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Psalm 119:161-168 - Sin/Shin · 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 our second to
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  last episode of Psalm 1/19, and today we're covering verses 161
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  to 168. That's 161 to 168.
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  And all of these verses start with the Hebrew letter sin or
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  shin, sin or shin. And whether it's sin or shin,
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  the the Hebrew letter kind of looks like AW of sorts in the
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  English language. And if it is sin, it's got a
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  little dot over the third, you know, kind of upper line there.
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  And if it's got a dot over the first upper line, this works a
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  little bit better. If you're watching the video
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  podcast, it's got a dot over that initial line, then it's the
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  letter shin. And so we are, we have been
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  traveling through Psalm 119. This is our 21st of 22 episodes
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  in Psalm 119. And all of these verses have
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  been about the Word of God and the Word of God is not just I
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  hope that this has been really clear as we've gone through.
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  The Word of God is not just the Bible as a literary unit.
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  It is also like the commands of God contained therein.
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  It's the character of God that we find in that.
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  It's not simply. OK.
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  If I read through, you know, the read through a portion of my
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  Bible today, then yeah, I assume that good things are going to
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  happen to me. No, it's it's actually much
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  better. It's much deeper than that.
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  It is as God's Holy Spirit living and working in me and in
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  you. As He uses His Word to inform us
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  about Him and his nature and his character and his victories and
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  his the ways in which He designed our world and our lives
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  to work. We are transformed.
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  We are made new. We find that we can live life in
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  the way that God made us to as a result of Him continuing to work
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  in and through us. And so we can love the Word of
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  God for what it gives us and what it shows us, which is who
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  our God is, what He's like, what He's done, what His promises
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  are, and as a result, who we are called to be and what we are
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  called to do, even in this Dark World.
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  Well, let's begin in verse 161 and we'll see what the Lord has
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  for us today. Princess have persecuted me
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  without cause, but my heart fears only your Word.
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  I rejoice over Your promise like one who finds vast treasure.
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  I hate and abhor falsehood, but I love Your instruction.
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  I praise You 7 times a day for Your righteous judgments.
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  Abundant peace belongs to those who love Your instruction.
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  Nothing makes them stumble. Yahweh, I hope for Your
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  salvation and carry out Your commands.
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  I obey Your decrees and love them greatly.
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  I obey Your precepts and decrees, for all My ways are
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  before You. Well let's look at these verses
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  and see what we can learn for today.
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  Verse 161 Prince's have persecuted me without cause, but
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  my heart fears only your word. I think here of David that this
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  would describe him so many times in his life as he interacted
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  with King Saul and Israel, as he interacted with many of the
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  Philistine kings and rulers, as he interacted with people that
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  were over specific cities many times that abused their position
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  and authority in order to bring him harm.
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  And so he experienced hardship without reason that he was not
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  one at that point in his life that was doing wrong by Saul or
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  doing wrong by whatever Philistine king.
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  And yet they were attacking him. But here he says, God, instead
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  of fearing people, instead of fearing those that can hurt my
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  body, I am going to only fear, respect, tremble before your
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  word. What makes you afraid?
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  Do the threats of other people make you afraid?
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  Does the environment in which you find yourself in 21st
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  century America or Canada or Europe or wherever you might be,
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  does that cause you to fear? Can I ask you why does it cause
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  you to fear? What do you truly have to lose?
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  I've been blown away just over and over again over the past
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  several months by the words of Jesus as he tells us in Matthew
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  10. I want to say I'm going to have
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  to go back through and look at the exact reference.
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  You can. You can Google it or search the
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  verse. You'll find it as well.
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  But in Matthew 10, Jesus says this.
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  Do not fear those who can kill the body and after that can do
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  nothing else but fear Him who can cast you body and soul into
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  hell. And I think for my life I have
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  far too often feared the approval of people.
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  I have feared the displeasure of those, maybe in my church, maybe
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  in my family, maybe, and you know, mentors, teachers,
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  whatever it might be. And I feared them and their
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  opinion of me more than I feared my God's estimation and opinion
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  of me. And the truth is God's opinion
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  is the only one that matters. It doesn't matter if you know
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  every person in Essex and Middle River likes me.
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  If God is displeased with me, then all the approval of
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  mankind, it means nothing. It doesn't matter if everyone,
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  even at Tabernacle Baptist Church is happy with me.
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  If I am not following what I know that the Lord would have me
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  to do, then I am in sin before my God.
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  And so we always have to choose who are we going to fear?
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  Who are we going to be afraid of?
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  We can either choose to fear God or fear man.
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  And when we fear man, we will change what we do in order.
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  We will change what we know that God would have us to do in order
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  that people may be pleased with us.
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  The unfortunate thing is, people will never ultimately be pleased
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  with us. You are never going to be
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  someone's perfect, ideal person in every way.
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  You're always going to let someone down somehow.
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  So don't live for their approval.
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  Live for the approval of God. As you live for the approval of
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  God, you will, you will many times find yourself in people's
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  good graces because they know you're not going to lie to them,
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  you're not going to cheat them, you're not going to gossip about
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  them. You know, all that kind of
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  stuff. And that can be good and that
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  can foster some good relationships.
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  But realize, make obeying and following God preeminent, and
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  then expect that for others as well.
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  Like as you interact with your fellow Christians, make what's
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  most important. Not what you think that they
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  should do, but make the most important thing.
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  Are you doing what you think that God wants you to?
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  Did you respond in the way that you think God would want you to
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  to that situation as Jesus and the word of God and the will of
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  God is that becomes the focus man.
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  All of our churches will be better for it.
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  Our small groups will be better for it.
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  You know, I I think of myself even as an elder with our other
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  elders here at Tabernacle. We will be better off as we
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  don't say, what does Brian want? What does you know Owen want?
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  What does so and so want? No, no, no, let's not look at
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  what people want. Let's look at the word and say
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  what does the word have for us to do?
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  And as we follow the word, we can find out that we really
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  don't need to fear anyone else. We just need to fear God.
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  Verse 162 I rejoice over a promise like one who finds vast
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  treasure does scripture, does the Bible, does it bring joy to
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  your life? I got to tell you guys this.
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  This is something that is probably a little harder for me
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  to imagine being different than the way that I currently
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  experience it. So I, I grew up memorizing lots
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  of scripture. I think I've mentioned on here
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  before, I, I memorized over the course of, you know, my, my
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  childhood and, and teen years, probably 13 books of Scripture
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  from the New Testament. And so I always like learned a
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  lot about the Bible, but in college and especially past
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  college as I began reading, you know, modern translations of
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  Scripture, the word just came alive in such an incredible way
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  that I got so much joy out of it.
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  I've mentioned before on here many times, and I will continue
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  to do so till I'm dead. The Bible Project and their
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  their podcasts and their different like classroom classes
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  and all of that have just made me feel like there is nothing
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  cooler, better, more worthy of my time than the word of God.
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  And so I want to encourage you find whatever really helps light
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  that spark for that love and that joy for the Word of God in
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  you. Frankly, I tell you this, if
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  Tabernacle talk doesn't help you, like get in the Word, then
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  don't listen to me. Like if, if Tabernacle talk
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  makes you go, the Bible's kind of boring, or at least the way
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  that Brian's presenting, it's kind of boring.
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  Well then don't listen to me like I will give you 70
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  different resources. I I regularly look at and listen
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  to other churches preaching, even some from some of my
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  friends in the area, Joel Kurz with the Garden Church, Matt
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  Robinson with Bethlehem Church. I listen to my friend Pastor
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  Michael Bosworth at Ridge Point Church in Wenatchee, WA.
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  Oh, Josh Tice with Southern Hills Church in Las Vegas.
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  I listen to these guys because they help me love the word more.
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  Frankly, I, I think Matt Robinson's a hilarious preacher.
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  I, I love being able to listen to him.
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  Josh Tice is one of those ones that every time that I listen to
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  him, I go, man, I love the word. The word is exciting.
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  The word is vital. It's alive.
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  And so I want to know more of the word of God.
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  I want to tell other people about what I'm learning right
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  now through listening to this. Find people, find podcasts, find
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  sermons and and and churches that you are able to listen to
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  that can help stoke and further your love for the word of God,
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  because it is vast treasure that we need to rejoice over.
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  And so I want to encourage you pursue pursue things that help
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  you have a love for the word. If you have any questions about
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  that or if you're like, all right, Brian, I just really love
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  super practical. Here's what to do as a result of
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  the the Bible stuff. Do you have a resource for that?
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  I absolutely do the strength for the day podcast.
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  That's my, my pastor back in Washington state, Dennis
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  Fountain. He does a strength for the day
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  podcast. That one's incredibly practical.
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  Like he's a very applicational preacher.
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  And so he, he will be able to give you a lot of OK, here's
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  what you walk away and do as a result of the if you're like,
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  man, I really want to, you know, dig deep into it.
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  The Bible Project podcast and the Bible Talk podcast.
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  Both of those would be excellent resources.
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  If you're like, man, I really want just a super, you know,
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  basic kind of look at stuff. You can look at Everyday Truth
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  podcast with Pastor Kurt Skelly down in I think it's
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  Fredericksburg, VA and he's got a great podcast, Everyday Truth.
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  I'm actually this year walking through with my wife, Tim Wilde
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  Smith. Tim Wilde Smith has a book
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  called the Daily Scripture Notebook, or it might be
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  guidebook, and he's doing a podcast as well, going through
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  those weekly readings. And so they're reading through
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  Scripture. And so I'm doing that with
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  Samantha this year just so we can continue to kind of, you
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  know, grow and learn together as as a couple into what God would
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  have for us. And so that would be a great
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  resource to look at. There's one called the Bible
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  Recap. I believe that's the title the
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  Bible recap. It's got a blue cover on it and
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  I think that's with Tara Lee Cobble.
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  My buddy Matt Melton has used it for a couple of the of years.
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  Matt, if you see this, if you're watching this on like Facebook
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  or YouTube, throw in, you know, the link or whatever for that,
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  if you, if you want to, because that's a great resource that
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  even my friend Mike Bosworth uses with his family and with
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  his two daughters that are a little younger.
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  And so there's just so many great resources.
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  There is no excuse for us to not like be in the word of God other
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  than our own, like laziness and willingness to reject spending
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  time. God's made it super easy for us
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  in the 21st century. We have to take advantage of it.
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  That's all I'll say on that end for now, verse 163.
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  I hate and abhor falsehood, but I love your instruction.
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  God's word is truth. All of our stuff, it can be
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  lies. Whatever we have that runs
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  contrary to the word of God is a lie.
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  It doesn't matter what people's thoughts are, what their
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  opinions are. If it runs contrary to the word
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  of God, then we are in the wrong.
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  This is something that can be really easy for some people when
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  it comes to some items. So there's some people, if I
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  would say like, hey, marriage is between one man and one woman
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  for one lifetime, faithfully committed entirely to each
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  other, in which emotional and financial and spiritual and
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  physical intimacy happens only within that relationship.
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  Some people would be like, yeah, you know, tell it to the culture
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  and other people, like they might struggle with those sense
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  of same sex attraction and things like that.
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  And so they might say, OK, well, you know, maybe that's just, you
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  know, old timey thoughts and but but now God, you know, has kind
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  of expanded his mercy. So we're fine to be able to
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  marry a man and a man or a woman and a woman, but we would have
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  to say God is right, we are wrong.
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  And so we we bow to Scripture. And some people might be like,
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  yeah, you tell him, but I might say, OK, God tells us to love
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  our enemies, to love the poor, to love the immigrant, to care
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  for the fatherless. And you might have people that
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  would really champion, you know, biblical marriage when it comes
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  to biblical generosity and love of the foreigner.
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  They might go, well, you don't understand, Like they're all
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  dangerous. And so I can't, I can't like
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  love them or, you know, this, this fatherless person, they
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  haven't earned this money and I have earned money.
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  And so how, why should they get to have any of my money?
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  And I would say by the same token that we say we follow what
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  God says in marriage, we follow what God says when it comes to
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  our other political things. We follow God's instructions
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  when it comes to the generosity with our money.
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  We follow God's instructions when we love everyone,
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  regardless of what their ethnicity is, what their country
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  of origin is, that we say you are a human being created in the
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  image of God. And so I love and I care for
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  you. And anything that would tell me
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  otherwise is a falsehood, is a lie.
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  Any worldview, any political party that says you have to hate
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  the foreigner, you have to dislike people from these
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  particular nations and you should love people from these
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  other nations, that is a falsehood.
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  That is a lie from the devil just as much as those that would
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  say, well, I can do whatever with my body that I want as a
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  consenting adult. Or maybe like, Oh yeah, I will
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  be abstinent until marriage, but I'm going to redefine marriage.
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  I would say to both of these individuals, no, we have to go
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  back to the word of God to say this is the way that we think
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  about things. This is the way that we operate.
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  Not because I a, a, a president or a political party or a
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  senator says, oh, here's the talking points that we should
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  have. No, let's go to the word and
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  say, what does the Bible say? And that's the only thing that I
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  care about. I don't care about being in line
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  with the Republicans. I don't care about being in line
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  or being in vogue with the Democrats or with the
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  Libertarians or with the Green Party or with, you know,
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  whatever else have you. I want to be biblically
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  faithful. If that puts me in line with
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  some things on the the Republican side or with the
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  Democrat side, cool. But I'm not looking to align
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  myself with them. I want them to align themselves
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  with the Lord. So that's a little bit of a
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  rabbit trail, but I, I think that the Lord would want us to
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  remember the falsehoods that we hate are not just the falsehoods
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  that other people embrace, but that we with our idol factory
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  hearts, we prop up falsehoods ourselves as well.
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  And so we should look at the ways in which we have allowed
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  the world and Satan to deceive us and even our own flesh to
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  deceive us. And we say, no, everything gets
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  subjected to the word of God. And if it doesn't line up with
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  the word, it's a falsehood. It's a lie from the Father of
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  lies. All right, I'm going to end here
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  pretty quick 'cause we're hitting about that 19 minute
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  mark. Verse 164, I praise you 7 times
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  a day for your righteous judgment.
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  This is over and over again. It's the number of completion of
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  perfection, of maturity, says God.
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  I'm just going to praise you all the time because your judgments
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  are awesome. It's upright.
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  You have dealt fairly. Verse 165, Abundant peace
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  belongs to those who love your instruction.
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  Nothing makes them stumble. Or in the old King James.
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  Perfect peace have they that love thy law, and nothing shall
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  offend them. Perfect peace, have they that
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  love thy law, and nothing shall offend them.
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  There's some people that are just offended and hurt all the
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  time by everything. And I always want to say look
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  back at the word, like look at this verse.
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  Abundant peace belongs to those who love your instruction.
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  Nothing makes them stumble. If you're constantly being
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  tripped up by I can't believe they said this or I bet that
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  they meant this or Can you believe that they did this?
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  I want to encourage you like love God's word because when you
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  love God's word, you recognize, yeah, people are imperfect.
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  I am imperfect too. I can have grace for them
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  because God has had grace for me.
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  And so I'm not going to constantly be offended by
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  everything that everyone sorry, I'm not going to constantly be
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  offended by everything that everyone else is doing.
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  I'm going to choose to say, Nope, I've got peace.
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  I've got abundant peace because I love the word of God And I
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  know who I am in light of that. And I know who other people are
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  in light of that. I know that I've been extended
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  grace and forgiveness. And so I can show that to others
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  too. I know at the end of the story
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  is I know that God will vindicate me.
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  And so I don't have to take revenge.
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  I don't have to put in all this effort to vindicate myself.
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  I can realize that like my eternity is secure and so I'm
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  fine no matter what anyone else says or does.
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  That is an excuse other people's bad behavior, but it at least
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  means that I don't have to walk around constantly offended and
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  stumbling at everything that others are doing.
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  Verse 166 Yahweh, I hope for your salvation and carry out
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  your commands that salvation that rescue from the Lord.
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  It is coming and I'm thankful that God saved me.
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  It'll be I think about 20 years this this coming December that
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  I've been saved eternally that I was justified, but I'm looking
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  forward to that day when either Jesus returns or he calls me
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  home and I look forward to that salvation.
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  That is the point of the word of God is as we, as we do the
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  things that God has called us to do, we recognize my salvation
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  doesn't come from me doing these things.
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  It comes from God. And so I do the commands, but
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  I'm waiting for God and for his salvation.
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  Verse 167 I obey your decrees and love them greatly.
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  Do you love the word of God verse 168 I obey your precepts
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  and decrees, for all my ways are before you.
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  God sees everything that you do. God sees every word that you say
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  God sees every thought that you think.
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  Do you choose to walk in God's way?
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  Do you choose to follow him knowing that he sees everything
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  that you do unlike the unlike the fictional Santa Claus, God
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  genuinely does see you when you're sleeping.
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  He knows when you're awake. He knows if you've been that are
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  good. And so as a result, the psalmist
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  says there I obey your precepts and decrees recognizing God's
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  omniscience that he sees and he knows everything.
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  Will you choose to follow him. Well, thank you for tuning in
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  today. No, I went a little long, but
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  thank you for your patience. Next episode we conclude Psalm
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  119 and then we'll we'll hit Psalm 1:20 to 1:50 and we'll be
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  off to the races to finish Book 5 of Psalms.
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  Thank you for tuning in. Have a wonderful day.