Making a Differencewith Pastor Phil Erickson

Jun 20th, 2012 Are You Teachable?

Today’s Passage – Psalms 21 – 25

Second Milers also read – 1 Peter 4 – 2 Peter 2; Psalms 96 – 100; Proverbs 20

Scripture Memory for June – Psalm 139

Listen to this morning’s Scripture song – Psalm 55:17

Read a previous post from this passage – “Mountaintop or Valley?”

“Shew me thy ways, O LORD; teach me thy paths. Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day.” – (Psalm 25:4-5)

It’s really a very simple question, isn’t it? Are you teachable? Can God shew you  and lead you as He did David, and countless other men and women in the Bible? I would like to pull some thoughts out of this Psalm that I believe will help us identify some of the problems that most of us have in learning from God. In order for God to teach us, there are some attributes that must be present in our lives:

1  We must first be saved

God will instruct a lost man regarding salvation, but in order for a man to really get to know God, he must first have trusted Christ as his Saviour.

“What man is he that feareth the LORD? him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose. … The secret of the LORD is with them that fear him; and he will shew them his covenant.” – (Psalm 25:12, 14)

2  We must be submissive

By this, I mean that we must be humble. Most people cannot learn, because their pride causes them to think that they already have all of the answers. God cannot teach the man that is full of himself. None of us knows all that God wants to teach us. We must keep our hearts open to new truths constantly, from the mouth of God and from the instruction of people that God places in our lives. Someone once said, “Every man is my teacher”. That is a true statement. We can learn something from everybody.

“The meek will he guide in judgment: and the meek will he teach his way.” – (Psalm 25:9)

As you read through this Psalm, you will notice that David recognizes that he is nothing without God. Notice how often he asks for forgiveness. Keep in mind that David is seen as a king in the eyes of men, but he knows that the only true king is God.

3  We must be starving for God

God will not instruct those that do not desire to be instructed. As you read through this Psalm, and others penned by David, you can easily see his hunger for God. He wanted all that God would give him.

“O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;” – (Psalm 63:1)

“Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.” – (Matthew 5:6)

One of the characteristics of true spirituality is that a person will remain teachable throughout his life. We never arrive. In fact, the closer we get to God, the more we realize that we are still very far away; and the more we become like God, the more we recognize that we have fallen short in so many ways. Stay teachable: always growing, learning, and drawing closer to Him.