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Psalm 119:97-104 - Mem · Tabernacle Talk - A Bible Study Podcast with Pastor Bryon Self

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  Welcome to Tabernacle Talk. Tabernacle Talk is a Bible study
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  podcast brought from Tabernacle Baptist Church in Essex, MD.
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  I'm your host, Brian Self. We hope this podcast encourages
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  you to know Christ, grow in his word, and show his love to
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  others. Let's dive right in.
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  Ho ho ho. Merry Christmas Eve, if you are
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  listening to this on the day that it comes out, we are in
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  Psalm 119 today. And you might say, Brian, why,
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  why don't you do a special Christmas Eve episode?
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  Well, I got to tell you, I really, I'm excited about this
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  portion of Psalm 119. We're going through verses 97
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  through one O 497 through one O 4.
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  And we're looking at the verses that start with the Hebrew
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  letter mem mem. And this portion of Scripture
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  actually really tells us a lot about Jesus.
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  As I've mentioned before, all of Scripture points to Jesus.
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  You can turn to any page in Scripture and it will tell you
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  something about who Jesus is, what he accomplished, what he
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  did on the cross. And so wherever we go in the
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  Word of God, we are learning about Jesus and that is
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  especially true in today's episode.
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  So I'm I'm reading through the mem verses verses 97 through one
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  O 4 with a special eye towards what we see about Jesus from
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  this portion of Scripture. Of course, Psalm 118 is all
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  about the word of God. And we are told in John one in
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  the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the
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  word was God. The same was in the beginning
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  with God. All things were made through him
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  and without him there was not anything made that was made in
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  was life, and that life was the light of men.
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  Jesus is the ultimate word of God.
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  He is the everlasting. He is the eternal word of God.
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  Though scripture did not exist from all eternity past, other
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  than of course in the mind and heart of God, Jesus has existed
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  for all of eternity and there was never a time when Jesus did
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  not exist. Of course He was born.
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  He took on himself, the flesh, the the humanity that we have
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  2000 years ago within the womb of Mary placed there by the Holy
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  Spirit of God at the command of God the Father so that He could
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  purchase our redemption right you, you guys, you got me off
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  track and I am excited. I am I am pumped for this.
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  Let's read in verse 97 through one O 4 how I love your
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  instruction. It is my meditation all day
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  long. Your command makes me wiser than
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  my enemies for it is always with me.
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  I have more insight than all my teachers because your decrees
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  are my meditation. I understand more than the
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  elders because I obey your precepts.
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  One O 1. I have kept my feet from every
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  evil path to follow your word. I've not turned from your
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  judgments, for you yourself have instructed me how sweet your
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  word is to my taste, sweeter than honey in my mouth.
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  I gain understanding from your precepts.
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  Therefore, I hate every false way.
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  As I read through, especially this portion, I can see, I can
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  imagine Jesus himself like saying this in prayer to God the
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  father #1 how cool is it that Jesus prayed?
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  We're going to be going in 2026 through John 11 through John 21.
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  So I've taken John one through 4, John five through 10, the 1st
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  sermon series there. John one through 4 was in 2024.
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  John five through 10. We looked at in 2025, the the
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  first seven months of of 2026, we're going to be finishing out
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  the book of John. And there's one entire chapter
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  in John's Gospel that he devotes to Jesus's high priestly prayer
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  to the Father. And if Jesus prayed to God, then
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  how much more do we need to be praying to our heavenly Father?
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  So I'm going to read through this and I'm going to to think
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  about Jesus praying this to the Father because I think there's
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  no one for whom this was more true than for Jesus Christ as he
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  walked this earth as one of us, as a Jewish man.
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  They're living in 1st century Palestine.
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  And what a amazing thought that God himself lived our life.
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  So verse 97, how I love your instruction.
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  It is my meditation all day long.
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  Jesus thought about the word of God and we are told over and
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  over again throughout the Gospel accounts that when Jesus spoke,
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  he spoke with authority based on the word of God.
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  He said, haven't you read this in the word?
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  He would point back to the the stories of scripture.
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  He would point back to Adam and Eve as it related to marriage.
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  He would point back to Noah as it related to future judgment.
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  He would point to the prophet Jonah even when it came to his
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  own death and burial and resurrection.
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  He would point to the Psalms when it came to how we should
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  behave in the House of God. Jesus was saturated with
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  Scripture. It was what he thought about all
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  day long. We're even told in the Sermon on
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  the Mount that not a single jot or title that is not not a
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  dotted I or a crossed T would would pass away from the Word,
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  from the Law, before everything had been fulfilled.
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  And certainly Jesus was that fulfillment of everything that
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  the Word of God spoke about. Verse #98 He says Your command
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  makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is always with me.
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  There was never a time when Jesus was not operating in
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  obedience to Scripture. He was always following what God
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  had said. And we can certainly think Jesus
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  was wiser than his enemies. He was wiser than the Pharisees
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  and the Sadducees and the scribes and the lawyers.
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  He was wiser than Herod and Pontius Pilate.
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  He was wiser even than the the Zealots.
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  He was wiser than the Essings, which was a, a community there
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  that was kind of a, I'll I'll say fundamentalist, as in they,
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  they literally withdrew from Jewish society because they said
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  we've got the right way. All the rest of the Jews are
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  living wrong. And so we're going to live off.
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  You might have heard of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the caves of
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  Qumran. They lived in that area and
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  that's where that group was from.
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  Jesus was wiser than everyone else and it's why he gave his
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  life for us, because he knew what they did not know.
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  He knew that he was the Lamb of God who would take away the sin
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  of the world. And so when he was sacrificed,
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  when he was put to death, delivered from the Jewish people
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  and from the Sanhedrin, the the rulers of Israel to the Roman
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  rulers, that they would kill him.
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  Jesus would be the sacrifice that would bring us
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  reconciliation to God, that as He bore all of our sin and our
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  evil and our hatred and every wicked thing that we would ever
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  do on himself, that He could pay the price and that we would be
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  redeemed as a result of it. I'm thankful that we have Jesus,
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  who as he listened to the Word of God, He was smarter than
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  those that opposed him. For you and your life, you might
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  have some enemies. Are you dealing with your
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  enemies through the word of God? Are you looking to God's word to
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  govern how you interact with them?
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  Notice Jesus never went into the temple and started throwing
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  punches at people. Even the famous story of him
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  driving the temple merchants out of the temple, that whip is used
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  that he creates for driving out the animals that they were
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  charging exorbitant interest prices for and thus defrauding
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  people who came to worship God in the House of the Lord.
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  And as he says there, don't you know that my house is to be
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  called a House of prayer? Verse 99, he says I have more
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  insight than all my teachers because your decrees are my
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  meditation. I think of the story of Jesus
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  when he was 12 and he was at the temple, the family that he had,
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  Mary and Joseph and all the rest of the extended family, they
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  were in Jerusalem for I think it was a Passover.
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  It could have been one of the other two feasts that they would
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  have. That would be traveling feasts.
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  You'd actually go to the temple to celebrate that particular
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  feast. So they are there, they leave,
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  they don't recognize Jesus is still at the temple in
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  Jerusalem. And so it's three days before
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  they discovered that Jesus isn't with him.
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  They go back and Jesus is there and he is teaching.
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  He's teaching the leaders there in the temple itself, these
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  people whose entire job was to know the word of God and all of
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  the laws on laws and laws that that generations of Jewish
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  teachers had added on to the word of God and all of the
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  various discussions and and ways and viewpoints that they had on
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  it. And Jesus was teaching them.
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  And here he says, I have more insight than all my teachers.
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  My biggest prayer and goal would be not that you need Tabernacle
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  talk in order to understand God's word.
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  I want you to far surpass me. I want you to have more insight
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  than me because you think about you meditate on the word of God.
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  I want to be able to hear from you, whether it's in the
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  comments, whether it's a message, whether it's, you know,
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  talking at church or in a small group or something.
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  I would love to hear you go, Oh, this made me think of this.
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  I actually had my friend Matt Melton the other day.
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  It was one of the sections in Psalm 119, and there was
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  something mentioned about raising hands in in Praise to
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  God. And he in the comments mentioned
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  First Timothy 28, which I had forgotten about in that
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  particular moment. I hadn't been thinking about it
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  where Paul says I will therefore that men pray everywhere,
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  lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting.
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  And I was thankful. I was like, oh man, yeah, I love
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  that verse. But because Matt's been thinking
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  about the word of God, then when something's mentioned about
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  raising our hands to the Lord, he's going, Oh yeah, praise.
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  Certainly. That's one way that we can lift
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  our hands, but we lift our hands in prayer.
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  And so I, I want you to have more insight than me because you
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  are spending time thinking about the word of God.
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  Verse 100. I understand more than the
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  elders because I obey your precepts here.
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  This is not if if you're in a church that has elders.
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  This is not necessarily talking about your spiritual leaders,
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  though. Our hope would be that you would
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  know more of the Word of God than we do.
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  That's that's a wonderful scenario.
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  I would much rather have too many people know the Word of God
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  and even know it better than we do rather than if the elders at
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  a church are the pinnacle of Bible knowledge.
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  Well then the people will only grow to as as deep of a love or
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  knowledge of the word of God as we have.
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  May we always be pursuing more of the truth of Scripture here.
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  Sorry, that's a a rabbit trail because the word is the same
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  here. Elders, elders here would be
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  talking about the leaders in Israel like the political
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  leaders. And he says I have a better
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  understanding, if you will, about politics because I obey
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  your precepts. I understand more of what our
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  country or our nation needs because I'm paying attention to
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  the word of God. The problem today is that people
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  get there. Sometimes they even get their
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  theology from politics, but they are getting their political
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  views from whatever, you know, the GOP or whatever, the
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  Democrats or whatever, the libertarians or whoever else.
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  They, they look at that and they say, OK, this is what my options
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  are for my political beliefs. Don't get your political beliefs
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  from some list that other people put out.
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  Don't just base your beliefs on, OK, well, what does Rand Paul
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  say at the moment or what does you know, Zoran Mandani say, or
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  what does Donald Trump say that I need to hold as my political
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  beliefs today? No, don't let man or woman
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  determine your political beliefs.
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  Determine your political beliefs based on the word of God.
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  Oh, I'm supposed to be focusing on on Jesus.
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  I went right to application on we we need to be having our
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  understanding of of political state based on the word of God.
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  Well, that was certainly true with Jesus as he was killed by
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  the political leaders of his time and he understood that he
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  was dying for our sin. And so even as he was talking
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  with Pontius Pilate, I can remember this situation where
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  Jesus says, you know, if, if my Kingdom were of this world, my
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  followers would fight. But as it stands, the, the
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  person that's actually, you know, the most culpable for
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  what's happening here is the Sanhedrin.
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  It's, it's those that have delivered me to you that have
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  committed the greater evil. And so Jesus knew fully what was
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  happening with Pontius Pilate and with Herod and with the
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  Sanhedrin. And he understood more than they
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  did because he understood the word of God and he obeyed it.
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  And because he perfectly obeyed it, He was our perfect
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  sacrifice. Verse 101.
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  I've kept my feet from every evil path to follow your word.
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  This is certainly the goal that all of us have, but none of us
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  except for Jesus have actually followed through on this, that
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  Jesus truly never walked an evil path.
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  He never said an evil word. He never thought an evil
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  thought. What an incredible God that that
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  is. We are so flawed and and we fail
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  every single day, many of us every single hour or maybe even
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  every minute, we fail to be who God has created us to be.
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  But Jesus, because he followed God's word, because he followed
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  scripture, he followed the heart of the Father.
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  He never walked an evil path. And I'm so grateful that because
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  he was perfect, his perfection is placed onto our account as we
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  call on Him to be our Lord and our Savior.
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  Verse one O 2. I've not turned from your
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  judgments for you yourself have instructed me.
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  I I don't know what Jesus knew while he was on this earth.
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  I don't know if even in the Manger if he had full cognizance
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  as the eternal God, the Son of all of eternity past that he had
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  spent with his Father and now was not in the Father's
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  presence. He He was in the Father's
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  presence. And as much as God is
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  omnipresent, He is wherever he desires to be.
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  And Jesus would often pray to the Father because he knew that
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  He was there, but not being, if you will, in heaven with the
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  Father for the first time in all of eternity.
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  I I wonder if Jesus thought about the directives and the
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  commands of God that that Jesus communicated to mankind
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  everything that the Father told him.
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  You can think even about the times in Scripture where the
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  Angel of Yahweh appears. That's the messenger of Yahweh
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  that is worshipped and adored. And even as he speaks, Scripture
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  talks about it as though God himself is speaking.
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  And so when you read the the Angel of Yahweh or the Angel of
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  the Lord in the Old Old Testament, you should think
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  about Jesus. And I think about Sinai where
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  the 10 commandments and the law is given to Moses.
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  And what is told to us in the rest of Scripture is that no one
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  has seen God at any time but Moses as he is there, He does
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  see God. And so who does he see if he has
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  not seen the Father at any time, as John one would tell us?
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  Well, the answer is he saw Jesus and as Jesus communicated the 10
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  commandments, then as he lived this life, what he himself gave
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  to Moses, you know, 1314, hundred years later, then he
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  obeyed it. And he had never turned away
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  from what was right because the Father had given him what he
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  should give to us, that we would walk with God through the word
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  that Jesus brought to us from the Father.
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  What, what an incredible thought that the Father has given that
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  he gave scripture to the Son to communicate to us and, and
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  certainly the Holy Spirit as well.
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  Man, it's just that's way too, way too deep.
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  My, my brains going to explode if I dwell on that any longer.
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  But what a thought that Jesus obeyed the commands of God the
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  Father. And because God told Jesus what
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  to do, Jesus did it and he never turned from the judgments of
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  God. Verse one of three, how sweet
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  your word is to my taste, sweeter than honey in my mouth.
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  Jesus never begrudgingly did the will of God.
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  He was enthused. He was excited to obey the word
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  of his Father. And may we have that desire too,
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  that the word of God is something we pursue and that we
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  love and that we want to constantly, if you will, imbibe.
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  Then verse one O 4. As we end, I gain understanding
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  from your precepts. Therefore I hate every false
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  way, and Jesus because of his hatred for sin, but his love for
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  sinners, He died in our place. The false way that he hated, He
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  took on himself, that our sins got placed on Him so his
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  righteousness could be placed on us.
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  I'll end with first John 31. Behold what manner of love the
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  Father has given to us, that we should be called the children of
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  God. And so we are.
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  There is no one greater than Jesus Christ.
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  If you've never given your life over to Him, asking Him to be
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  your Savior and your Lord, you can pray that today to say,
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  Jesus, I know that I'm a Sinner. I know that because of my sin
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  I'm alienated from you and that my eventual destination is hell.
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  But Jesus, I believe that you died on the cross for my sin in
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  my place, that you were buried and you rose again.
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  Please come into my life and save me and help me to live for
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  you. When you pray, that scripture
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  says whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
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  And then if you truly believe that, then profess it publicly
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  through being baptized. And if you have any questions
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  about that, I would love to answer those for you.
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  Would love to baptize you, but happy Christmas Eve to you and
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  looking forward to Christmas tomorrow.