I’m speaking to you today from Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, where our team is actually just about ready to head back out on the road for the Cola Clash. Praise the Lord that despite COVID and all of the other craziness going on in our world, God has still given us the ability to do five Cola Clashes this summer. We’ll be in northern Minnesota.

We’ll be in western Wisconsin, southeast Wisconsin. We will be in Pennsylvania and Dayton, Ohio, that area. here in the region, check us out on colaclash.org.

Come by and take a look. We’d love to see you. But on the podcast here today, we’ve got a very special guest, the youth director of the Falls Baptist Church Youth Group.

David Raines is no stranger to some of you who’ve come to the Thee Generation Youth Summit. And David has a burden on his heart for you. I know when Dave speaks, God speaks.

So if you could please listen closely to his words and let his challenge challenge you. Psalm 1830 is our passage, and the Word of God here says, As for God, His way is perfect. The word of the Lord is tried.

He is a buckler to all those that trust in Him. Do you ever think back on dreams and wishes you had from the past, and realize how imperfect those dreams would have been if they’d become reality? Think back to, let’s say, ages 4 to 10.

What ideas did you have that you wanted? Maybe it was an occupation, maybe a place to live in, maybe a friend that you had. Take a minute, think about some of those ideas and things that you remember from your past that you wished you could have had.

I remember thinking what I wanted to be when I grew up. And, of course, being a boy, my brothers and I were big into trucks and we really enjoyed those kinds of things. And every week we saw the same big truck stop by our house.

We’d run to the window to watch or run outside to help the men who were working on the big truck. If you haven’t figured it out yet, what truck I’m talking about, that’s the garbage truck. Best of all, we loved watching the men ride the back of the truck and see them jump on and off the truck as it rolled down the road.

What a vision for my life to be a garbage man. Wow, I’m glad that dream did not come to pass. But I thought that would be perfect as a kid to ride on the back of that truck, drive down the road, picking up trash.

And I’m thankful for garbage men, but now I realize that was not the glamorous, perfect job that I thought it was. And as Psalm 18 and verse 30 tells us, As for God, His way is perfect, and the word of the Lord is tried. He is a buckler to all those that trust in Him.

God’s way is perfect, and he has a perfect plan for my life and for your life. So I’ve taken this passage, this verse, and simply put it into three different categories here that I want us to talk about here. And the first one is pretty simple.

As for God, his way is perfect. God’s way is perfect. Let’s first of all notice the way of God, which is perfect.

God’s way is plain and simple and clear. Can you name some of God’s ways for every individual? Let me just help you with that here for a moment.

Hebrews 10.25 says not to forsake the assembling of yourselves together, as the manner of some is but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the day approaching. Do you know the whole New Testament is written to guide and instruct a local church? At least the majority of it is.

So I think being in church, according to God’s word, is a very important necessity that God makes very clear and plain and simple for us. This is God’s way. Were you in church last week?

Do you feel like, I just don’t want to go to church this evening? Is that your attitude? Then that’s not necessarily following God’s way, which is perfect.

He makes it clear and simple. Be a part of church. Ephesians chapter 6 verses 1 and 2 says, Children, obey your parents and the Lord for this is right.

Honor your father and your mother. That makes it pretty simple, doesn’t it? God says to honor your father and mother.

How have you done this last week? Did you honor your father and mother? When do you think you can stop honoring your parents?

Well, actually, the Bible never gives you an end to stop honoring your parents. I often make choices today considering if it would honor my father, who today is with the Lord in heaven. But even though he’s not alive here on earth, there’s still many times when I make choices that would honor my father, or I stop and think at least, is this choice going to honor my father and mother?

James chapter 4 and verse 8 says, Draw an eye to God, and he will draw an eye to you. How are you doing at seeking the Lord? Seeking after God.

You know, God’s way is perfect, and seeking after him is something that God wants us to do, to draw an eye to him, and he promises to draw an eye to us. 1 Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 20 says that you’ve been bought with a price, the blood of Jesus Christ. You’re not your own.

So what are you doing with your life? God makes it clear that we’ve been bought, we’ve been redeemed, and now our life needs to be given back to serve God. So we see a couple simple instructions from God’s word about the way, and there’s certainly much more as you discover truth from God’s word.

But we also notice that the way God has for us is perfect. Do you believe that? It’s a little bit different thinking about the way being perfect because many times we go away and it’s not always perfect.

And this is different when looking at God’s way being perfect because if you replace the name of God with any other name, you can’t say that way is perfect. In fact, the Bible tells us there is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. Now, whose way are you following?

Are you listening to a lost person who’s unsaved for the way and for guidance? Are you listening to ungodly friends, friends who have gone their own way, neglected mom and dad and instruction and authorities in their life? Whose way are you following?

Whose instructions are you listening to? God’s way does not always seem perfect, but it always is. And do you know why that’s true?

Because God knows everything. He knows exactly what you’re going to be doing five years from now. Do you know?

Did you know God created you for his glory? And he knows how to use you for his glory. And one simple truth that I’ve been learning is that God’s glory is our greatest good.

God’s way doesn’t always seem perfect. But if it’s for his glory, it’s going to bring the greatest good in my life. And that has been proven by multitudes of people over and over in the past.

Submit to God’s perfect way now. God has a way and the way is perfect. And we need to learn to submit to it.

But you know, in the middle of that verse I find the word of the Lord is tried. God’s word is tried and proven. Let’s ask David, when you killed Goliath, did God help you?

Did you find God’s strength to deliver? Let’s look at Abraham and ask him, hey Abraham, is God’s way perfect? Remember that promise that God gave you of Isaac?

Remember in those 25 years as you were waiting for that promise to come to pass? Didn’t you make some mistakes? Yes, Abraham made some mistakes.

He tried fulfilling God’s promise his own way. And then God did it the right way. And if you were to ask Abraham and talk to him about that situation, he would explain, God’s way is perfect.

I tried to help God out. Hey God, how about this? How about this?

Coming up with my own way doesn’t ever work. Let’s ask Achan. Does your sin find you out?

Or maybe we could ask Israel. Can you go and worship other gods? If you read the end of 2 Chronicles, every Israelite gets killed or goes into captivity for hundreds of years and it seems its home and entire city get burned.

God doesn’t tolerate worship and attention to anyone other than him. Then let’s also ask Ananias and Sapphira, does God’s word come to pass? Is it true?

Can you lie against God? Ask Jonah, hey Jonah, when you run from God, does it work? Can you get away with going your own way?

And of course we know the end of that story, very familiar to us. You can’t go against God, you can’t run against God and succeed. You’ve got to follow his way in order to succeed.

Daniel, is it safe to trust God when you are placed in a palace full of evil or in a den full of lions? We could ask Daniel, does God answer prayer? How about Paul?

If you were able to talk to him, could you ask, does God give boldness and power and love and a sound mind in the midst of his will for your life? And of course, looking at the Bible, we find lots of examples of Paul trusting God and seeing boldness, the power of God and love and a sound mind in the midst of great difficulties. Peter, can God empower me to preach?

As you look at Peter’s life, certainly God empowered Peter to preach, and Peter didn’t feel like he could do it. And I think God can use you. If God is calling you, if that’s his will, if that’s his plan for your life, whatever it may be, God can overcome and help you to accomplish that.

This should put the fear of God in our lives for sure. This is a great promise, but also a cause to wake up. As for God, his way is perfect.

The word of the Lord is tried, and he is a buckler to all those that trust in him. God’s defense is sure to the trusting man. God’s defense is sure because he is sure.

He is everlasting. He is eternal. He is the rock.

We can trust him. Trust God. Who did the men above that we just discussed run to for help when they were in trouble?

When they would run to God, they’d find the answer. If they ran to their own way, their own direction, man’s way, they’d find up worse off. Did man ever come through with a better idea than God’s?

You’re going to have to learn to not try to do it yourself and to humble yourself. And these are difficult things sometimes for us to come across a path and humble and recognize God’s path and plan is better. Every time these men ran to God, he was sure to be found, and he brought deliverance or peace.

As we conclude the thoughts here on this verse, I want us to think, if God’s way is perfect, then you need to get to know God, because his way is perfect. If God’s word is proven, then believe him. If God’s defense is sure, then rest in him.

Amen. Praise the Lord for that, Dave.

it’s such a blessing you know young people what he’s talking about is simply this you need to surrender your life to Jesus whatever he wants you to do be willing to do it be willing to change whatever he wants you to change and you know as you surrender to him and depend upon him you know what he’ll do he’ll enable you to turn the world upside down with the gospel of Jesus Christ