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Psalm 141 - Accountability and Daily Prayer · 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 Tabernacle Talk. Today we are in Psalm 141, Psalm
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  141, and this is a Psalm of David.
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  Let's read together, beginning in verse #1 Yahweh, I call on
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  you. Hurry to help me.
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  Listen to My voice when I call on you.
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  May my prayer be set before you as incense, the raising of My
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  hands as the evening offering. Yahweh, Set up a guard from my
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  mouth. Keep watch at the door of my
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  lips. Do not let my heart turn to any
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  evil thing or perform wicked acts with evil doers.
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  Do not let me feast on their delicacies.
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  Let the righteous one strike me. It is an act of faithful love.
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  Let him rebuke me. It is oil for my head.
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  Let me not refuse it. Even now.
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  My prayer is against the evil acts of the wicked.
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  When their rulers will be thrown off the sides of a Cliff, the
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  people will listen to my words, for they are pleasing.
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  As when 1 plows and breaks up the soil, turning up rocks, so
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  our bones have been shattered at the mouth of the grave.
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  But my eyes look to you, Yahweh. My Lord, I seek refuge.
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  I seek refuge in you. Do not let me die.
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  Protect me from the trap they have set for me, and from the
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  snares of evildoers. Let the wicked fall into their
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  own Nets while I pass by safely. Here David has a prayer for
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  protection from both sin and sinners, and it begins in verses
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  1 and 2 by saying this, God, I need you to help me out, I am
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  calling to you. I am in need of divine
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  assistance. He says, listen to me when I am
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  calling to you. And then I love what he says in
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  verse #2 He says, May my prayer be set before you as incense,
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  the raising of my hands as the evening.
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  Offering incense and the daily offerings were things that
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  regularly happened in the worship of God.
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  And David says here that he wants his prayer to go up as
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  regularly and as often to God as the incense is within the place
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  of God's worship. That he says, Lord, all of the
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  time this incense is here and it is a reminder both of your
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  presence. It is a sweet smell that is
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  pleasing to you. And he says, God, I want my
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  prayers to you to be pleasing to you and to be regular, that it's
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  just constant that I am before your face seeking your will and
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  your your aid in my life. I think of what Paul tells the
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  Thessalonikan Church in First Thessalonians 5 where he says
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  pray without ceasing. Don't stop praying.
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  And I think there's a a song by the the Christian musician
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  Matthew West that has that title Don't Stop Praying for My Life.
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  How often do I treat prayer not like this?
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  Like when you think about your prayer life, is it something
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  that you are constantly giving to God?
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  Is it something that is regular and repeatable?
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  Like the evening offering? There were no ifs, ands, or buts
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  about it. Every single night there was an
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  offering that was given in thanks and worship to God.
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  And I want to have that mindset in my prayer life to say, Lord,
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  it's going to be regular. And I'm thankful for the times
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  in my life where my prayers have been regular.
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  Very unfortunately for me, most of the time that's been when
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  things are going horribly that I'm just having to constantly
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  call out to God to go Lord. There's a whole new thing now,
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  new problem, new difficulty, new financial burden, new, you know,
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  this or that. And I want to be faithful to
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  always be praying to God, not just when things are going
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  haywire, but when things are going good because God is
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  worthy. He is the one that needs to be
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  called on in times of trouble, but He's also the God who is
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  worthy to be thanked when everything is going well.
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  He's the one that I can continue to call on to go, God, would you
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  not lead me into temptation, not lead me into, if you will, the
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  test, but deliver me from the evil when I don't want to have
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  to go into that moment of having to choose between, you know,
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  ultimate good and ultimate evil. You think of Adam and Eve,
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  they're in the garden, they encounter Satan and they have
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  this choice of listen to God or eat the fruit and they choose to
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  eat the fruit. Or you can think about Abraham
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  and as there's Isaac that's there and he has this test in
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  this moment of am I going to listen to God even when I don't
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  understand everything right now? Or am I going to choose to
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  reject God's way Job in his life that he encounters ridiculous
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  trials maybe unlike anything anyone else has ever experienced
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  the like of again. And he has a choice of listening
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  to Satan's temptation and cursing God and dying.
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  Or he can believe that the God that allowed difficulty in his
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  life is still good and is still to be trusted and obeyed and
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  followed. And of course he chose the good
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  way. But that's that's why when Jesus
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  tells us we pray, don't lead us into temptation, but deliver us
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  from evil. And so that's something we can
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  certainly pray. Verses #3 through 6 he talks
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  about what he is asking for the Lord to do in regards to his own
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  sin within his life, that he recognized God.
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  I am imperfect and so I need some things from you.
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  Verse #3 Yahweh set up a guard for my mouth.
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  Keep watch at the door of my lips.
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  God, I tend to say things that I should not say and hear whether
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  that would be like gossip or slandery things, whether that
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  would be, you know, inappropriate or impure things
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  that he would say. I don't know what all David's
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  difficulties were, but he says, God, I need you.
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  I'm, I'm so many of these Psalms that we've read come from David.
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  David had a great way with words.
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  I assume that that also had a downside that he was just quick
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  to think. And so whatever he thought, man,
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  he was saying it out loud. And he goes, God, I'm not
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  supposed to be doing that. Like I'm saying things that I
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  should not be saying. So God set up a guard that keeps
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  watch over my lips that goes, Nope, David shouldn't say that.
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  Absolutely not. Nope.
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  That's not appropriate. That's not good.
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  That's not uplifting. And I think for us, especially
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  in 2026, this is a prayer that we can pray of God.
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  We say and type things that we shouldn't.
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  And so God, would you keep watch?
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  I want you to be the guard that you go, Nope, Brian, you
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  shouldn't say that. Nope, you shouldn't type that.
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  Get your hand off the keyboard. You know, shut your lips.
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  Now is not the time. Now is not the place.
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  That is not a good thing to say, and I hope that you would pray
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  that as well. God, would you set a watch, set
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  up a guard from my mouth, and keep watch at the door of my
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  lips. Verse #4 Do not let my heart
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  turn to any evil thing, or perform wicked acts with evil
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  doers. Do not let me feast on their
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  delicacies. Don't let me have a love for
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  what is wrong, because what is wrong can often be enticing.
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  We can look at the fruit and go, man, that does look like a
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  beautiful fruit. And it can make me wise to know
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  both good and evil. And so yeah, I, I think I'll
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  reach out and take it. No, let's not let our hearts be
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  tilted towards doing what's wrong.
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  It may look temporarily appealing, but the long term
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  fruits and results of sin is death and destruction and
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  separation and a ruining of everything that we encounter in
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  our lives. And so here this is David's
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  prayer of God. Don't let my heart start going
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  somewhere that then my feet follow.
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  Verse #5 Let the righteous one strike me.
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  It is an act of faithful love. Let him rebuke me.
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  It is oil for my head. Let me not refuse it.
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  Even now. My prayer is against the evil
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  acts of the wicked. Here David says there is
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  wonderful joy and safety and kindness in someone telling me
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  when I am in sin. Here he says when the righteous
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  one strikes me, it is an act of faithful love.
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  It's literally someone hitting David and going, you numbskull.
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  You should not have asked about who the woman that was bathing.
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  You should not have asked about who that was like that was
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  wrong. And also, she is the wife of one
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  of your top officials and one of your top, you know, officials,
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  officers in the army. And her grandfather is one of
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  your counselors. And so you should absolutely not
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  do that. Or you have Nathan that at the
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  end of the whole fiasco with Bathsheba and Uriah that he
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  tells David in a story about evil and wrong.
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  He says you are that man. You are the man in the story.
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  And so here David says it's a good thing for us when someone
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  tells us that we are wrong, that we are in sin, that we have
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  violated God's law. That is not a normal way for us
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  to view that we get self-righteous.
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  We go, no, listen, I was fine to say that because they or well, I
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  just really wanted to or it's not that bad or does God really
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  care if those are like excuses that we give, but it is a
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  valuable thing to us when we are called out on our sin.
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  Who have you given access to in your life that they know that
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  they can tell you when you have messed up?
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  If you don't have someone in your life right now that you
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  have explicitly given access to to do that for you, I encourage
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  you like literally as soon as you're done with this episode,
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  do that. Text someone and be like, hey, I
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  I realize I'm not always perfect and I need someone that will let
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  me know when I'm making mistakes.
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  I am giving you permission and asking for you to call me out
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  when you notice stuff with me as a pastor there.
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  There are people that I talked with that when they're told of
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  what the Bible says, man, they embrace it.
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  They go, yeah, that's how I'm going to live my life.
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  I love being able to interact with those people.
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  One of the greatest heart breaks that I've had as a pastor is
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  when I've talked with people about sin and they choose to
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  just continue in it and just kind of like shun and shut out
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  people in their life that spoke truth to them, especially truth
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  spoken in love. It's one thing if we're if we're
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  a jerk to people when we call out they're sin or they're
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  wrongdoing, we shouldn't do that.
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  But what we should do is in love and care and wanting for that
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  person to experience the fullest life that God has for them, that
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  we want them to see where there are some blind spots in their
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  life right now. And so David says, God, this is
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  what I want. I want to be able to have people
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  speaking into my life. I'll tell you guys, for
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  literally anyone that is watching this, listening to
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  this, you have permission to speak that into my life.
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  You're like, well, listen, Brian, you know, I'm I'm not,
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  I'm not a pastor, I'm not an elder.
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  You know, I'm not your spouse, you know, do I really have that?
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  No, no, you are my brother or sister in Christ.
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  And so the Holy Spirit of God lives inside of you.
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  And here's what I'm not saying. If you have some, you know,
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  comment about a non Bible thing, a a non character thing, if
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  you're like, listen, I think you would look so much better in
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  blue shirts than in green shirts.
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  And so that is me, you know, being real with you.
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  No, that's not the kind of thing I'm talking about.
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  You see any character things, you go, Brian, you're really
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  angry. God, Brian, you're really proud
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  man. What a hopefully not Freudian
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  slip, as they would say. I'm used to when I'm talking
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  through some of the things, you know, saying God, I, I need
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  this. And so I slipped back into
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  freezing it that way. But you have access into to
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  speak into my life to go. Hey, I see that there's pride.
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  I see that there is, you know, wickedness.
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  I I see that there is anger and intemperance, you know, whatever
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  it is, because I want to be open and accountable with God's
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  people. Because as that happens, I get
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  to grow and learn and become more like Jesus.
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  And that's the whole point of why I exist is to become more
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  like Jesus Christ. And so that's something that I I
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  want for my own life. Now, maybe if you have like
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  character things, you don't have to throw it in the comments of a
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  YouTube video or Facebook video and be like, here's all of the
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  sins I see in you and I'll be like, oh, Dang.
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  But certainly reach out via message, text, phone call,
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  whatever. Because I want to realize I'm
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  imperfect. I am hopefully around people,
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  speaking to people, regularly communicating with people,
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  whether via, you know, text, call, social media something
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  that then they feel as though I am not unassailable, that they
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  don't think that I think I have it all together.
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  I need the body of Christ to help build me up into who God
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  wants me to be. And I hope that that is your
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  prayer as well. I apologize.
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  That was a massive rabbit trail. But in verse #6 David says when
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  they're rulers, these are the wicked rulers, those that are
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  taking place in evil acts. He says when their rulers will
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  be thrown off the sides of a Cliff, the people will listen to
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  my words, for they are pleasing. He says when wicked rulers are
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  out, then people are more apt to listen to good rulers.
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  This is another one of those things again and again.
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  We do not read in scripture that only pastors need to be godly
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  people. Every single person is called to
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  be godly and if you are ungodly, it will cause a cancer, a a sin,
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  cancer in wherever you are, whether that is in government,
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  whether that is in your workplace.
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  So each of us ought to personally seek to have a
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  vibrant relationship with God in which we are seeking to become
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  more and more like Jesus, that we want to become godly.
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  And then when we get our choices of who we pick as leaders, maybe
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  even if you're able to pick, you know, you have two jobs and
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  they're mostly identical, but you know, the one has a
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  legitimate born again Christian that through the way that they
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  live their life, not just through what they call
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  themselves, but the way that they live their life, you know
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  that they're really a Jesus follower.
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  Choose the workplace that has a a Jesus follower because there
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  you have the blessing of God as his character and his spirit is
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  moving and working in people that are leading and guiding in
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  direction. And so it is even with our
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  elected officials if we have the choice between all right, here's
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  these two people and I hate the two party system, by the way, I
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  don't know if that that's come up yet.
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  Anyways, I'm going to go way too far.
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  Suffice it to say, godly rulers good, ungodly rulers bad verse
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  #7 As we get here to the end, as when 1 plows and breaks up the
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  soil, turning up rocks, so our bones have been scattered at the
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  mouth of the grave. He says, God, our nation has
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  been through it and we have died.
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  There have been so many deaths that have occurred here.
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  It's the mouth of Sheol. It's the mouth of the grave.
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  And so God, we have just been the the phrase literally in
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  verse 7. It's we have been plowed through
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  as a people, as a nation. And so God, we need good rulers.
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  I need you to help me be right and good, that I would not say
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  bad things, that I would not do bad things.
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  We have the wicked rulers out now, God.
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  We don't want to go that path anymore and said now we want to
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  go the good path. And so God, I'm asking for your
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  help with that. Verse 8, my eyes look to you,
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  Yahweh. My Lord, I seek refuge in you.
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  Do not let me die. Protect me from the trap that
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  they have set for me and from the snares of evildoers.
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  Let the wicked fall into their own Nets while I pass safely.
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  He says, Lord, if I'm going to make it through, I have to have
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  you. And for you and I today, if
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  we're going to make it through life, if we're going to make it
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  through 2026, it is only going to come by the person and work
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  of Jesus Christ and his Holy Spirit moving and working in US.
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  And so me, we echo with David. God, protect us, keep a watch
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  over us, hear our cry, help us to walk with you.
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  Help us to not go evil or wrong direction.
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  Help us to go your direction. And man, so much great, so many
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  great things from Psalm 141. I hope it was an encouragement
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  to you. I know it was a little here,
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  there and everywhere at various points, but if you have any
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  questions or want to talk at any time, I would love to hear from
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  you. Always love to to be able to
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  hear when people are listening to the podcast, if there's
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  things that are helpful for them as they're going through.
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  Maybe if there's something that I sometimes do on the podcast
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  that's really helpful to you, let me know that so I can do
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  more of it. Or if there's something that I
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  do that you guys are like, listen Brian, whenever you're
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  doing this totally throws me off.
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  I just have to turn the thing off.
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  Let me know that too. And that would be a help to me
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  as I seek to be a blessing through Tabernacle Talk.
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  Thanks for tuning in. See you next episode.