Lectionary Year A
April 7, 2002

Psalm 16
Contemporary Address

Step VI - Contemporary Address

A. Goals

(JFC) A sermon from this lection might proclaim how God guides life's pathways.

B. Describing the Audience

(JFC) This sermon will be preached at a very mature congregation's primary worship service the Sunday after Easter. The members and friends of this church are accustomed to outstanding preaching and excellent music, strong youth and children's ministries, much community ecumenicity and sound relationships throughout this county seat.

C. Address (JFC) A sermon, entitled for this working draft, "Life's Paths From Easter, 2002"

INTRODUCTION
Now that Easter is over, where do we go from here? How do we travel the next legs of our lives' journeys? We look first, as usual, to God.

I. GOD LEADS LIFE'S PATHS
A. Psalm 16 pictures God as leading lives' paths. The Psalmist asks God to protect him, to guard him, to preserve him and to be available to him. God grants us all those needs.

B. This Psalmist believes God never leaves him in the pits nor in the place the Old Testament called Sheol. God wants salvation too much for all for to let that happen.

II. WE ENJOY FULLNESS OF JOY THROUGH LIFE'S PATHS
A. A friend hired a hot air balloon to take his wife on their wedding anniversary celebration last spring. The image of Biblical joys' fulfilling is buoyancy personified.

B. To find a buoyant life, the Psalmist vows to live with God who he believes lives with him. We can live more proactively with God who lives with us, also.

III.WE FIND PLEASANTRIES FOREVERMORE THROUGH LIFE'S PATHS
A. The good people in our land, the police officers, firefighters and port authorities in New York City have been our nation's heroes since last fall. We know them and others in their vocations as modern-day heroes, like the Psalmist recognized in verse 3.

B. God's right hand, a strange place for pleasantries to reside. However, God's hands are always open pouring out blessings upon blessings upon us.

CONCLUSION
God leads the paths of our lives from blessings to blessings and joys to joys and delights to delights. So, we, too, like the Psalmist of old, can enjoy and rejoice that God leads us through paths full of goodness and benefits and safety and securities. That is our heritage from on high.

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