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Psalm 119:33-40 - He · 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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  Welcome back to the Tabernacle Talk.
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  I hope that you're having a good day.
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  Today we are in Psalm 119 and we are looking at the Hebrew
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  letter. Hey, hey, you no, not that it is
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  the Hebrew letter and I actually recognize this letter because
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  I've I've seen what's called the Tetragrammaton that is the
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  Hebrew name for God. So the Lord in all caps or
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  you'll hear me say Yahweh. It's YHWH is kind of how we
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  would read those letters in English as we're reading the
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  Hebrew alphabet. And so I recognized, oh, I know
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  this letter because this is a part of God's covenant name.
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  And so it's actually right after the initial word in the Psalm.
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  So verses 33 through 40 are what we're going through today.
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  In case I didn't say that yet, verses 33 through 40 are the
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  verses that we're looking at in Psalm 119.
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  All of these verses start with the Hebrew letter.
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  But right after that very first word in this portion of
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  Scripture, then you have teach me Yahweh the meaning of Your
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  statutes. And so that word is right there.
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  So I'm going to read through. And then I have three challenges
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  from the Word that I think we can adopt even from this portion
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  of Scripture. As I've mentioned Psalm 119,
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  it's all about the Word of God. And so we're going to learn
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  about God's decrees, his way of living, what he has told us
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  about himself and about our world, and about the story that
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  he is writing as a result. So let's begin verse 33.
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  Teach me Yahweh the meaning of your statutes and I will always
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  keep them. Help me understand your
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  instruction and I will obey it and follow it with all my heart.
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  Help me stay on the path of Your commands, for I take pleasure in
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  it. Turn my heart to your decrees
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  and not to dishonest prophet. Turn my eyes from looking at
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  what is worthless. Give me life in Your ways.
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  Confirm what you said to your servant, for it produces
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  reverence for you. Turn away the disgrace that I
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  dread. Indeed, your judgments are good.
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  How I long for your precepts. Give me life through your
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  righteousness. All right, I love in these.
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  There's just so many facets all the way through someone 19 so
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  many facets of as you look at what God has communicated to you
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  and to I how we think about it and what it means and what it
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  tells us about who we are, what it tells us about what our
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  future is about how it can change our our circumstances,
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  our environments. There's just so much beauty to
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  be found in looking over US, adopting what the Lord has
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  called us to do through His eternal Word.
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  So I see first today that we must allow God to reshape us by
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  His word. We need God to reshape, to
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  change us by His Word. I can see this especially in
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  verses 33 through 35. He says teach me Yahweh the
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  meaning of your statutes and I will always keep them.
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  We talked about last episode the fact that learning the Word of
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  God, learning spiritual truth is not just like memorizing for a
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  test. We actually need the Holy Spirit
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  to illuminate the Word of God to us.
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  We need to learn about the Word of God from the Spirit of God.
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  And as I mentioned last time, the Spirit of God will sometimes
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  use the people of God to do that.
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  And So what I noticed here in the instructions, he says this
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  pleading, this praying to the Lord teach me.
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  He says, help me in verse 34, help me understand your
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  instruction and verse 35, help me stay on the path of your
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  commands. There is this request from the
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  psalmist to say, God, I, I know some things about your word.
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  I, I know the stories of Genesis and of Exodus.
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  I've heard about what you did with the children of Israel in
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  Numbers and in Deuteronomy. I heard about how you set up the
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  relationship with us in Leviticus.
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  But God, I need to know not just what it says, I need to know
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  what it means and specifically what it means for my
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  relationship with You. Because I want to keep these
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  statutes. I want to obey them.
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  I want to follow them with all of my heart and I want to stay
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  on the path that they outline for how I ought to live.
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  And certainly, even as we now have the complete and total word
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  of God, we don't just have a few books.
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  We've got the whole thing that God has outlined for us.
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  And certainly we can echo with this psalmist, God, I need you
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  to help reshape me because the way that I talk is not the way
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  that God would talk. The way that I treat other
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  people isn't the way that God would want me to, the way that
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  I, I, I was thinking about this the other day, the way that I
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  interact with the world that God has given me.
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  I is not what's right. I think about for, for many
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  people, they're going to do, you know, New Year's goals and New
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  Year's resolutions. And I've got someones that I
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  have written down that I'm honestly, I, I'm really praying
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  over to say God, I want this to be a change, several changes
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  that I'm making as a result of my faith in you and my desire to
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  do what you want me to with my life.
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  I don't want it to just be OK. Yeah.
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  Now Brian has become more disciplined than he was in the
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  your previous. I want to be closer to God.
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  But if that's going to happen, then I need the word of God to
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  reshape me. So specifically some of the
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  things I'm thinking through. For a lot of people, they have
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  struggles with God is given food, but they eat too much food
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  or they don't share food with others.
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  For some people, you know God has has given us drinks, but
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  perhaps they might drink too much or there should be some
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  things that they shouldn't drink and yet they do.
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  God has given us people or spouses that we are to love and
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  to care for and we don't treat them well or we utilize our body
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  and our sexuality in ways that God does not want us to.
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  He has not decreed that we should with which is within the
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  bonds of marriage between a man and a woman faithfully together
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  for one lifetime until, as the marriage vows say, until death
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  does its part. And so in all these things, we
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  need God to reshape the way that we interact with our world.
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  God has given us money, but some of us operate in greed instead
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  of in generosity. And so I want to ask, Lord,
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  would you reshape me through your word?
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  May I choose to value, may I choose to proportion out my life
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  in a way that is honoring to you and I love what the psalmist
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  here says. He says, God, when you teach me
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  what your statutes mean, I'm going to keep those statutes.
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  God, when you help me understand your instruction, I'm going to
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  obey it and I'm going to follow it with all of my heart.
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  Frankly, it if you purport to be a Christian, you ought to say,
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  God, it does not matter anymore what I want.
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  What matters is what you want. And so God, if you say, hey,
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  this person shouldn't be in your life during this season, they
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  are a bad influence on you and you are not good at saying no to
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  them right now, then we ought to say, OK, God, I will release
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  this friendship for the time being.
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  If God says, hey, you need to cut out, you know, it could be
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  different for all sorts of people.
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  You need to cut out all desserts, you know, for the time
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  being, or you need to cut out drinking.
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  You need to intentionally choose to invest some portion of your
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  paychecks into the Kingdom of God or into caring for those
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  less fortunate or into this or that.
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  We ought to say God. Whatever it is that you want
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  from me, I will allow you to change me.
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  So first, allow God to reshape you by his word.
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  Secondly, we should shift our focus from this world to the
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  word. We should shift our focus from
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  this world to the word. I can see this in verses 36 and
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  37 where he says turn my heart to your decrees and not to
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  dishonest prophet. Turn my eyes from looking at
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  what is worthless. Give me life in your ways here,
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  dishonest prophet and worthless things, those that have no
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  lasting value here. What is worthless is futile.
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  It's inconsequential. The temptation force is always
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  to keep our eyes on earth that we say OK if I can just get 5
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  million in the bank then I will be set for the rest of my life.
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  I can have a, a great retirement and I will be OK so long as this
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  money is here and I have confidence in this that
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  everything will be fine or we think OK, this perhaps hobby
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  that I have. This is what I'm going to
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  totally give all of my life and my attention to this will define
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  me. You know, I, I enjoy video
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  games, but I know that there's people in our world that spend
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  way too much time on it. Like I'll, I'll play every maybe
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  like two or three weeks predominantly on my day off.
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  And there are people that every single night it's just straight
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  to video games and they're playing for hours and hours and
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  hours. And maybe it might be to the
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  detriment of their souls that they're not spending time with
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  God. It could be to the detriment of
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  their family relationships or friendships or being able to
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  minister to their neighbors. There are 1000 different ways
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  that someone could be focusing on the here and now instead of
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  the hereafter. And so here the psalmist says,
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  God, would you turn my heart, my soul, my inner affection to
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  God's decrees, to the word of God and not to dishonest
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  prophet. He says, God, my tendency is
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  going to be that my soul wants greed, my soul wants money, my
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  soul wants the padded 4O1K, my soul wants to win the Powerball.
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  And so everything that I'm thinking and doing and working
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  towards is towards either money or what I can gain as a result
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  of money. You might be like, well, listen,
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  I'm not all that serious about money.
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  But yes, I do really love, you know, collecting insane amounts
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  of this thing or that thing or I want to go on 27 trips this next
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  year and just to see all the sites all across the world.
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  And so that's what I'm going to do.
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  And here the psalmist says, no, God, I want you to take my soul
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  and the deepest parts of me that are set towards money or towards
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  what money can give me, and I want you to turn my innermost
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  affections towards your word. And that's not just like, oh
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  man, I love the Bibles a lot. Now, there's certainly we can
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  and should love the Bible. It is that we would follow God's
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  way. It's his direction and that's
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  what we are pressing towards. And then verse 37, he says, turn
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  my eyes from looking at what is worthless.
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  So he says first God Orient my soul, my innermost being towards
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  your word, not towards money or what I can gain.
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  And then he says turn my eyes. That is what I'm actually like
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  looking at all the time. Help me to not focus on what
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  fades away, what is temporary, what in 50 or 100 years I will
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  not care one iota about and instead have my focus be the
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  ways of God. He says, turn my eyes from
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  looking at what is worthless. Give me life in your ways.
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  You can find true, real, meaningful, impactful, joy
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  filled life in the things of God and in the ways of God and
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  caring for others and loving them and sharing the gospel and
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  being a light in your city or in your family or in your
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  workplace. It is the best life.
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  It is the life that God made us for.
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  And so ask the Lord God, would you help me to shift my focus
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  from this world to the word? That doesn't mean, OK, I'm going
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  to become a monk and I'm just going to spend all of my time
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  pouring over the Scriptures. Pouring over the scriptures is
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  great, but God has called us to actually be involved in the
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  lives of others. We'd be involved at our job,
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  involved in our neighborhood, involved in our family.
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  And so may we allow God to shift our focus from the temporary to
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  the eternal. Then lastly today jump into what
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  God has guaranteed and see him come through for you every time.
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  Jump into what God has guaranteed and see him come
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  through for you every time. I see this in verses 38 through
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  40, he says confirm what you said to your servant for it
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  produces reverence for you. He says God I respect you and I
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  think you are amazing when you confirm what you said to me.
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  Hear this word of God, that when we think about the promise from
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  Hebrews 13 that I will never leave you or forsake you.
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  So be content with such things as you have when I think about
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  the promise of Jesus. By this shall all men know that
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  you are my disciples. If you have love for one
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  another. I think of the promise in Isaiah
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  that God's Word will not return to him empty, but it will
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  accomplish the purpose that He sent it to accomplish.
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  I think about the truth in Malachi actually, that we went
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  over man probably a couple months ago now, but in Malachi
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  where he told the children of Israel, prove me now and see if
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  you bring your tithe in. See if I will not pour out a
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  blessing from heaven on you so that you won't even be able to
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  bear it. Or the somewhat similar line in
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  Second Corinthians where Paul tells the Corinthian believers
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  that as they give to the Lord's work and as the Macedonian
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  churches like Philip, I had already experienced that as they
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  gave to the Lord's work that God poured out grace and new ability
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  for them to be able to accomplish God's will.
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  And so here when he says confirm what you said to your servant,
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  the thing that it sparks in my mind is God help me to jump in,
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  to help me to act in faith and belief based on what your word
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  has promised. Of course, at its most basic
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  level, this is turn your life over to Jesus Christ as your
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  Lord and your Savior, as you repent of your sin as you like.
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  I did when I was nine years old and I realized that I had never
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  personally placed my faith in Jesus.
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  I'd grown up in church. I knew a lot of verses.
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  I knew a lot of songs. I attended church all the time,
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  but I realized that I'd never personally placed my faith in
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  Jesus. Turn my life over to him, if you
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  will. I'd never tossed him the keys
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  and said, Jesus, take the wheel. And at nine years old, I said,
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  Jesus, I know that I'm a Sinner. I know that you came and you
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  died for me on the cross and you were buried and you rose again.
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  I, I believe that you will forgive all of my sins.
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  Would you come into my life and save me and help me to live for
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  you. And I did that at nine years old
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  and I'm so glad that I jumped into what God is guaranteed that
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  those that come to Jesus, He will never for any reason cast
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  out. And the same is true for you
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  today. If you have never turned your
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  life over to Jesus, you've never repented of your sin and said,
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  Jesus, I'm no longer the one in charge of my life.
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  You're the one in charge now. You can make that decision even
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  today. And I would invite you to do
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  that. You can just scroll back just a
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  couple like a 2 minutes, and you can listen to that kind of
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  prayer that I prayed when I was 8 years old.
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  It's not magic words or anything that saves you, but as you from
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  the heart give your life over to Christ.
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  Scripture says that whoever calls on the name of the Lord
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  will be saved. And then if you truly have
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  placed your faith in Christ, I encourage you to get baptized at
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  a local church. If you're here in the Essex
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  area, would certainly love to baptize you right here at
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  Tabernacle Baptist. And but that would be a
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  wonderful thing for you to do to say God, you've said this.
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  And so I'm going to hold you to your word.
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  I'm going to prove that you are trustworthy, but you can never
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  prove that God is trustworthy unless you jump out into the
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  deep. You got to be like Peter
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  stepping out of the boat onto the water to prove that when
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  Jesus said, yeah, you know, come to me and you can walk on the
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  water like I can. We got to step out of the boat
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  and I love that that God comes through for us every time.
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  Verse 39 turn away the disgrace. I dread indeed, your judgments
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  are good. We fear what will happen if we
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  step out in faith and follow the Lord in some area where maybe
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  we're sacrificing a little bit of who we feel we are.
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  There's some sin that has become so much a part of our lives that
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  to give it up, to give up the addiction, to give up the the
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  relationship that we shouldn't be in, to give up our desire for
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  bitterness or unforgiveness feels like we're dying and we're
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  worried about what will happen if we give up that part of us to
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  the Lord. But can I tell you God over and
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  over and over again, He confirms what he has said, and it
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  produces reverence for him when he does it.
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  So put God to the test in that way and see him be wonderful in
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  your life. I've been attaching to every one
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  of these through Psalm 119. A there's a group called Still
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  Creek and they have been recording songs based on each of
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  these individual sections in Psalm 119.
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  And so you can look at the show notes or the, you know,
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  description on YouTube or on Facebook for all of these
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  episodes. And you can listen to a song
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  that people have written about these particular sections of
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  Psalm 119. And I know it'll be an
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  encouragement to you. I've been really blessed through
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  listening to them this year. Well, thank you for tuning in.
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  See you next episode.