world.

00:09:24.460 - 00:10:02.460

He saw the wicked prosper. And the wonderful thing about the gospel is that the grace of God is revealed in God's goodness to all. He causes the rain to fall upon the just as well as the unjust. The psalmist was sort of confused about that.

00:10:02.460 - 00:10:35.060

He saw people who were wicked getting along so well. Sometimes it seems that the good people get sick and stay sick a long time and the wicked live and don't seem to have any sick. In fact, they seem to prosper. And that's what confused the psalmist. and the psalmist looked at that situation prevailing around him and he said

00:10:35.060 - 00:10:55.580

I almost lived now he was probably schooled in the tradition of the Torah and that tradition teaches that blessed are those

00:10:55.580 - 00:11:19.640

who refuse evil advice and won't follow sinners or join in the sneering of God. Instead, the law of the Lord makes them happy. And they think about it day and night.

00:11:19.640 - 00:11:47.340

But the righteous are like trees growing beside a stream, trees that produce fruit in season and always have leaves. The people that are righteous succeed in what they do. This is the Torah tradition.

00:11:47.340 - 00:12:08.340

But this is not true of those who are evil because they're like straw blown about in the wind sinners will not have an excuse in the day of judgment and won't have a place with the people of God

00:12:08.340 - 00:12:33.340

the Lord protects everyone who follows him but the wicked follow a road that leads to ruin The good prosper, the bad are punished. That's what we like to think happens all the time.

00:12:33.340 - 00:12:55.820

But we look at life and it doesn't always work out like that. We see someone who's just a rascal and we wonder how he's getting along seemingly so well. That's what frustrates the psalmist. confused over that and frustrated he's unhappy because he sees the wicked

00:12:55.820 - 00:13:35.060

unmolested go in the wrong. So he wonders about the justice of God. Where is God in this? He sees the righteous suffering, the poor oppressed, and he sees the arrogance of the wrongdoer. His soul cries out for an answer and he is not disappointed. There comes forth a ringing affirmation expressed in the opening words of this

00:13:35.060 - 00:14:17.380

Psalm God is truly good. Words God is good to Israel no matter how frustrating the psalmist may be he comes through this fog with this ringing affirmation God is good he said I almost slipped and fell. The longer we live the greater the danger of slipping. The psalmist had a good grip on life but when he observed

00:14:17.380 - 00:14:42.380

what was happening around him, he says, "I almost slipped." He almost laid his religion down. What he saw happening around him made him jealous. And that often happens.

00:14:42.380 - 00:15:17.820

People say, "How can so-and-so do this when I know that they aren't even trying to do right? I'm struggling the best I can and all this is happening to me. So when he saw how proud and evil people were prospering, he says he almost snitched. These evil people that he's talking about seem to wear their pride like a necklace.

00:15:17.820 - 00:15:46.700

They commit sin more often than they dress themselves. The psalmist raises the question, "Does it really pay to be good and keep one's thoughts pure and refused to do wrong doesn't really pay. He suffers from sickness.

00:15:46.700 - 00:16:17.460

He says it became hard for him to go to church. But he said it was through going to church and participating in the worship there that He understood what will happen to the enemies of the Lord. We recently received a taste of winter weather,

00:16:17.460 - 00:16:36.020

just a taste, which is rather rare here in Austin. The rare thing when we have snow, hail, and icy roads. and icy roads. In fact, when we have all this,

00:16:36.020 - 00:16:58.540

they seem to work together to paralyze the city. So, much work is done in preparation for safe travel when we have such wintery weather. And workers go out and place sand on hilly places

00:16:58.540 - 00:17:37.660

on hilly places, on bridges, and try to make it safe for one to travel from one point to another. But when we do all we can do, there are occasions when we slip. It doesn't always have to be wintry weather for us to slip, lose our grip, lose our balance, and we stumble and fall. Ever so often we have some requests being made regarding even

00:17:37.660 - 00:17:57.020

just coming in and out of the sanctuary. That we must seek to safeguard what happens to God, what happens to the worship. So the psalmist here comes to the conclusion that God will cause his

00:17:57.020 - 00:18:15.260

enemies, this is something we must listen to rather carefully, that God will cause his enemies to slip and it's also possible for the friends of God

00:18:15.260 - 00:18:24.260

to slip. The enemies slip and the friends of God slip and stumble and fall.

00:18:24.260 - 00:18:40.260

The enemies of God often stumble and fall as the psalmist points out and they never get up again. And he says God will set the evil doer

00:18:42.260 - 00:19:02.220

in evil places or in slippery places. In other words, the person who constantly is in opposition to God, who is an enemy of the eternal God, will set that person in slippery places

00:19:02.220 - 00:19:16.300

so that you can never get a grip because you're surrounded and you're set, you're set by God in slippery places. The psalmist comes to that conclusion.

00:19:16.300 - 00:19:30.260

And he also will set his friends, those who favor him in slippery places. That's contradictory it seems, but that's the way God works.

00:19:30.260 - 00:20:10.500

He is talking about here in this particular passage, the enemies of authentic faith, the persons who are in pursuit of material things, those who pursue that which pertains primarily to the flesh and exclude the claims of the Spirit, God will set them in slippery places.

00:20:10.500 - 00:20:32.500

You can't stand, you can't survive, you're always slipping. Some people wonder why they're always getting into this difficulty or that difficulty. Because they have been set in slippery places. They think that when they anchor themselves to a particular job

00:20:32.500 - 00:20:48.080

that this is going to be their security. And they have no time for God. I remember a man who became so interested in material things that he was working several jobs.

00:20:48.080 - 00:21:05.900

And I talked to him and tried to get him to take time off. God didn't make you to work seven days a week. But he never did and he died early. in pursuit of things.

00:21:05.900 - 00:21:20.900

So we can have a home, a car, and all that. But God wants us to have all these things, but He doesn't want us to deny being the person He made us to be in order to have these things.

00:21:20.900 - 00:21:54.700

So the one who becomes anchored, who becomes in hot pursuit of material things, things that person is set in slippery places and those who slip are prone to slide and we have a tendency to go from slipping to sliding

00:21:56.180 - 00:22:29.180

Johnathan Edwards, that New England puppeteer of yesteryears, preached a famous sermon during the pastures of the church of which he was known. And that sermon was based on the text, their feet shall slide in due time. You don't have to worry about the person who ignores the church, who ignores God.

00:22:29.180 - 00:22:59.180

No, their feet shall slide in due time. Slipping and sliding happen to us often by surprise. We have a tendency to coast or drift, slip, slide. The psalmist says that the Lord sets those who put their confidence in the material,

00:22:59.180 - 00:23:33.180

He sets them in slippery places, He sets the unrighteous also, I said, in slippery places, and their plight in both cases is determined, their plight is determined by the eternal God is able to establish the righteous in other words, that very place where the unrighteous slip

00:23:33.180 - 00:24:00.260

God can take and place the righteous person there and they can be secure. Because it's not in really what you do ultimately, it's in the one with whom you are rightly related. So to be rightly related to God is to be rightly related to the one who is over all.

00:24:00.260 - 00:24:45.740

You don't have to worry about where you walk if you walk with the Lord. You don't have to worry about that. You don't have to worry about the ground underneath your feet because He is the ground of our being when we walk with Him. so it all depends on our relationship to God he is alpha and Omega he is the first and the last it's our relationship to him that determines our destiny

00:24:45.740 - 00:25:23.400

where are our feet? nobody but you Lord you sing nobody but you nobody but you Lord nobody but you whom do I have in heaven but you Lord there's nothing on earth I desire other than you my flesh and my heart may fail but Lord you are the strength of my life and you are my potion and we sing vow my everlasting

00:25:23.400 - 00:25:59.440

portion more than freeing a life to me all along this pilgrim journey. Savior, let me walk with you wherever I go. So you set people, you set them. In other words, God is able to firmly establish us, set us in slippery places. And what the experience is depends upon our relationship to Him.

00:25:59.440 - 00:26:44.440

Well, it was about 20 years ago that we had a very cold day on a Sunday. Not often we have snow and winter weather on Sunday with ice and all of that. My wife and I started early to be here for the 8 o'clock service. But as we came over one of the hills, the car began to slide.

00:26:44.440 - 00:27:20.440

And it slid into the curb, and when we got out and looked at it, it was a flat. And we hitchhiked a ride to the church and got here just about time for the service. But the man who brought us brought us right out there on the hill and let us out. And when we got out, my wife had on boots and she began to slip.

00:27:20.440 - 00:27:38.520

And she fell. I was trying to hold the car and push the car back from rolling over her because I was afraid it was going to roll over her. And as I was trying to push the car and drive in the direction,

00:27:38.520 - 00:27:56.000

I fell. And I thought that that was it. I thought the car was going to roll over both of us. But it seemed to stop till we were able to get away from the car and come on in to worship.

00:27:56.000 - 00:28:17.000

It's a mystery. You start slipping, you just depend upon some power other than yourself, a grip or something. It's a mystery. But that's what God does. He sets us. He sets us in slippery places.

00:28:17.000 - 00:28:28.900

and another psalmist picks it up when he said, "The Lord is my light and my salvation." I don't know how I'm gonna make it, but he shines a light where I am,

00:28:28.900 - 00:28:45.420

and I can order my steps according to his will. Lord, he said, is the strength of my life when all of the forces of opposition come against me to destroy me and to hinder me.

00:28:45.420 - 00:29:02.980

The Lord is there and the Lord will take me up there. He will set me up upon a rock. So no matter what's happening, you're on a rock. You're secure.

00:29:02.980 - 00:29:16.820

You don't have to worry about the security forces of our nation because the Lord is my strength and he will care for his own. That's good news.

00:29:16.820 - 00:29:40.820

That's good news in a world of bad news. So as we come to the close of the service, we extend the invitation to accept this God as your guide and as the governor of your life.

00:29:40.820 - 00:30:15.500

off from this place, to go from this place with the determination to say that no matter what happens I'm going to keep my grip that I have on God. And when you have a grip on Him, winds may blow and you may find yourself on slippery smokes but if you have a grip on God He'll bring you through. As we come now

00:30:15.500 - 00:30:46.360

let us sing close to thee thou my everlasting hope. I want to be close to you because I know that if I'm close to you that you will bring me through that's the faith by which the church lives. So we come now to extend the invitation to accept this God as your God, to unite with the family of God here at Ebenezer by letter, by

00:30:46.360 - 00:31:26.840

Christian experience, at a calendar for baptism. We invite you to come. [ Music ] Thou art an everlasting ocean, more than breath or life to me. ♪ All along I've filled them journey ♪

00:31:26.840 - 00:32:02.120

♪ Savior, let me walk with thee ♪ ♪ Not for ease, a worldly pleasure ♪ ♪ God who made life where it shall be ♪ ♪ And in Him I toil and suffer ♪

00:32:02.120 - 00:32:28.940

♪ Only let me walk with Thee ♪ ♪ Close to thee ♪ ♪ Close to thee ♪ ♪ Close to thee ♪

00:32:28.940 - 00:32:46.880

♪ Close to thee ♪ ♪ While on our home ♪ ♪ I feel them turning ♪ ♪ Save your head ♪

00:32:46.880 - 00:33:05.380

♪ In hope we'll be ♪ ♪ We behoove ♪ ♪ A pair of shadows ♪ ♪ That in your heart ♪

00:33:05.380 - 00:33:34.340

♪ Lights will both steal ♪ ♪ In the name of life eternal ♪ ♪ May I enter the Lord with thee ♪ ♪ Close to thee ♪

00:33:34.340 - 00:33:53.180

♪ Close to thee ♪ ♪ Close to thee ♪ ♪ Close to thee ♪ ♪ For a day ♪

00:33:53.180 - 00:34:09.720

♪ Of my eternal ♪ ♪ May I live ♪ ♪ And more ♪ ♪ With thee ♪

00:34:09.720 - 00:34:29.720

[MUSIC] [BLANK_AUDIO]