Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] I love that line. The fountain of grace is flowing my way. Whoever wrote that's a smart person.
[00:00:10] Our dear heavenly Father, by your favor we have been set on a pathway.
[00:00:24] And it is our firm faith and belief that this pathway ends at the gates of heaven where we will be received into your eternal kingdom.
[00:00:39] And so we want to walk down this pathway in a way that prepares us to abide with you forever.
[00:00:49] And I pray that your spirit would teach our hearts incline our way. In Jesus name, amen.
[00:00:58] For the next several weeks, I'm going to be speaking to you from psalm 119.
[00:01:06] It's the longest chapter in the Bible.
[00:01:10] It has 176 verses, but it's also one of the most uniquely structured poems in the Bible.
[00:01:22] If you were to look at it in your Bible. Every paragraph has a hebrew letter at the top of the paragraph and then every stanza. Every paragraph has eight statements. And each one of those statements begins with the letter of the Alphabet. So the first paragraph you'll see at the top of it, it says Aleph. And all of the words, the eight lines in that paragraph will all begin with a in Hebrew. I'm sorry it doesn't work out in English, but in Hebrew it's very beautiful.
[00:02:08] So it is a very stylized poem.
[00:02:13] I believe it was written by King David. And the theme of the whole chapter is, what influence does the word of God have on your life? That's the theme of the book, so we're going to study it together.
[00:02:37] I'm always trying to nurture your appreciation for poetry because so much of the Bible is written in poetry.
[00:02:51] The famous american poet Robert Frost wrote a poem that became an american classic.
[00:03:02] And this is what he wrote.
[00:03:04] Two roads diverged in a yellow wood and sorry I could not travel both and be one traveler long I stood and I looked down one as far as I could to where it bent in the undergrowth then I took the other as just as fair and having perhaps the better claim because it was grassy and wanted wear though as for that, the passing there had worn them really about the same and both that morning equally lay in leaves no step had trodden black oh, I kept the first for another day yet knowing how way leads on to way I doubted if I should ever come back I will be telling this with a sigh somewhere ages and ages hence two roads diverged in a wood and I I took the one less traveled by and that has made all the difference I'm sure you know this is more than about a guy who went for a hike one day and picked one path and not another.
[00:04:31] This is a poetic image of life.
[00:04:37] As we look at life, there are pathways we choose, and these pathways matter.
[00:04:48] You can't get to the right place on the wrong pathway.
[00:04:54] And David's poem is a poem about traveling down a pathway, too.
[00:05:03] And he starts his poem with a qualifier that if you want to end up in a blessed place, you have to travel down a blessed pathway.
[00:05:24] Listen to what he says. Psalm 119, verse one.
[00:05:29] Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord.
[00:05:39] Blessed are those whose way is blameless. It matters what trail you walk on in life.
[00:05:48] I might translate this in a more modern way. Blessed are the ones walking on the pathway without blame.
[00:05:59] Have you ever gone hiking, and you can tell the trails that people take care of and the trails that people don't take care of?
[00:06:09] It doesn't take long to see this trail has been taken care of, or to say, this place is covered with garbage. Everybody was on this trail, felt free to throw whatever they wanted down. Well, David's trying to conjure that image up as you move down the trail of life. How are you walking on that trail?
[00:06:35] Are you walking on that trail in a healthy and undefiled way, or are you a mess? And are you making a mess everywhere you go?
[00:06:47] Life is either a blessed and praiseworthy trail, or it is unblessed and unpraiseworthy trail.
[00:06:57] And primarily, the thing that defines the trail is what's going on in us.
[00:07:06] Blessed is the person who has an undefiled mind that leads to happiness.
[00:07:15] Blessed is the person who has an undefiled heart that leads to happiness.
[00:07:22] Blessed is the person who has an undefiled will that leads to happiness.
[00:07:27] All right, everyone in this room has. Their head has been in a bad place at one time or another.
[00:07:35] Okay. How happy were you when you were living with a wrecked mind?
[00:07:41] That trail doesn't lead to blessedness and happiness.
[00:07:46] Everyone in this room has been in an emotional wreck from time to time. You just couldn't get your emotional life together. You were a wreck.
[00:07:55] That trail does not lead to blessedness and happiness.
[00:08:01] Every one of us have struggled with our will. Our will wanted something that we knew God didn't want for us, or our will did not want what we knew God wanted for us. That pathway does not lead to blessedness and happiness. That's what David is telling us.
[00:08:24] How can I live this undefiled life? I mean, I'm not capable of doing it. I have to have help.
[00:08:32] And so, as christians, we believe I don't move down the trail of life by myself. I walk, guided and helped by the divine.
[00:08:46] I believe that if I'm going to live an undefiled life, I can only do it through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.
[00:08:56] Now, I want to ask you some questions in this sermon.
[00:09:00] I want you to ask yourself this morning, if you had to characterize it, what trail are you walking on in life?
[00:09:11] If you can imagine yourself on the appalachian trail, hiking across eastern America, what trail are you on?
[00:09:21] As you sit and look back at the last five years of your life, what trail have you been walking on?
[00:09:31] Where did that trail begin? How did you decide to start living life in this way, and where do you think the trail will end?
[00:09:43] Okay, it's predictable. If you've been on the wrong trail for the last five years and you stay on that trail, you're not going to get where you want to go.
[00:09:55] That's not rocket science.
[00:09:57] That's life 101. If you keep doing what you have been doing, where will that get you?
[00:10:09] What effect does your passing down the trail have on others?
[00:10:16] See, none of us are walking on this trail alone. You're not doing this alone. Every day you're walking with other people, and you're encountering other people.
[00:10:26] As you pass down this trail of life, how are you affecting the other people around you?
[00:10:35] David wants us to stop for a minute and say, if we really want to live a blessed life, if we really want happiness, we have to consider how we're living this life.
[00:10:52] His second statement is, who walk in the law of the Lord?
[00:10:58] The guide for this trail of life is the law of the Lord.
[00:11:04] How should I possibly know how to walk down this trail?
[00:11:08] Well, God has given me a guide.
[00:11:12] He's given me a travel guide. He tells me what the pathway looks like and how to stay on it.
[00:11:23] Could I ask you, what is your travel guide for life?
[00:11:27] What is the guiding principle of your life?
[00:11:30] For many Americans, it's materialism. They judge their entire life by what they have.
[00:11:38] I have this and I have that. I have this.
[00:11:43] And the guide for their life is, how do I possibly accumulate more and more? The problem is, it doesn't fit the metaphor of the trail of life. How much crap can you carry down the trail?
[00:11:58] I mean, how many backpacks can you possibly have? How big of a wagon can you possibly pull?
[00:12:05] Materialism is not a good guide for life.
[00:12:11] For other Americans, self indulgence is their guide for life. They say, it's my life, and I'll do what I want.
[00:12:20] I would sing it for you, but you wouldn't recognize it anyway.
[00:12:27] So their guide for life is, I'm going to.
[00:12:35] I'm going to please myself.
[00:12:38] I hope you know that is not the pathway to a blessed life.
[00:12:43] For other people. It's pragmatism.
[00:12:48] I just want to figure out what works. And whatever works, that's what's going to guide me.
[00:12:54] For other people, it's. I just want the path of least resistance.
[00:13:01] I'm tired of the hassle. If I can, I'm just going to choose. I'll take whatever side, little trip I have to take to avoid what I want to avoid. And I'm going to live guided by the path of least resistance.
[00:13:16] For other people. Their guide through life is approval. I have to have their approval. These people have to like me. If they don't like me, then who am I?
[00:13:26] And I want to push back against all of that and say, those are unhealthy pathways to walk on. You'll never get to a blessed and happy life walking on those pathways, but there is a guide to a better life, and it's the scripture, it's the law of the Lord.
[00:13:45] Now, I want you to hear the word law in a new and different way.
[00:13:51] For a long time in my life, I struggled with this idea of the law of the Lord and how strict it was and how unreasonable it felt to me. I'm just going to be honest with you, all right? But it's because I misunderstood what the Bible meant by the word law.
[00:14:17] And law itself is a confusing term. I did some extensive reading this week about the nature of the law.
[00:14:27] So, for example, the law of gravity is one kind of law, all right? But if you go about five minutes south of here, there's a road, and if you go on the south side of the road, the traffic is. The speed limit's 45. If you go on the north side of the road, the speed limit's 35. It's the same road.
[00:14:50] If you're going east on that road, it's 45. If you're going west on that road, it's 35.
[00:14:58] Okay? That's an altogether different kind of law than the law of gravity. Do you see? So I want to help you to think about law in a different way.
[00:15:13] The hebrew word for law is torah, and it literally means teaching, instruction, guidance.
[00:15:23] So let's put it in the verse that way, who walk by the teaching, the instruction, and the guidance of the Lord.
[00:15:34] Doesn't that sound altogether different than somebody throwing a rule of books at you? A book of rules? Either way. Take your pick.
[00:15:47] In a jewish commentary I read, the rabbi said, torah means our guide to the proper way of serving the Lord.
[00:15:59] I want to put that in there.
[00:16:03] Who walk in by the proper guide in serving the Lord.
[00:16:11] That's a pretty good concept for how to live my life.
[00:16:19] The New Testament word is namaskhe, and it literally means codes for conducting life, who walk by the code that the Lord wrote to conduct life.
[00:16:39] So you see, it turns out that the law is not a bunch of rules. It's a user's manual. If you open the car, the glove box of your car, there's a book in there. Not that I've ever read mine, but I've looked at it a couple of times, and it's a user's guide. It tells you what the gadgets do and how to do this and how to do that. It teaches you how to use the utilities in your car. It's not a rule book that says you have to use this device.
[00:17:16] The Bible is a user's guide. It says, God created a system, and things work best in this system when they follow this grand purpose or these grand ideas. When you read the Bible, you're not reading God and angry God shouting rules at you. You're reading your best friend saying, this is how life works best.
[00:17:48] Christ left us instructions for how to conduct our lives. The Holy Spirit dwells in us in our daily experiences and guides us in particular issues. The scriptures teach specific rules of conduct that produce the blessed life.
[00:18:06] All right, here are my questions for you.
[00:18:09] Have you ever yielded to the lordship of Jesus Christ, or do you still insist on doing it your way?
[00:18:19] Two, do you obey the promptings of the Holy Spirit as you go through life and the Holy Spirit prompts you? Do you obey those promptings, or do you dust them off?
[00:18:38] Three, are you turning to the scriptures daily to set the tone for your life?
[00:18:46] You see, I've never gone on really long hikes, but I've done some fun hikes, and usually we prepare before we do a hike, right?
[00:19:00] Do I have water? Do I have the right shoes on?
[00:19:05] Does this trail need long pants? Not that I ever wear short pants.
[00:19:14] Short pants.
[00:19:17] All right. Sorry. Don't get me distracted.
[00:19:20] All right.
[00:19:22] Ah, verse two.
[00:19:28] Blessed are those who keep his testimonies.
[00:19:32] On this trail of life, we improve by searching for his testimonies. Now, I've talked to you about the Septuagint before, and there's a variant here between the Septuagint and the masoretic text. The masoretic text says, keep. But the Septuagint says, search out, and I think search out fits the poetic image better. As I go down this pathway, what am I looking for? What am I searching for as I move down this trail?
[00:20:05] And the psalmist David says, as I move down this trail, I should be looking for the testimonies of the Lord.
[00:20:16] What are these testimonies? Charles Spurgeon said, the word of God is God's word is his witness or testimony to the grand and important truths which concern himself and our relationship to him. What are the testimonies here? It's what God has already said about who he is. As I travel through life, I should be looking for what has God already said about who he is?
[00:20:45] What has God said about how he relates to people in this circumstances? What has God already said he would do for me if I called upon his name? What does God ask me to turn away from, and what does that tell me about who he is? All right. As I travel through life, I shouldn't be walking with my spiritual eyes shut.
[00:21:07] I mean, why go on a hike at all if you're going to have your eyes closed the whole time?
[00:21:13] As I travel down this pathway of life, I need to have my spiritual eyes open, and I need to be looking for what God is telling me about himself in my daily life.
[00:21:25] In your daily experiences, you can experience the wonder of God in many beautiful ways. You can experience the presence and the goodness of God in many beautiful ways, but you have to be looking for it.
[00:21:41] God reveals himself every day in his scripture, by his spirit, through divine providence and in our personal experience.
[00:21:53] So I want to ask you, what are you searching for in life next week? What are you searching for? What is it that you really want to happen?
[00:22:08] What do you need to experience next week for you to say, I lived a good week.
[00:22:19] Who has God shown you that he is?
[00:22:25] If you had to sit down with someone and you had to say, this is what I've learned about God from my own experience, what would you be able to say?
[00:22:40] You see, if I'm doing this right, day by day I'm experiencing more of God and I'm coming to know him better and better because he is revealing himself to me in the flow of my life, God speaks all the time. The question is, are we listening? In our daily lives, something happens. Instead of saying, why does this always happen to me? How about saying, dear father, what is it that you want me to learn from this so that I can live a better life that's more pleasing to you? I'm looking for the witness that God gives to himself day by day, as I experience life and I move forward.
[00:23:37] And then the psalmist said, verse two, who seek him with their whole heart.
[00:23:43] As we travel, we seek out the Lord continually. It's one thing for God to take the initiative and meet me in my daily life.
[00:23:53] It's another thing for me to take the initiative and seek him in my daily life. I guarantee you God will do his part. He's going to meet you next week, and in beautiful ways. You may not recognize it if you're not looking for it, but he's gonna be there and be awesome in your life. All right. But the other side of the equation is, if I'm walking through life with him and he's making sure that he meets me on the pathway, then I need to do my part and make sure I'm looking for him and seeking him in my daily life.
[00:24:30] Would you be surprised to know that the phrase seek the Lord used 391 times in the Bible?
[00:24:43] This means. Yeah, that surprises me, doc. This means no, this means I don't even really care.
[00:24:51] All right. I was shocked.
[00:24:53] I was shocked that the phrase seek the Lord is used 391 times. I think there is a theme there, wouldn't you say? I think God is making a repetitious point. And the repetitious point is if you're not careful, you're going to start walking automatically through life. You're going to do the same thing day after day. Every week is going to be a cheap replica of the week before. Every year is going to be a little less pleasant than the year before as you wear out. And pretty soon you get to the end and you say, how did this all happen?
[00:25:38] But God wants something better. He says, I want you, as you live this life, to live consciously that there is a great God, that he loves you. He has a plan for you. He wants to get you down the pathway that ends in the city of God. And he says, here's the user's guide. If you want to live the blessed and happy life, you have to seek the Lord.
[00:26:07] The very essence of living the christian life is seeking the Lord in all that we are, in our thoughts, our choices, and in our patterns of living. That's the very essence of the christian life, living in the awareness of God.
[00:26:32] The apostle John said, if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have association with one another.
[00:26:42] All right, you say, doc, I'm just not sure how to seek the Lord. All right, I'm going to help you.
[00:26:49] Some of you should write these things down.
[00:26:55] Not always going to be here to give you all this good stuff, so you better get it down while you can.
[00:27:00] One, seeking the Lord is a matter of the soul, not of external rituals.
[00:27:10] Do you hear this?
[00:27:12] External rituals is not how God taught us to seek him.
[00:27:17] You can do all kinds of holy rituals and never encounter the reality of God.
[00:27:24] It starts with your inner self.
[00:27:28] It starts when you become aware of somebody's really in here. There's a real me in here. And this real me can sense spiritual reality in the very same way that my body can sense physical reality.
[00:27:45] And I begin in my inner self to start stretching out and feeling after God.
[00:27:54] Two, seeking the Lord is thinking about him regularly and properly.
[00:28:06] All right, here's your quiz. Last week, how many times would you say you thought about God in the flow of your week? The last time. Last week, how many times would you say you actually thought about God?
[00:28:25] Okay.
[00:28:30] I'm not talking about thinking about religion. I'm not talking about thinking about all the externals. I'm talking about thinking about God himself, who he really is.
[00:28:47] For example, I've shared this verse with you on many occasions because it's so important.
[00:28:53] The Lord, the Lord God, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and righteousness, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin.
[00:29:11] Okay, just pausing to think about God. On several occasions, I've given you bookmarkers that have the Westminster confession definition of God. And it's got. It's probably the best definition of God it's ever written, and you can break them up into single ideas. If you're gonna seek the Lord, you gotta think about who he is.
[00:29:34] You can't seek the Lord and not think about him.
[00:29:40] Three, seeking the Lord is about coming to love Christ more than everything else in the world.
[00:29:53] See, seeking the Lord is a sanctifying process whereby day by day, I come to feel that I love Christ more than anything else in the world.
[00:30:11] Okay. I'm not talking about making a good religious show. I'm talking about, honestly, in my heart, would I really let everything go out of love for Christ?
[00:30:27] Or if push came to shove, would I hedge my bet?
[00:30:33] Seeking the Lord is experiencing God in the kind of way that you say, I really do love him more than everything else.
[00:30:47] Four, seeking the Lord is about choosing him first in all things, putting Christ first in all things.
[00:30:59] That's another big challenge. If I'm going to seek the Lord, I have to do it by saying, I choose you above everything else.
[00:31:13] Look, church, it's the Lord.
[00:31:17] It's not some fancy neighbor you live by, it's not a governor, it's not a senator, it's not the president of the United States, it is the Lord God almighty.
[00:31:33] And if the Lord God almighty chooses me, you have not chosen me, but I have chosen you.
[00:31:42] If he chooses me and I'm nothing compared to who he is, seeking him means I have come to understand how awesome you are.
[00:31:56] And because I understand how awesome you are, it makes perfect sense to me to choose you first in everything.
[00:32:05] It's about looking to him. In all that you do, in every single thing you do, you have a part of your heart is looking to God. You go to work tomorrow and you say, dear God, I want your spirit to be with me today. You have to go into a hard meeting and say, dear God, I pray that your spirit would be with me in this hard meeting.
[00:32:29] You need to have an unpleasant conversation with a family member. You don't just barge into that.
[00:32:36] You whisper a prayer and say, dear God, I love my family and I want to speak to them in a kind of way that's beautiful and helpful and I'm seeking you in this church.
[00:32:48] You drink a chocolate milkshake and you say, dear God, thank you for inventing chocolate. I know you're a genius.
[00:33:00] Six seeking the Lord is your soul experiencing the presence of God. Could I please help you? Your soul is a natural receptor for God.
[00:33:15] In the very same way that your tv picks up the channel, your soul picks up God.
[00:33:23] In the same way your car can be doing 75 miles an hour and you can pick up the radio. Your soul is a receptor for God. It is created by God to be a receptor.
[00:33:37] The problem is we can't keep tuning him out and hope to experience him. We have to tune him in. And the soul experiences the living presence of God almighty when we seek him.
[00:33:56] Finally, seeking God takes time.
[00:34:00] It's not a thing to be rushed through. Could I remember, could I remind you, be still and know that I am God.
[00:34:11] You can't rush through it. God will not be rushed.
[00:34:19] Are you seeking the Lord?
[00:34:21] In this pathway of life, do you have a systematic way of seeking the Lord?
[00:34:29] And if you are seeking him, are you finding him?
[00:34:35] If you aren't finding him, what do you think the problem is?
[00:34:39] What is coming between you and the transcendent God of the universe?
[00:34:45] What is standing between you and the ineffable love of Jesus Christ?
[00:34:54] Verse three, who also do no wrong on the trail of life. We cannot work in lawless ways.
[00:35:04] And the septuagintus reads, the ones not working, the lawlessness. And we get our english word energy from this greek word for work. So I'd like to read it that way.
[00:35:18] Who also are not energized by wrong.
[00:35:25] Everyone in this room has been energized by wrong. At some time in our lives, we have felt the energy of doing the wrong thing.
[00:35:37] The essence of addiction is the energy to do the wrong thing.
[00:35:45] If the law and the testimonies of the Lord are our guide for lives, our lives, then lawlessness is living outside of the instruction of God. What is the lawlessness he's talking about here? The law of the Lord is my guide.
[00:36:03] And if I have another guide other than the law of the Lord, I'm being guided by lawlessness, a law that is separated from God.
[00:36:16] What energizes your daily life?
[00:36:20] When you go to work tomorrow, what will you be working for?
[00:36:25] What type of energy do you bring to your home and family?
[00:36:33] You don't want to be the person that your family is more comfortable when you're not there than when you are.
[00:36:40] You say, oh, that's not me. Well, church, what kind of energy do you bring to your family? Hey, hey, fathers, what kind of energy do you bring to your kids?
[00:36:54] Are you bringing them some positive energy?
[00:36:56] Are you praising them? Are you loving them? Are you encouraging them? Or dad, is it all you're not? You don't do this. You don't do that. I've told you 55 times, huh?
[00:37:10] Mom, what kind of energy do you bring to your kids?
[00:37:14] It matters as you go through life that you're sharing with them an energy that comes from the heart of God. It's beautiful. It's encouraging, it's strengthening. It feels like love in this traveling down life and being energized for good. We have to live for a purpose that's bigger than ourself.
[00:37:49] Can you hear this?
[00:37:51] Will you let me say this to you one more time?
[00:37:55] On the trail of life, if I'm living by the instruction of God, I'm loving, serving, being generous, and helping others because it makes perfect sense to me to do it.
[00:38:10] Church, if it doesn't make sense to you to love, serve, be generous and help, you are on the wrong path, and it is not going to get you where you want to be.
[00:38:26] Spurgeon said the surest way to abstain from evil is to be fully occupied in doing good.
[00:38:33] Huh? Hey, just be so busy doing good, you don't have any time to do evil.
[00:38:41] All right, the final statement.
[00:38:44] But walk in his ways. On the trail of life, we travel in the way of the Lord.
[00:38:51] I might translate this way. When the trail divides, we always choose the pathway that leads to the Lord.
[00:39:02] Sometimes the trail of life gets confusing.
[00:39:06] Sometimes I'm really, honestly not sure which way to turn.
[00:39:11] Sometimes I really don't know what is the best. What is the best pathway?
[00:39:16] So I'm going to give you some questions. This will help you when you have to decide the right pathway, be sure to get a pen out. You're going to be sorry you didn't get this down. All right, here it is, the decision that I have to make. How does each path affect my personal relationship to God?
[00:39:43] I've known people who came to church, had a real close relationship to God.
[00:39:48] Their family was doing well. They were thriving.
[00:39:52] They got an opportunity to go to another job. They moved. They went to this other job. Okay, they made more money, but they wrecked their life.
[00:40:04] They lost contact with.
[00:40:06] They stopped going to church. They lost contact with other christians who encouraged them. They drifted day by day. And one family, one of the spouses, came and said, the worst thing I ever did was leave this church. Now I'm divorced.
[00:40:22] It would have never happened if I would have rethought what I was doing.
[00:40:31] How does this affect your personal relationship to goddess church?
[00:40:36] Two, what energizes me about each pathway.
[00:40:44] See, if I have to decide this pathway or this pathway, what is it that energizes me about both pathways? Well, this pathway energizes me because I'll make 33% more than I'm making right now.
[00:40:59] This pathway energizes me because I'll have more opportunities to serve God than I ever would have if I do this pathway. You see what I'm talking about?
[00:41:13] I'm trying to make this practical.
[00:41:16] These pathways call to us for different reasons, and we have to pay attention to why the pathway is calling me.
[00:41:26] Three, what compromises do the pathways require?
[00:41:33] If I choose this, what compromise do I have to make? If I choose this, what compromise do I have to make?
[00:41:41] 04:00 a.m. i seeking the Lord in this decision, or have I already made up my mind and I just want him to agree with me?
[00:41:51] Hey, dear God, guide me in your good way.
[00:41:55] This is really the best thing you know.
[00:42:01] 05:00 a.m. i sensing any divine promptings?
[00:42:09] Some years ago, when the church was much smaller, my mentor died, and I did his funeral, and the church asked me to come and be a candidate to take his place.
[00:42:27] We were still at Lund Road. The church was one of these huge colonial churches. You know, the big steps in the front with the pillars in the front. And we were running about 125, and this church was running about 500. And I could have doubled my payrol. And I said one prayer. I said, dear God, and I didn't even get the prayer out. And I heard the holy spirit say, no, don't even ask me.
[00:43:02] Don't even ask me.
[00:43:04] I would have ruined my life.
[00:43:07] I would have missed the blessing of all this. I would have been on a pathway of unhappiness.
[00:43:13] Okay. I have to let God guide me. Church. He wants what's best for you. This is 100 times better than that would have been.
[00:43:25] Besides, it was in a southern state, and I'm way too rust belt to. All right.
[00:43:34] Am I open to the advice of other people who are on the blessed trail? Who am I taking advice from? Am I only taking for advice from people who are on the wrong trail? I mean, look where their lives are going. You think I give?
[00:43:52] Thank you.
[00:43:56] I'm not impressed with movie stars advice. Look at their lives.
[00:44:05] You're a talk show host. Good for you.
[00:44:09] But that doesn't make you an expert in life.
[00:44:12] Are you open to the advice of people who are on the right track and they're trying to live a life of faith and hope and love?
[00:44:26] Am I praying with a listening heart?
[00:44:31] Do the scriptures speak to me in any way?
[00:44:35] Finally, can I be still and know that the Lord is God?
[00:44:42] Until he gives me peace in my heart, saying, this is the way? Walk in it.
[00:44:51] Ah. Matthew Henry wrote a very famous commentary on the whole Bible.
[00:44:57] It's one of the two commentaries I've read cover to cover.
[00:45:01] Matthew Henry's dad, Philip, was a great mentor to him. And Matthew Henry said that his dad loved psalm 119, and he turned it into a spiritual discipline.
[00:45:18] Matthew Henry wrote once, pressing the study of the scriptures. He advised us to take a verse of this psalm every morning to meditate upon, and so go over the psalm twice a year.
[00:45:31] When I read that, I said, man, that is an awesome idea. You take psalm 119 every morning, you read a verse and get it in your head, and then you meditated on it all day long.
[00:45:44] 176 days. You go through at one time, another 176 days.
[00:45:50] And every day you have a powerful idea about how the word of God affects my daily living.
[00:45:59] I think it would be a beautiful spiritual blessing.
[00:46:04] Church, I'm asking you today to walk on the road that God has called you to walk on.
[00:46:15] It will make all the difference. I promise you.
[00:46:19] Our dear heavenly Father, thank you for the psalm.
[00:46:24] Thank you for all the good ideas that you packed into this psalm.
[00:46:29] Thank you for the prospect of living a blessed and happy life.
[00:46:34] Thank you, heavenly Father, that you have good advice. Thank you that your holy spirit will guide us. Thank you that you put other people on the pathway with us so we can encourage each other as we walk toward you. And I'm praying for myself, for everyone here and everyone who's online. I pray that your spirit would guide us and we would walk on the pathway of life with you. In Christ's name, amen.
