Jesus Savior Pilot Me

Introduction

Although I cannot see the way I tempest. I know that Jesus is my friend and will I send your sea and see the way that all my start and stories have me.

Please be seated.

Well, as much as I enjoyed the meeting in Lyndale, it was nice to pull into my driveway at twelve thirty Saturday morning, twelve thirty AM. And to be at home, and then to be back with all of you. I love being here. Have I said that lately? I hope you can tolerate me for a few more years at least. I really enjoy this group of God’s people and being with you. And we want to welcome our visitors. We have a good number of you present. We thank you for coming our way. And you’d be our friend if you ask any question about what we do here and what we believe in. We’d love to answer that, and we hope you’ll find the atmosphere here encouraging and biblically based in all that we do.

It’s all about the word of God. The flesh profits nothing but Jesus’ words, our spirit, and they are life. John chapter 6 and verse 63. It’s good to see all of you today. Shelley was six, and Brett was three. And we were going to have a few days of vacation. Yes, you know, my children, we did have a few vacations growing up. We were going to go down to Garner State Park and the Concan area and go tubing down the Frio River, as we did a few times with Sherry’s family. And so we were headed down I-10 and then Highway 90, out past San Antonio, and we come to the little town of Savannah, where it was time to eat lunch, and so the choice was Dairy Queen.

I don’t know if there’s anything else there now, but that’s about all there was at the time. And so we picked up our Dairy Queen lunch, and we were in a hurry to get out to our cabin and get out to the refreshing Frio River. And so we take the turn north, coming out of Savannah from Highway 90. We thought we had escaped it leaving Houston. But we had not. Road construction.

Here we are out in the middle of nowhere, and we’re driving on this two-lane road, leaving the town of Sabinal, and there he was. The guy waving the red flag and the orange rectangular signs that we were so accustomed to in Houston, road construction. And so he walks up to our window, and we can’t see any other motorists at the time, but there he is waving us down, and we come up, and he comes up to my window and says, Well, there’s some road construction going on up ahead, and you’re going to have to wait until the pilot truck comes, and then he will lead you to the other side of the construction area. Well, I’m not known for patience. And so I’m more than a little disturbed about finally being out here, headed toward our vacation destination, so excited about it.

And here I am sitting, one lone car, finally a few other cars behind us, sitting there waiting for the pilot truck. Here I am munching down on my delicious Dairy Queen lunch. And finally, minutes pass, and we see some dust kicking up ahead.

So we’re getting excited, we’re getting ready to go. And in the back of the truck was the sign, pilot car, follow me. And I thought that was odd right at the very beginning. It’s a truck. But I’ve soon discovered that this is a very common sign, and they all say pilot car, not pilot truck. So, but I was gonna follow the truck just like the flagman had told me to do. Pilot truck car, I’m gonna follow. Well, not long after our journey began, we began to understand why we needed the pilot truck car. Because as we came up over the rise, there were these huge boulders in the road. In fact, the road was not very discernible at all. And there were these huge cranes, this huge machinery that was working fixing the road from Sabinal to Concan and Garner State Park.

And at one point, as I said, the road was not discernible. We actually veered off behind the pilot truck car all the way up. There was no road. We were just on the dirt. And going around this huge construction area. There were no lines visible in the road of dust. A cloud of fog was ascending all around us. Finally, the pilot truck car guided us safely to the other side and beyond the construction area, and we were safe and able to go on to our vacation at Garner State Park. Now, once we finally got past that area, we were thankful for the pilot car truck that had led us through the dangerous construction area so that we could be on our way. I want to ask this morning.

1. Pilot Car: Who Needs One?

Pilot car. Who needs one? You know, when I first got stopped by the flag man, I didn’t think that such a thing would really be necessary. I mean, after all, I’m an experienced driver from the Houston area. Why would I need, I’ve never followed a pilot car before, but it soon became apparent that there were dangers lying ahead that I didn’t know anything about. And without the pilot truck car, it would have been absolute chaos. Can you imagine what the oncoming traffic, not that there was a lot, but if the oncoming traffic was trying to come this direction and I was trying to go that direction, remember that one place where there were not any lines in the road and we got off even the edge of the road to go around?

Who’s gonna go first? Let’s play chicken. And trying to get all of it. That could have been a traffic accident out there in the middle of nowhere. Or if I didn’t take just the right course around the construction area, I could have been crushed by that dinosaur sized machinery. That crane could have hit my car, killed us. The wisdom of having a pilot truck seemed unclear to us.

But the construction people knew something that we didn’t. And that leads me to the application. Sometimes, what we think we want is not even close to what we really need. And if I were to ask for a show of hands this morning, has that ever been the case in our lives? Most of us would say, yes, that we think we want something, that this is the desired object, this is the way we should go. But then we came to realize later when better judgment returned, that thing was not even close to what we really needed. And I would make these observations. Immorality and worldliness will leave us empty. And said in contrast to a love for this world and the immoral trinkets that it provides, holiness, ordering and arranging our hearts and lives after God’s will, holiness and longings for God fill us.

Love not the world. John said.

But he who does the will of God abides forever. Isaiah 26 and verse 9. May we develop the attitude of Isaiah when he says, indeed, while following the way of thy judgments, O Lord, we have waited for thee eagerly. Thy name, even thy memory is the desire of our souls. At night my soul longs for thee. Indeed, my spirit within me seeks thee diligently. You see, the problem is immorality in pursuing a course of this world will prepare us for hell. Whereas holiness and longings for God will prepare us for heaven.

He is eternally experienced. He lived here perfectly without sin. And he has a perspective that we lack. Since he is the creator of all that is. You know, you would think the one who made everything and gave us life and breath would know best how to live. And that’s why he modeled perfection for us. And that’s why he instructs us in his word. And we need to remind ourselves when we want to do what really is not in our best interest. That we need to listen to him because he knows what we don’t.

Because of his eternal experience, because he lived here perfectly, and he has a perspective that we lack. What happens when we reject his course and we don’t follow him? We are really being silly and infantile and foolish. Be careful how you walk, Paul said, in Ephesians chapter 5. Make the most of your time or redeem the time because the days are evil, Ephesians 5 and verse 16. And then he says this, after he has admonished us to walk, as the King James Version says, and where is Terry when I need her. The King James Version says, circumspect. Be careful how you walk, redeem the time. Don’t do that. He says in verse 17, do not be foolish. So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

To choose a course and life and to map it out for ourselves without God and without Jesus directing our course is foolish. It’s silly. It’s infantile. It’s empty as we saw before. I want you to look quickly with me to Psalm 2. Psalm 2. That’s sort of a unique psalm in the Psalms. Why are the nations in an uproar and the people devising a vain thing? Good question. It’s what nations do. Generally, folks reject God and plot their own course. Why are they devising vain or empty things? The kings of the earth take their stand. And the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed. And while the initial reference would be to the godless nations surrounding Israel as they stand against the Lord’s anointed, who is the king of Israel, the fact is so often that rulers and governments take their stand against God’s will.

And we’ve seen it unfortunately in our nation. Oh, but they’re so powerful, these nations. Well, he who sits in the heavens laughs. The Lord scoffs at them. Then he will speak to them in his anger and terrify them in his fury. But as for me, he says, I have installed my king upon Zion, my holy mountain. He is a greater force to be reckoned with than any of them, the king of kings and the Lord of Lords, the Messiah who would come. But I did not read verse 3. Here’s what they say as they take their stand in counsel together. Let us tear their fetters apart and cast away their cords from us. This is often a plight for younger people, though it is not exclusively a younger people problem.

But a lot of times young people will look at the restrictions of holiness, the need to exercise self-control, which is a fruit of the Spirit, Galatians 5, verses 22 and 23, and say, you know, I’m missing out on so much. There is so much fun out there to be had if I would give myself to the things that people of the world do. Various acts of lascivious behavior or intoxicating behavior and partying of that kind, and they say, why is God against that? My time here, I gotta, I gotta live it up. While there’s time, I’m young. Of course, childhood and the prime of life are fleeting. And you need to remember that God will bring you into judgment for all these things. Paul says in Ecclesiastes chapter 11.

And a lot of times, God, they look at God’s ways as fetters, as chains. I’m all locked up. I’m all tied up by these restrictions. If I could just cast God’s fetters off, then things would be better. But here’s what you need to realize. He has a perspective that we lack. Jesus sees the injury we are doing to ourselves when we often do not. I like what the wise writer in Proverbs chapter 1 says about the wicked when he says they ambush their own lives. Well, that’s sort of foolish, isn’t it? Let’s set up an ambush to destroy ourselves. But that’s exactly what so many do. As they reject Jesus’ course for their lives, they set up an ambush against themselves and bring themselves injury that they just don’t see.

Because God has a vision up ahead that we lack. Jesus sees through all of the veneer that we often do not. The devil’s veneer, as he makes things look shiny and appealing and better than God’s ways, he sees things Jesus does for what they really are. I’ll tell you, there have been a lot of times when I have struggled to see things for what they really are and what they really do to bring harm in our lives. And ultimately, as we reject Jesus’ counsel, we are falling for Satan’s tricks and his veneer. I don’t use an overabundance of illustrations when I preach, and one of the reasons why is because it’s hard to find illustrations that match exactly. Well, Jesus used some illustrations that didn’t match exactly sometimes to make certain points.

2. The Construction Site

And so illustrations have their place and have their value. But I’ll tell you of all the illustrations that I’ve ever used, this particular one is pretty close. I want to talk to you secondly this morning about the construction site. You see, as we follow Jesus, as we follow the pilot car, as we let him pilot our course, we’ve got to go through a construction area. There are dangers in the construction area if we’re not careful to follow him. And we’ve got to pay attention to our course as we go through that area. The construction site is our lives. We as Christians, as those who are loyal to Christ, are about the business of building. We are God’s building. 1 Corinthians chapter 3, verses 9 and 10.

We are, according to Ephesians chapter 2, a habitation of God in the Spirit. Growing into a holy temple, he says. We’re building something. This verse indicates that in Romans chapter 12 and verse 2, when we are admonished not to be conformed to this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. That is an ongoing process in each believer’s life, coming more and more into the image of Christ, trying to learn what is pleasing to him, Ephesians 5 and verse 10, and walking as children of light, those who pursue goodness and righteousness and truth. We were predestined to be conformed to the image of his son. That’s one of the reasons why we are constantly meeting, not just because we are to follow the example of first century believers as they met every first day of the week.

But because we’re in the process of building something in the image of Christ, we are becoming more like him, and everyone who has this hope fixed on him, purifies himself just as he is pure. And like James chapter 1 says, we’re to be doers of the word and not merely hearers, he says we’re to remove all that remains of wickedness and to receive the word implanted, which is able to save our souls. And ultimately, we are protected by faith for a salvation ready to be revealed at the last time. We continue a course of faith, and by that trust and confidence and devotion to Him, we will ultimately be delivered in the end. Though at the present we must encounter various trials, Peter warrants. But the trial of your faith, this is the construction side again, the trial of your faith being much more precious than gold that perishes may be found to result in praise and honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

And though we do not see Him now but believe in Him, we rejoice with joy, inexpressible, and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of our faith the salvation of our souls. This then, what we’re doing now, what we’ve done since we were baptized into Christ, and let me just pause and say, I appreciate, fellas, you fix the light in here. But I notice something. It’s a different color. Now I don’t know how that happened, but this is a little paler than, so look at it this way. When I baptize someone on this side, we’re being buried with Christ and dying to sin, but the brighter light we rise to walk in newness of life. That works for me. Light’s just fine. Better illustrates the conversion process.

And letting the Spirit have influence over who we are and how we think and what we do and what we say. But sometimes we get tired and we stop building like we should, and that’s called a rut. You ever find yourself in a rut spiritually, you become stagnant, quit developing in the likeness of Christ. I think some folks think I was baptized into Christ. That’s pretty much the end of the story. I just attend the services and that’s the end of it. Oh no, we’ve got a long way to go to let this mind be in us that was also in Christ Jesus. Philippians chapter 2 and verse 5, as I’ve said many times to you, to do nothing from selfishness and empty conceit, but to regard others as more important than ourselves.

3. Allow Jesus to Pilot Your Course

And that’s one of the great things about Christianity that regardless of what has been true of our past, that every day is a day of new beginnings in Him. We can decide, you know, I’ve not been doing this well, I’ve been failing in this particular area, and we can go to God again. We’re protected by faith for a salvation ready to be revealed at the last time. We can go to God and say, I need your help, I need your strength, I’m gonna do better in this particular area. So you need to allow Jesus to pilot your course. Well, it’s one thing to intellectually know that you ought to do that, but it’s another thing to actually let Him be the pilot of your life. Trust in the Lord with all your heart.

Oh, you must engage the heart. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him. And he will direct your steps. There is a way that seems right unto a man, but the ends thereof are the ways of death. Proverbs 14 and verse 12. And the way of man is not in himself. We’re not going to get through the construction side of our lives without Jesus leading the way. The way of man is not in himself. It is not in man that walks to direct his own steps. And so before we were baptized into Christ, we made resolves. We sing that song by way of invitation. I am resolved no longer. We made a resolve.

I’m not going to live for myself and live for the world anymore because that’s an empty course. I choose Jesus. I choose the better. Things that are higher and things that are nobler. These have allured my sight. But whamma. We’ve seen those resolves at times in our lives go up in smoke. I write these things to you. John says that you sin not. But if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And I’ll tell you, we’ve all been there. Those of us who have been Christians for any length of time, we’ve stumbled again. Oh, we shouldn’t have. There’s no excuse. But there was no excuse the first time. And we find ourselves stumbling, and perhaps in a pattern of stumbling, some go so far as to fall away.

And we read about that in the New Testament. But there are struggles. Look, that’s the nature of construction. There are obstacles, there are difficulties. There are things that stand in our paths that we allow in our paths. So what do you do? When the resolves that you’ve made in the past, maybe even last week. You know you heard a good sermon. I don’t know who preached. You preached Sunday night, Mike. And Dave Sunday morning. You heard some good things that Dave and Mike. Well, that was a breath of fresh air. Somebody else besides Tony. You heard something they preach and you made a resolve. Have you ever made a resolve as a result of something you heard preached? And then a couple days later, you’re going now, what was that?

What did I say I was going to do better? I’ve already forgotten it. Or you’ve made the resolve and you’ve made it several times. Just didn’t follow through on your resolve. I’ll tell you what some folks do. When they see those resolves failing, they say, What’s the use? Give up. You know, we’re not done with the construction site yet. We’re still living. So I’m going to tell you what you do. You keep making resolves. You pick yourself up and you start all over again. It wasn’t finished when we were baptized and we rose to walk in newness of life. We’re going to have to continue to make resolves, and that’s what James is saying in that passage in James chapter 1 when he says, remove all the remains of wickedness.

Now that doesn’t justify not really trying. Oh, messed up again. Oh well, there’s forgiveness. I can go on. Not really repenting. Really expressing godly sorrow and being determined, I’m going to change my course. No, it’s not, oh well, don’t sweat it, grace will cover it. No, I’m not saying that. But I am saying sometimes our resolves, we are determined to set it straight and to go right, and we do well for a little while and then stumble again. And I think we can get frustrated and throw up our hands and say, What’s the use? Make new resolves. Let me show you how to do that. Allow Jesus to pilot your course. You tell him that you want him to lead the way. This will jumpstart you spiritually.

Acknowledge your failures.

4. Follow Me

What was his message when he preached all over Palestine? He told his disciples when he chose them. What did he say? Follow me. Follow me. I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me. Hey, Matthew, you need to follow me. Peter, Andrews, James, and John, you need to follow me. Listen to me, listen to my voice. These are the two characteristic words of Jesus’ ministry. When you follow the wrong leader. Well, I don’t know how this happened. That’s a pilot car, that’s the wrong one. This is what happens.

When you decide, I don’t need the Lord. I know what’s best for me. You end up worse than that. Or when you listen to anyone who is encouraging you to set aside Jesus as the pilot of your course. Every plant not planted by my heavenly Father shall be rooted up. The blind follow the blind. Leave them alone, Jesus says, because they both fall into the ditch or the river or the lake. What happens when you say, well, I know what the Bible says, but you know, I’m just not going to do it. Not going to do it. The result of such a choice is always the same. It is absolute chaos. It’s dodging rocks and boulders and dinosaur-sized machinery without the sufficient direction you need to get it done.

Conclusion

Jesus Savior, pilot me. And if you’ll put your trust in him, he will pilot you. Have you chosen him as the pilot of your course? Have you been baptized as we talked about this morning? Having your sins washed away, rising to walk in newness of life. You have that opportunity now to respond or any time of the night or day, whenever you need to decide, I need to follow Jesus. We’re here to help you. And if you’re subject to his invitation and want to respond today, come now as we stand and say.

Come today come today. Come to Jesus, come today. Come to Jesus, I say of the Savior is not he will share with you when your commage is done. Come to come today, come to come today, come to Jesus, come, Jesus, come today, come to come today, come to come today, come to Jesus, come today.