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A Study in Psalms - Psalm 5 · CCC West Covina

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Tonight we're going to look at Psalm 5.
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And if you just want to know real quickly the the 10 Psalms
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we're going to look at this year, Psalms 5.
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Next week we're going to look at a big one.
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Psalm 27, Psalm 44, Psalm 53, Psalm 65, Psalm 79, Psalm 86,
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Psalm 87, Psalm 1O2, and Psalm 116.
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Because I know some of you asked me, but why study the Psalms?
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Why study the Psalms? Well, there are five books of
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poetry in the Bible. And it's quite interesting here
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at Christ Community Church that last year Lance finished the
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book of Job on Wednesday nights. And in Psalms, we've done almost
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50 to 60 of the Psalms. And then Proverbs, rarely as a
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sermon ever preached in this church where the pastor doesn't
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mention 123 or 4 Proverbs. And Lance actually has 24
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messages on Proverbs that you're interested in than that.
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And then we just finished Ecclesiastes, so the only book
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left is Song of Solomon. And I've only been married 22
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years, so I'll leave that one to Lance to do someday.
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But there's not just poetry in the five books that we call the
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poetry books. Poetry's all throughout the
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Bible and begins the first poem is in Exodus 15 with the Song of
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Moses. And then Deuteronomy, there's
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also Deuteronomy 32, there's another Song of Moses, and then
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you have the song of Deborah and Barack in Judges 5.
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And you've got that beautiful poem of Hannah's prayer in First
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Samuel 2. You've got David's song of
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deliverance in Second Samuel 22. Habakkuk chapter 3 is a
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wonderful prayer. And then you go to the New
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Testament. It has poetry right away.
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In Luke you have you have the magnificent Mary's prayer and
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then you have Zachariah's prophecy in chapter 1 all the
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way to Revelation. In Revelation there are 7 hymns.
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One of them is Revelation 15, three to four.
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So God's word is filled with poetry.
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God likes poetry, so should we, right?
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Who else likes poetry? Jesus.
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Jesus quotes from the book of Psalms more than any other book
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in the Old Testament. Jesus began as earthly ministry
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and when he cleansed the temple in John chapter 2, verse 17, his
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disciples remember that it was written zeal for your house will
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consume me. That's a quote from Psalm 69,
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verse 9. And then Jesus entered his
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earthly ministry when he hung on the cross and in Luke 23 verse
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46, he said, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.
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And that's a quote from Psalm 31, verse 5.
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I have a lot of background on Psalms I want to give you, but
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I'll spread it out over the 10 weeks.
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So tonight I just want to give you 5 keywords from Psalms.
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OK, 5 keywords. The book of Psalms may aptly be
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summarized by these 5 words #1 praise.
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The word praise is used 134 times in Psalms, 13 times alone.
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In the last one, in Psalms 150, the psalmist worships extols
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with a heartfelt gratitude, thanking the sovereign God of
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Israel for his Person, His Word, His mighty works in regard to
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both creation, redemption. The second word would be
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prophecy. The psalmist often writes about
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the coming Messiah, foretelling his zeal, suffering, death,
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resurrection, ascension. His high priestly work, and the
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coming millennial Kingdom. Example would be Psalm 22.
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The third word would be pain. The psalmist describes in
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graphic fashion about his personal doubts, his fears, his
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pain, and his problems. And I think This is why we can
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relate to the Psalms, because we have pain like he does.
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The fourth word after praise, prophecy, pain is petition.
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The psalmist offers up many requests.
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He cries out for relief, for forgiveness, reassurance,
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direction, protection, and strength.
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And we'll see that in tonight's Psalm, Psalm 5.
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And lastly, poetry. The psalmist pens his words in a
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poetic fashion meant to be sung. You all know Psalm 42 as the
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deer pants for the streams of water.
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Beautiful poetry. It's Hebrew poetry that we've
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translated in English, but it's still very beautiful.
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So those are 5 keywords in the book of Psalms.
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If you have your Bibles, when you open to the Psalm #5 you
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notice there is a superscription at the top of it.
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And about 114 of the psalms have these.
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And this one says to the choir master for the flutes, a Psalm
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of David. So this would have been sung in
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the Temple and apparently accompanied by a flute or a
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choir. And David is the author of this
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Psalm. And David wrote at least half of
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the psalms. We'll talk more about that in
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another week, but let's look at this Psalm.
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In case you're wondering what type of Psalm this is, it's a
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lament Psalm, an individual lament Psalm.
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Let's look at Psalm 5. Give here to my words, O Lord,
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Consider my groaning. Give attention to the sound of
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my cry, my King and my God, For to you do I pray.
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O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice.
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In the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch.
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For you are not a God who delights and wickedness.
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Evil may not dwell with you. The boastful shall not stand
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before your eyes. You hate all evil doers.
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You destroy those who speak lies.
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The Lord abhors bloodthirsty and deceitful man.
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But I, through the abundance of Your steadfast love, will enter
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your house. I will bow down towards Your
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holy temple in the fear of You. Leave me, O Lord, in Your
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righteousness. Because of My enemies, make Your
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way straight before Me. For there is no truth in their
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mouth. Their inmost self is
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destruction. Their throat is an open grave.
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They flatter with their tongue. Make them bear their guilt.
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O God, let them fall by their own counsels.
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Because of the abundance of their transgressions, cast them
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out, for they have rebelled against you.
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But let all who take refuge in you rejoice.
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Let them ever sing for joy and spread your protection over
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them, that those who love your name may exult in you.
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For you. Bless the righteous, O Lord,
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you, cover him with favor as with a shield.
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Let us pray. Father in heaven, we thank you
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tonight that we can look at Psalm #5.
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Father, I pray tonight that you would just challenge us,
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encourage us, motivate us to talk to you more and more and
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more in Jesus name, Amen. You know, it's almost a cliche
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when the pastor of church, any church, admonishes the
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congregation to read their Bibles or pray more.
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There is a lot of books on prayer.
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One of my favorite is Valley of the Vision.
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Tim will often read this before on Sunday.
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It's a prayer book by the Puritans if you want to get it.
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It's a great book that they write out their prayers and you
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can actually pray them. I got a new book this week,
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Handbook for Praying for Scripture by William Warner.
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But prayer books are a dime a dozen.
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There are lots of prayer books, but Pastor Lance said something
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many years ago that prayer is more caught than taught.
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Last night we had just a few people at our Tuesday night
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prayer meeting and I listened to the ladies who pray and I
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learned how to pray better because they make it so simple.
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It's almost as if God is there and they're talking to him face
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to face. So I hope tonight when you hear
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that we're talking about prayer, you won't think.
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Oh no, another passage about prayer.
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Listen to what JC Rile said. He said prayer is the mightiest
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engine that God has placed in our hands.
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It's the best weapon to use in every difficulty and the surest
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remedy in every trouble. It is the key that unlocks the
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treasury of promises and the hand that draws forth grace and
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help in time of need. Show me a growing Christian, a
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going forward Christian, a flourishing Christian and sure
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am I He is one that speaks often with the Lord.
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He tells Jesus everything. So let me ask you, are you a
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growing Christian, a going forward Christian and a
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flourishing Christian? How's your prayer life?
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You know, the real question isn't how's your prayer life,
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but the real question is how's your relationship with your
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heavenly Father. You know, I was thinking
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recently as a, as I was preparing this, about the actor
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Gene Hackman and his wife died a few months ago.
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Do you remember that? And I don't know exactly if it
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was 7 days or 10 days or two weeks, but it was a long time
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before they discover the bodies. And yet I believe he has grown
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up children. So it's sad that none of those
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children checked in on their parents or at least had one of
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those things that if they fell, they could, you know, call
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emergency. So I don't know if it's too much
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to speculate, but that leads me to believe there was a
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relationship problem, and that's not right.
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It's a sad situation that nobody checked on them and their bodies
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lay there for so long. That's a bad example of an
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earthly relationship. That's not right.
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Let me give you a good example. When Ping, Tessa and I would
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come home from Myanmar or Thailand, when we were on the
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mission field, we would come home and we would stay at the
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House of Ray and Joanne Cruz. And every night at 7:00, I knew
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it was 7:00 because Ray would scream at the top of his lungs,
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usually sitting in his Barca lounger.
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I love you, mom. And he knew because Joanne was
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upstairs on the phone talking to her mother in Boise, ID.
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So we knew it was 7:00. Every night at 7:00, they would
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check in with their mom. That's how it's supposed to be
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in an earthly relationship. We should not have a problem
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with our parents here on earth. We should be checking in on them
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and have a great relationship with them, but how much more we
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who call ourselves Christians, we shouldn't have a relationship
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problem with our heavenly Father.
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So my prayer tonight is you'll be a growing Christian, a going
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forward Christian, and a flourishing Christian and speak
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often with the Lord. We have an outline, which I hope
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you have. Every once in a while there's a
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Psalm that's difficult to outline, and this is one of them
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because it's interesting that the psalmist verses 1 to 3, it's
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a prayer, but then in verses 4 to 6, he's talks about the
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wicked. He just switches subjects and
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then in verses 780 switches back about God.
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And then in verse 9 to 10, he switches back to talking about
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the wicked, and then he finishes it with the prayer in 11 to 12.
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So I spent a lot of time trying to perfect this and I don't know
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if I ever was actually satisfied with this prayer.
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But your outline .1 is the psalmist request verses 1 to
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3.2, the relationship of God to the wicked in verses 4 to 6, the
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purpose of the psalmist in verse 7-8, the rejection of the wicked
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in nine to 10, and the prayer of the psalmist in verses 11 to 12.
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Let's look at point #1 the psalmist request verses one to
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three and you have five points there.
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Sub points, prayer, plea, person, period, and promise.
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Let's start with prayers. He says in verse one, Give ear
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to my words. O Lord, consider my groaning and
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give attention to the sound of my cry.
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Notice there are three types of prayers right there in verse 1.
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He says words, He says groanings, and he says cry or
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crying. First off, he says words, and
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that's what we pray most often is with words.
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We express ourselves to God by speaking words in the human
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language. It's just an open dialogue to
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God. I mentioned the women of CCC who
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pray last night. It's just a simple prayer.
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Prayer is not some technological big words expose that some
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people think it is. It's just simple language, like
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you're talking to God face to face.
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We speak. God hears and it says his ears
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inclined to us. We don't speak into space.
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We speak into the ears of God using words.
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Matthew 66 says that when when you pray, go into your room,
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shut the door and pray to your heavenly Father who is in secret
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and your father was in secret will reward you.
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The second one is groanings. Now it could be translated
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meditations or sign. David is asking God to pay
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attention to his unspoken words or his groanings of the heart.
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There are times I'm sure you relate, when we just don't know.
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Have the words to express what we want to say to God, yet we're
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still praying. Example in Romans 823 it says,
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And not only creation, but we ourselves, who have the first
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fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for
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the adoption of sons, the redemption of our bodies.
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We can pour out our thoughts to God.
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We can groan when we encounter sin and brokenness.
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We groan when we face bodily sickness, weakness, and death.
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We groan when relationships are strained or broken.
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Or do we see those we who we love are struggling?
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We ache for an end of pain. We long to be made whole and set
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free. We're groaning for the day we'll
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see when we shine in God's glory as he intended.
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The third type of prayer is crying.
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And sometimes we are in such distress that our prayers are
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just a desperate cry for God. Help us.
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Psalms 3417 says the righteous cry and Yahweh hears them and He
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delivers them out of all their trouble.
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A good example would be Hannah. You remember Hannah in First
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Samuel chapter 1? She couldn't have a baby and the
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other wife, Pannell was making fun of her, constantly mocking
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her and she's at the temple. And it says in First Samuel 110
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she was deeply distressed and prayed to the Lord and wept
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bitterly. In fact, she was weeping so much
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that the high priest, Eli, thought she was drunk and tried
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to admonish her. So those are three types of
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prayers. Let's look at the Pleno.
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OK, notice the words here in my translation, the ESV, it says
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give. We're still in verse one.
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Consider and give. If you're using the NESP
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tonight, it says listen, give, listen.
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When was the last time you talked to God like that?
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It's like wrestling with God, like an arm wrestle with God. 3
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Imperatives demanding action from God.
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This is not a normal prayer, but an urgent, serious prayer in an
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attempt to gain a hearing with God Almighty.
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It carries the same idea as the persistent widow in Luke 18 that
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was banging on the door of the unjust judge again and again.
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The point here is that we are to be persistent in prayer even if
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for reasons unknown to us, the answer from God is delayed.
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God will not refuse to act forever.
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God hears our prayers and you notice in verses the first 3
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verses we have the use of the word my five times.
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My favorite verse in all the Bible about prayer and when I
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often use is Hebrews chapter 4 verses 15 to 16.
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And that says we do not have a high priest.
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That's Jesus Christ who is unable to sympathize us with our
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weaknesses. Jesus knows what we've walked
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because he's walking our shoes. He knows our our sorrows, our
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heartaches, our troubles. It continues saying, but one who
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in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without
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sin. And then verse 16 of Hebrews 4
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says, let us then with confidence draw near to the
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throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to
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help us in time of need. The veil was torn from top to
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bottom. We have direct access to God
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will never be put on hold. There's no answering machine in
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heaven. It's just a wonderful, wonderful
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verse misplaced. The third thing is the person,
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and this is really important. He says for to you do I pray the
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last part of verse 2, my King and my God, for to you do I pray
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who's the you? Well, we know it's Yahweh five
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times. In Psalm 5 we have the use of
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Yahweh and Lance talked about it I think last Sunday.
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It's used 6519 times in the Old Testament.
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The first time was in Genesis when the day the Lord Lord God
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made the earth. But here in verse 2 we have an
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interesting saying. Yahweh is also called my King
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and my God. We know He's our God, but he
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uses the word King because God rules and God reigns.
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This is used three times in Psalms, Psalms 5 Here that
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wonderful chapter in Psalms 84 three and in Psalms 1 and 41451
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it just says I will extol you my God and King.
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There is only one true God and He alone is who we are to pray
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to. There are no verses in the Bible
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to pray to anyone else except God.
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You know, we are seeing a very stark increase in Mary ology.
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And that's because the Pope who just recently died has
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propagated Mary ology. And I've seen online that
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Catholic theologians are debating, arguing, trying to
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defend, defend the veneration of the worship of Mary.
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In fact, as I was driving to work this morning listening to
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KFI radio, they were taking a poll about which of the the
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Who's your favorite patron that you pray to?
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And people were calling in saying oh, Francis of Assisi or,
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or Apostle Paul. So do the Catholics worship
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Mary? Well, I've got 8 questions for
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our Catholic friends and I didn't write this but I I got it
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from another commentator. Catholics, they sing hymns to
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Mary and Luke chapter 4, verse 8 says that we are to worship the
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Lord our God and Him only #2 they still believe she's a
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virgin. And yet my Bible in Matthew 1355
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tells us clearly that Mary had other children.
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They bow down and kiss her statues.
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Jonah 28 warns against paying any regard to other idols, and
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they pray to her and ask for intercession.
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And first Timothy 25 says there is one God and one mediator
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between God and man, and that that mediator is Christ Jesus.
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They believe she is sinless #6 Romans 323 says all have sinned
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and fall short of the glory of God.
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They call her the queen of the universe.
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And Luke 147 Mary herself speaks, says that my spirit
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rejoices in God my Savior. They believe that she converts
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Sinner. And Acts 412 says salvation is
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found in no one else. There's no other name given
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under heaven by which men must be saved.
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And lastly, they believe she hears their prayers.
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And Deuteronomy 1811 says that we are not to inquire of the
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dead. So do Catholics worship Mary?
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Yes, they do and they need to stop.
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And those prayers that Catholics are praying are not been
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answering because God is a king and he's the one true God and
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they're not praying to him if they're praying to Mary.
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Let's look at the period sub point number D OK, it says in
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the morning, you hear my voice in the morning.
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So you've got that repeated phrase which carries the idea
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that as soon as it's morning and every morning, the psalmist has
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a morning quiet time with God. And I hope that you do.
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I, I've used that illustration before. 1 missionary once said
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no Bible, no breakfast. I personally like my coffee and
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my mug and my Bible. But one author said a resolution
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to give God the fittest time of the day for devotional approach,
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when the body is rested and the brain untired, when the outlook
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is fresh and the world has not yet been pressed in on the
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innermost life. And JC Ryle said that we need to
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speak to God in the morning before you speak to the world.
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And then you need to speak to God at night after you've been
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in the world. And I love that quote.
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So every one of us needs to get up in the morning and have a
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time with the Lord because you're going to go out and face
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the enemies of the world. And we need to be prayed up with
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the full armor of God and #5 their pointy.
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We have the promise. David ends with verse 3 saying I
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prepare a sacrifice for you and watch.
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The prayer has an expected spirit.
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This means that psalmist was praying in faith.
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He laid his request before God and expects God to answer.
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Now the answer might be yes, the answer might be no.
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The answer might be wait. But the word watch here has a
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sense of looking with eager expectation.
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David has the confidence that his prayers gone in the very
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throne room of God and he wasted expectation for God to answer
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it. God's character is unchanging,
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unwavering, unshifting, unshakable.
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So Psalms 5 gives us confidence that God will answer our
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prayers, and we are to eagerly watch how the Lord will answer
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those prayers and when he does, offer him a sacrifice of praise.
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So I hope that when you pray, I hope that you pray with an open
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Bible, OK? When you read your Bible, it
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ought to cause you to pray, including the Psalms.
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When you read a a chapter, what does it say about God and what
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do you, what do I learn about reading today?
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And then you pray. Are there any attributes
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mentioned? If you look at Psalms 86, five,
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it talks about grace and mercy and truth.
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Is there a sin mentioned that we need to confess?
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Does the passage mention kings or rulers or leaders?
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Every time I get one of those passages, I know I need to pray
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for the current president and the current vice president.
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Is there a command you obey? And I could go on and on and on.
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But as you read your Bible, the Holy Spirit prompts you to pray
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for certain people, certain individuals.
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Bible reading and prayer go together.
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Don't rush it. Sit quietly and patiently for
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the Lord. Some of you may say, well, you
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only have one child. I have 2345 and I have work.
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But you all have probably heard of the example of Susanna
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Wesley. Let me read just a little bit
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about her life. Earlier in her life, Susanna
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Wesley vowed that she would never spend more time in leisure
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entertainment than she did in prayer and Bible study, even
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amidst the most complex and busy years of her life as a mother.
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Now, she had 19 children. I believe that eight of them
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died. So at some point, I know when
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she died, nine of them were still alive.
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So she has somewhere between 9:00 and 11:00 children.
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She's still scheduled 2 hours a day for fellowship with God and
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time in His Word, and she adhered to that schedule
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faithfully. The challenge for her was
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finding a place of privacy in a house filled overflowing with
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children. Well, the challenge, I'm sorry.
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Mother Wesley's solution to that was to bring her Bible to her
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favorite chair and she would throw her apron over her long
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head, forming sort of a tent. This became something that ached
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into the tent, a meeting that you'd have in the Old Testament
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Tabernacle. But every kid, every person in
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the household knew, including the domestic helpers, and the
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children knew well to respect this signal that when Mom put
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her apron over her head, she was studying the Bible, she was
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praying, and that she was not to be disturbed except if there was
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an emergency. There was privacy in her little
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tent. She interceded for her husband
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and children, and she plumbed the deep mysteries of God in the
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Scriptures. This holy discipline equipped
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her with a thorough and profound knowledge of God, and you
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probably know that two of her boys changed the world.
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Charles would write over 6000 hymns.
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Charles Wesley and John Wesley would be the father of
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Methodism. So she was a great example to
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her children and I hope you parents are examples to your
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children. I think one reason we see a
25:01
decline in prayer is because parents aren't modeling and
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aren't teaching it to their children.
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Today, let's move on to paragraph 2, the relationship of
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God to the wicked and verses 4 to 6.
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We now go from the God who hears our prayers in verses one to
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three to the relationship of God to the wicked and verses 4 to 6.
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Now in paragraph 2, verses 4 to 6, David says you you three
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times Speaking of God and his relationship to the wicked.
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David's going to reflect on the sinfulness of man and the fact
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that God will not hear the prayers of the ungodly.
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So we have 5 sub points there. Types of sin.
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You know, we constantly need to be reminded how God views sin
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and David helps us here. I think there's seven different
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words for sin. He says in verse 4IN wickedness.
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In another part of verse four he says evil.
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In verse 5 he says the boastful or maybe your Bible says
26:01
arrogant. And then he also says evil doers
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in verse 5. In verse 6 he says those who
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speak lies. And the last part of verse 6 he
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says bloodthirsty and deceitful men, different kinds of sins.
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He mentions how does God view those sins?
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Well, number one, he says in verse 4, God does not delight in
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or take pleasure in wickedness. God is repulsed by the evil
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wherever He sees it, and we need to be repulsed by it also #2 God
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doesn't allow evil to dwell in His presence.
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The word dwell there in verse 4 means to sojourn or visit.
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It's a picture of a wandering traveler passing through and
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living in a tent. God is so incompatible with sin
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that he won't Even the most temporary coexistence is utterly
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impossible. And you all know the verse of
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Habakkuk 113. You who are of pure eyes than to
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see evil and cannot look at wrong #3 God doesn't allow the
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boastful to stand before him. In first Peter 55 it says God
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resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.
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You would think of the in the the parable of the the
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Samaritan, he, he talks and I think I counted 35 words and yet
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the tax collector only says 7 words.
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God be mercifully A Sinner. He was the tax collector was
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humble. The Pharisee was so proud his
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prayer only went to the roof of the temple #4 God hates all evil
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doers. The the new legacy standard
27:37
Bible, some of you have that new translation says workers of
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iniquity. You've heard the false
27:42
statement. God hates the sin but loves the
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Sinner. That's wrong.
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This evil doers in the Psalm are people who sin as a way of life.
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They're workers of iniquity. They working at sin every day
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and #5 God destroys those who tell lies.
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Verse 6. Do you remember that wonderful
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chapter in Isaiah 6? We won't turn there tonight.
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I'm sure you're familiar with it.
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When Isaiah saw God in his glory sitting on the throne, remember
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in verse 5, Isaiah cried out, Woe to me, for I am lost.
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I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people
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of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of
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hosts. So when the most righteous man
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in all of Israel saw God on the throne, he was immediately aware
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of the uncleanliness of his lips and the fellow Israelites.
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How serious is God about hating lies?
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Revelation 2215 says that those who practice lies will be kept
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out of heaven. And lastly #6 God abhors
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wickedness. That word abhors means to
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loathe. You have a repugnance of sin.
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It's because many states have abolished the death penalty.
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I think the the last time the death penalty was actually
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exercised in our state of California was 2006.
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So we tend to forget how much God hates the bloodshed.
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The 5th commandment is thou shall not kill and Numbers 3531
29:13
says the penalty for murder is death.
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But notice also how the words grow in intensity.
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It says does not take pleasure, hates, destroys and aborts.
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You see this list and they grow in increasing increasingly.
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God hates it. We see the holiness of God and
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we see His hatred of sin. These thoughts are not just born
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out of a deep sense of sinfulness of sin.
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Our world today does not speak enough of sin and its
29:43
consequences. So the world, the church pastors
29:47
often soften the message and its compromises.
29:50
I wrote this down a long time ago and I don't know the
29:53
message, but it's from Pastor Lance and he sold us that sin is
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satanic. First John 38 sin is
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lawlessness. First John 3-4 sin is a passing
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pleasure. Hebrews 1125 sin is deceitful.
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Hebrews 313 sin entangles Hebrews 12/1 sin enslaves John
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834 sin stings First Corinthians 1556, sin kills Romans 512 and
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sin dams First Corinthians 69. It was Paul Washer who said the
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mark of a true believer is not sinless perfection, but a new
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repugnance for sin, a greater sensitivity to sin of or
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vehement zeal to fight against sin, and a humble contrition
30:48
because of sin, and lastly A willingness to confess sin.
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Number C There God has no pleasure in wickedness, he says,
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for you're not a God who delights in wickedness.
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You know, the the gods of the nations, the Egyptian gods, the
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Roman gods, the Greek gods, they had gods who delighted in blood
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and lust and sinful practices. These gods in Greece and Rome
31:16
and Egypt found all kinds of pleasure and sinful practice
31:20
with their gods. Not so the God and Father, the
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Lord Jesus Christ. First, John 15 says God is light
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and in Him there is no darkness. Jesus wept over the sins of
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Jerusalem in Luke 19 verse 41. The Holy Spirit is grieved over
31:36
sins in Ephesians 430 and God the Father was sorry that he
31:41
made mankind. He says I regret that I have
31:45
made mankind in Genesis 6 verse seven.
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It was CS Lewis who said we don't hate sin enough to get
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upset at the wickedness and the godlessness around us.
31:57
We're bombarded as we are by so much evil and violence.
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We've gotten accustomed to the darkness.
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Next, God does not tolerate wickedness.
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He says evil may not dwell with you.
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God cannot dwell, cannot and or and cannot tolerate it.
32:15
Twice in our Bible, in Isaiah 6 and Revelation, the angels
32:19
saying holy, holy, holy, the whole earth, The holy, holy,
32:24
holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his
32:27
glory. Evil can't dwell with God, and
32:30
the same should be true in our personal and spiritual lives.
32:34
That's why it's impossible for a genuine believer to continue in
32:38
an ongoing lifestyle of sin. First, John 39 says no one born
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of God makes it a practice of sinning for God.
32:46
Seed abides in him and he cannot keep on sinning because you've
32:50
been born of God. It was Spurgeon who said rest
32:54
assured, Christ will not live in the pallor, pallor of our hearts
32:59
if we entertain the devil in the cellar of our thoughts.
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Next and lastly, fourthly, God hates wickedness, OK, He says
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the boastful can't stand before your eyes.
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You hate all evil doers. Here we see condemnation of all
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who speak lightly or tolerating sin.
33:19
You know, we see it in evangelical circles today.
33:22
It's called anatoneism, lovers grace we see in the Catholic
33:27
Church where they divide venal sins and mortal sins, and we see
33:32
it in today's church in the United States.
33:33
It just has no general hatred of sin.
33:37
So in verses one to three, David's prayer went into the
33:40
very throne room of God. But in verses 4 to 6, the
33:43
prayers of the wicked are not. There's a lot of people praying.
33:47
You know, every day there's a tragedy.
33:49
And if you go on social media, everybody will put out there our
33:53
thoughts and prayers are with you.
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Who's praying? Because God is not listening to
33:58
a lot of those prayers. Psalm 6618 says if I had
34:03
cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have
34:07
listened. Proverbs 1529 says the Lord is
34:11
far from the wicked, but he hears the prayers of the
34:15
righteous. And in John 9, interesting, the
34:18
blind man is healed and they're grilling him and they're asking
34:22
him about it. And he says in verse 31, we know
34:26
that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a
34:30
worshipper of God and does his will, God listens to him.
34:34
And of course, Isaiah 59 verses one to two, you probably heard
34:38
this. Behold, the Lord's hand is not
34:40
shortened that it cannot say, or his ear dull that it cannot
34:45
hear. That tells us God can hear.
34:47
God can hear every prayer if he wants to, of all 8 billion
34:50
people on the earth if he wants to.
34:52
But verse 2 says, but your iniquities have made a
34:55
separation, being you and your God, and your sins have hidden
34:59
his face from you so that he does not hear.
35:04
Isaiah says God's ear can hear because he's omniscient.
35:08
He knows they're praying. The problem is the wickedness of
35:11
the one praying. Because of that wickedness, God
35:15
does not hear their prayer. What this means is God is not
35:19
going to listen to any of those who flout His law.
35:22
Now you might ask, there is one prayer of a wicked person can
35:26
pray that God will listen to and that's the prayer of repentance.
35:30
We have a great example in first Kings chapter 21 verses 17 to 29
35:36
of the wicked king Ahab. You remember him absolutely
35:39
wicked king, but when the prophet comes to him and he
35:43
hears the words of judgment, Ahab repents and puts sackcloth
35:47
on the Lord Caesar repentance and declares that his judgment
35:52
will not fall on Ahab, but Ahab's descendants.
35:56
So you also could consider the the Ninevites in Jonah who
36:00
repented and God relented from the disaster that he was going
36:03
to bring. God knows and hears all things,
36:06
but only the prayer of the wicked, which God will hear is a
36:08
prayer of genuine repentance. Now some of you might feel
36:12
tonight that God isn't answering your prayers.
36:14
You need to examine yourself to see if you're in the faith. 2nd
36:17
Corinthians 13, five, and you need to confess your sins first.
36:21
John 19 says that if we confess our sins, God is faithful and
36:26
just to forgive us our sins. And you cleanse us from all
36:29
unrighteousness. Let's move on to point #3 We got
36:32
to move quickly. So we saw in verses one to three
36:35
the word thought my five times. In verses 4 to 6, we saw the
36:40
word you three times and now here in verses 7 and 8 we're
36:44
going to see the pronoun I three times giving the purpose of the
36:48
psalmist. David says 4 things about God
36:51
who hears our prayer. First off, he talks about God's
36:54
mercy. In verse 7.
36:56
He says bye through the abundance of your steadfast love
36:59
will enter your house. The NSB says graciousness.
37:02
The new King James Bible says mercy and I like the mercy
37:06
translation best. Mercy is God not giving us what
37:11
we deserve. Sinners can find acceptance with
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God who hears our prayers if they come to Him when they
37:18
repent and believe as David had. Only because of God's abundant
37:23
mercy are we saved, and it leads us to enter God's house.
37:26
As the verse says. It's by the mercy of God alone
37:29
that any human can approach God. The tax collector, as I
37:33
mentioned before in Luke 18, knew this when he cried out.
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God be merciful to me, a Sinner, because we have God's mercy, and
37:44
if you have His salvation, it ought to cause you to fear God.
37:49
I think in Psalms I see the words about fearing God 19 times
37:53
and then in the book of Proverbs I see verses about fearing God
37:57
19 times and I know Lance has written a book.
38:00
You can buy that book in the the tape library if you want about
38:03
fearing the Lord. We give that out of the new
38:05
members class. But I was recently got an
38:08
article from Virgil Walker, one man I follow on social media and
38:14
let me just read you what he talks about the fear of the
38:16
Lord. First off, he says many
38:18
Christians today are missing one thing, the fear of the Lord.
38:23
Why have we lost it and why does it's absent week in the church?
38:28
Many think the fear of God is outdated.
38:30
Some say God is love, we shouldn't fear him.
38:34
Others assume that it's just an Old Testament thing.
38:36
But the Bible teaches us that godly fear is essential to
38:40
faith, and those without it really don't know him #2 he said
38:46
what the fear of the Lord is not.
38:49
It's not a cringing terror that drives us away from God.
38:52
It's not a serval fear like that of a beaten slave.
38:57
It's not an Old Testament concept that's been replaced by
39:00
grace. Instead, it's deep reverence,
39:03
awe, trembling, joy before a holy God.
39:07
He says a low view of God leads to a lowlife #3 He says the fear
39:13
of the Lord is in two categories #1 there's a sinful fear like
39:18
Adam in the garden hiding from God, or the demons trembling in
39:22
James 2 #2 it's a holy fear like Isaiah before God's throne,
39:28
which I mentioned in Isaiah 6, or the disciples after Jesus
39:33
calmed the storm in Mark chapter 4.
39:36
We believers are called to fear the second way, a holy fear
39:41
before God's throne and, and, and look at Jesus, not the
39:44
sinful fear like Adam in the garden #4 and I never heard this
39:48
before. Jesus feared the Lord.
39:51
That's right, Isaiah Chapter 11, verse 2, you look it up.
39:55
It prophesied that the Messiah would be filled with the spirit
40:00
of the fear of the Lord. So if Jesus feared the Father,
40:03
why don't, why don't we #5 what happens when we don't fear the
40:08
Lord? We have casual worship.
40:10
We have apathy towards sin. We have a small view of God.
40:15
We make foolish decisions. Romans 318 describes the wicked.
40:21
It says there is No Fear of the Lord before their eyes.
40:26
So without the fear of the Lord, Christianity becomes casual,
40:29
shallow and powerless. And number six, he said, here's
40:34
the test. Do you, do you fear, really fear
40:36
the Lord? He says, do you hate sin and its
40:39
consequences? Do you approach God casually or
40:43
reverently? Do you obey quickly and
40:46
joyfully? Does God's holiness move you to
40:49
worship? If these aren't true of you, ask
40:53
God to give you a holy fear. So David had a holy fear of God
40:57
and we should and never see God's righteousness.
41:00
In verse 8 he says lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness
41:05
because of my enemies. You know, we've gone verse one
41:08
to seven is actually preparing us.
41:10
This is the first actual petition in the Psalm.
41:13
Lead me. It's the first imperative in the
41:15
Psalm. So he and Dave, what is the
41:18
petition that God would lead him Not in David's own
41:21
righteousness, which he knows is worthlessness, but in God's
41:25
righteousness. And lastly, if he's following
41:29
God and God's righteousness, he will follow God.
41:32
He says that the last part of verse 8, make your way straight
41:35
before me. Because of God's mercy, we fear
41:38
God. Because of his righteousness, we
41:40
follow God. Here we have a prayer of the
41:43
righteous man. He appeals to the faithfulness
41:45
of God. He wants to be led by God in
41:49
God's righteousness, which means according to faithfulness to
41:52
those who trust in you. If God should fail him, it would
41:56
get occasion for his enemies to mock and blasphemy God.
42:00
But God would never fail David, and that would never happen.
42:03
Psalms 119105. I'm sure your children know
42:06
this. Your word is a lamp into my feet
42:08
and a light into my path. Let's look at the last.
42:13
I'm sorry, the 4th paragraph, the rejection of the wicked.
42:17
So once again David's going to go back to talking about the
42:20
wicked in these two verses. Two things there, God's enemies
42:24
are wicked and God's enemies are cursed.
42:26
Earlier in verse 6, David described the wicked as those
42:30
who told lies. Now here in verse 10 he
42:34
describes them in terms of their wicked speech.
42:37
The words wicked cannot be trusted.
42:40
Their words are destructive and those who follow them were
42:42
perish. Does this verse sound familiar?
42:45
Probably does because it's from Romans.
42:48
Apostle Paul will quote this in Romans chapter 3.
42:52
That paragraph, verses 10 to 18 where he gives the summary of
42:57
the great sins of the human race.
42:58
So Paul got part of that from Psalm 5 verse 9.
43:03
God's enemies are wicked. He also says God's enemies are
43:07
cursed. Here we have the first
43:09
imprecatory verse in the book of Psalms.
43:12
Got to the 5th Psalm before we have an imprecatory verse.
43:16
You may remember last year we looked at Psalm 58 and Psalm 58
43:21
is an entire Psalm dealing with imprecatory prayers.
43:25
And they're easier to spot when you read the Psalms you see
43:28
here. Let them fall by their own
43:30
counsel. He's calling out to God to judge
43:33
the wicked. It's a prayer asking God's just
43:36
judgment on the wicked. The new NIV says let their
43:40
intrigues be their downfall. You know, prayers like this
43:44
present a problem for a lot of people.
43:46
I hope that if you don't understand a preparatory
43:48
prayers, you'll get the message on Psalm 58.
43:51
And and you know, God is concerned about those who rebel
43:55
Psalms 2 and David's request is for God's condemnation of their
44:00
sin and that that they can't justify their sinful behavior.
44:05
You know, I mentioned that I pray every day that God would
44:08
destroy Hamas, not that Israel is righteous.
44:12
Israel is not it's a time of the Gentiles.
44:14
But I pray that God would destroy Hamas and I also pray
44:18
that God would destroy the five generals in Myanmar who
44:21
slaughter and destroy and kill people every day.
44:23
I I'm not going to partake of it, but I asked God if it be
44:26
your will to do it. That's an imprecatory prayer and
44:29
that's what God is praying here that hit David's enemies would
44:32
be destroyed. Let's move to the last
44:35
paragraph. And this is the final stanza of
44:38
our Psalm. And with almost every Psalm,
44:41
with the exception of Psalms 88, all the psalms have a joyous
44:47
ending or a praise or some adoration at the ending.
44:51
And two things. God is our joy and God is our
44:54
shield. This is the first of 70
44:58
references in Psalms to singing. And why is David singing?
45:03
Well, joy is expressed by shouting and singing and he's
45:07
doing that because he knows God will hear his prayer.
45:10
God will answer his prayer. John 1624 says until now you
45:16
have asked for nothing, Ask and you will receive that your joy
45:22
may be full. Philippians 14 says Paul says, I
45:26
thank my God in all my remembrance of you always, and
45:30
every prayer of mine for you all, making my prayer with joy.
45:34
There's joy in prayer. There's great joy.
45:37
When we finish praying, we say Amen.
45:40
Knowing that you've given God your problems, your trials, your
45:44
sufferings, your anxieties, it's like saying hear God take it and
45:49
there's joy. You know, many years ago when
45:51
Christ Community Church was just starting, we had a brother named
45:55
Omar here and he taught the first prayer class at Christ
45:59
Community Church and he gave us a prayer chart.
46:02
And if you took Gil's class last November, you might have got
46:05
this chart. You're welcome to come up and
46:07
get a copy later. But Omar passed that chart out.
46:10
And it's just a chart where you pray for 12 different things, 5
46:15
minutes for 12 different things in a circle.
46:18
So, and I took that to India and I didn't have a wife, I didn't
46:23
have a kid, I didn't have anything to do because I was
46:25
waiting for my Indian pastor to come.
46:28
So I was trying to learn the language.
46:29
So I would pray one hour every morning.
46:32
That was the most blessed, joyful time of my life.
46:36
I was praying for a wife and God answered that prayer quickly.
46:39
But I you never felt so close. The more time you pray in
46:43
prayer, there's joy. I never felt so close to God.
46:46
But today we get busy. But but that's just one example
46:50
if you want to look at it, but it's a it was a joyful time.
46:56
Do you finish your prayer time with joy?
46:58
I hope you do. David did.
47:00
And then lastly here he says God is our shield.
47:03
God is our shield for you bless the righteous, O Lord, you cover
47:06
him as a favor with your shield. Unlike the wicked who God does
47:12
not hear their prayer, God does hear the prayer of the righteous
47:16
and He gives us mercy and His righteousness when He saved us.
47:20
When we pray, if we do it right, we should feel joy.
47:24
And one of the reasons we feel joy, as David has said here, is
47:28
that God is our shield. God is our shield is mentioned
47:32
18 times in the Psalms. Psalm 33 says, but you, O Lord,
47:37
are a shield about me, my glory, and the one who lifts up my
47:42
head. You know, I was reading my Old
47:44
Testament reading this morning and it was in First Samuel 23,
47:47
and David is running here. David is running there.
47:50
Saul is coming after him. Saul is chasing him here.
47:53
David asked if the men of Kela would give him up.
47:57
And David inquires of the Lord, and the Lord says they'll give
48:00
you up. So Dave is running everywhere.
48:02
But then you get to verse 14 and it says David stayed in the
48:06
wilderness in the strongholds, and you remain in the Hill
48:08
Country in the wilderness of Zip.
48:11
And Saul sought him every day. And then it says, but God did
48:16
not give him into his hand. And I love that God has a shield
48:21
about David and God has a shield about us.
48:24
James Boyce says God puts his shield of protection around the
48:28
righteous. Therefore the righteous put
48:30
their trust in him. You know, at the bottom of your,
48:35
your outline, there's a, a model of prayer.
48:38
We teach this in our fundamentals of faith class.
48:41
Gil teaches us in our prayer class.
48:43
And I've been teaching it. My wife is teaching it to the
48:45
women in Thailand. It's and maybe it's, you know,
48:49
very simple for you, but this is just a model and there's many
48:52
different models of prayer. You have the Lord's Prayer in
48:55
Matthew 6. There's all kinds of prayer
48:58
models out there. There's all kinds of books about
49:00
prayer. But if you're not familiar with
49:02
this, just re revise it tonight or retell it tonight.
49:06
A stands for adoration. Do you begin your prayers with
49:09
some adoration or do you begin your prayers with God?
49:12
I need this or God help me with this.
49:14
We need to spend some time in adoration praising God, and the
49:18
easiest way is for his attributes.
49:20
I mentioned Psalms 86, five, I think Psalms 868615, at least
49:25
there's five attributes. So when I see verses about God's
49:28
wrath, God's justice, God's omniscience, God's mercy, God's
49:32
grace, it's easy to to give God adoration for those attributes.
49:36
But we should begin our prayer with adoration, just a few
49:40
minutes. Secondly, confession.
49:42
We mentioned first John 19. We need to admit to God our sins
49:46
when you be honest and humble and confess those sins before
49:49
God. And thirdly, Thanksgiving.
49:53
We need to tell God how grateful you are for everything, even in
49:58
times of difficulty and trouble. And lastly, supplication.
50:02
This should be the last one. Unfortunately, this is what we
50:05
spend most of our time doing. We, we make specific requests
50:11
and you know, if you just, if you know your prayer time, just
50:13
think of the people in Christ Community Church, the widows,
50:17
those who've undergone chemotherapy, those who are
50:19
going to have operations. Pastor Lance is going to have an
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operation on his hip. He's going to have his hip
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replaced on May 23rd. So you guys need to start
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praying. OK, so May 23rd for that.
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But things like that, you just go through the congregation.
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A couple weeks ago, I didn't have a Sunday school class to
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teach, so I went to the library first service where we have a
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team praying and you're welcome to come.
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They pray in the library first service, they pray in the
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library second service. So I went to the library to pray
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and Dave Chapa was leading it and he handed all of us a sticky
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note or a cue card and I got 4 names of four people in the
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church to pray for, and then everybody got four names.
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So I prayed for the four people and I thought that was great.
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There's just so much and so many people and so many things we can
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pray for. And I could go on and on and on
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about that. John Wesley said, give me 100
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men who fear nothing but sin and desire nothing but God, and I
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care not whether they be clergymen, laymen, they alone
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will shake the gates of hell and set up the Kingdom of heaven
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upon earth. This quote tells us that there
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is power in just a few dedicated people, just a few dedicated
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prayer warriors of Christ Community Church can do great
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works. Christ Community Church is not a
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big church. I'm guessing there's about 100
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people here tonight. On Sundays, you know, 3 to 400.
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But May God look down upon this church and hear the prayers of
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the prayer warriors. And with much prayer, there's
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much power, as David says in Psalms 5.
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Let's pray. Father, thank you for letting us
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look briefly at Psalm 5. And Father, I pray that the
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people of Christ Community Church, they don't have to come
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to the library and pray. They don't have to come
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Wednesday nights at 6:30. They can pray in their quiet
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time in the morning. But Father, may you see Christ
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Community Church as a powerful, prayerful church.
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And Father, may you fill our pews with people.
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Fill our people with knowledge. May you help us reach the lost
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here in West Covina, Baldwin Park and Irwindale.
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May you help us to strengthen families and for children to
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obey their parents. Use this church in a mighty way
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and we all know it begins with prayer.
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We ask this in Jesus name, Amen.