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Psalm 119:25-32 - Daleth · 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. I hope that you're having a
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  great day. Today we are in Psalm 119 once
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  again. We are, I believe this is our
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  fourth section and we are going through verses 25 through 32,
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  Psalm, Psalm 119, verses 25 through 32, and we are looking
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  at all of these verses start with the Hebrew letter Dalith,
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  the Hebrew letter Dalith. And as I mentioned in previous
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  episodes, Psalm 118 is all about the Word of God and all of the
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  22 sections within Psalm 119, it's all acrostics and it's
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  basically from A-Z all about the Word of God.
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  And so that's what we're going to read about today.
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  When you see a different synonyms given to God's Word,
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  you'll see word statutes, precepts, wonders, instruction,
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  ordinances, commands, and the way of truth and decrees.
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  So those are the words that you're listening for.
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  It's not always going to say like the Bible is this.
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  You got to think about the different ways in which God
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  Word, God's word comes to us. Let's begin reading verse 25.
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  My life is down in the dust. Give me life through your word.
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  I told you about my life and you answered me.
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  Teach me your statutes. Help me understand the meaning
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  of Your precepts so that I can meditate on Your wonders.
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  I am weary from grief. Strengthen me through Your word,
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  Keep me from the way of deceit, and graciously give me Your
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  instruction. I've chosen the way of truth.
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  I've set your ordinances before me.
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  I cling to your decrees. Yahweh.
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  Do not put me to shame. I pursue the way of your
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  commands for you. Broaden my understanding.
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  Well, there are three things in particular through this Psalm
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  that I think we can walk away with today.
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  And the first of these is that God's Word gives us life.
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  God's Word gives us life. We can see that in verse #25 My
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  life is down in the dust. Give me life through Your Word.
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  I told you about my life and You answered me.
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  Teach me Your statutes. You can see in verse #28 I am
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  weary from grief. Strengthen me through Your word.
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  God's word is the life giving thing.
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  You can think all the way back to the beginning of creation and
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  in the Garden of Eden. What did God use to create life?
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  He used His word, He spoke and it came to be when God wanted to
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  create people. He used his word when He wanted
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  to create his people like his unique ones out of all of
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  mankind. He used his word to call Abraham
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  from Mesopotamia into the land of Canaan, and he used his word
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  to deliver the message to Moses that Moses and the children of
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  Israel would leave Egypt by the command and the word of God.
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  And before they went into the Promised land, God gave them his
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  word, the 10 commandments, and the law that was there, and all
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  of it was given by the word of God.
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  You want to live, truly live, listen to the Word of God.
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  It's what Jesus says. He says I've come that they
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  might have life and that they might have it more abundantly or
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  as he prayed to the Father, he said sanctify them.
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  Set apart your people through your truth.
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  Your word is truth today if you're just at rock bottom.
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  I love the phrase here that the psalmist puts in the beginning
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  of verse #25 My life is down in the dust.
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  This word life, It's your soul. It's at the core of who you are
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  as a person. When you are clinging, to hear
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  the dust being talked about could be like the dust of death,
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  that Adam was taken from the dust and to dust he would
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  return. So it could be talking about
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  death. It could be kind of an earthly
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  mindedness to just say, God, I recognize that I am so stuck in
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  the here and now and I am down in the dirt and I don't
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  recognize who you are, what your plans are, what your desire is
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  for my life. And so God, since I'm down in
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  the dust, I know who can make something out of the dust.
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  I know who can bring me up from rock bottom.
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  It's the Lord. And how does he do it?
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  He does it through his word. And so this can be a prayer
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  request that we have. God give me life through your
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  word. God, bring some life into my
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  dead spiritual state right now where I'm not really feeling it
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  and I don't have the emotions that perhaps I should have of,
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  of joy and of peace and of just a delight in you.
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  I, I don't experience that right now.
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  So God, my life is down in the dust.
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  Give me life through your word. God, this relationship right now
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  is totally dead and I need you to breathe new life into it.
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  Restore this relationship with my kid, restore this
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  relationship with my spouse. God, right now in my workplace,
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  I have been just totally earthly minded.
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  I haven't been a, a witness for you to my coworkers, even
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  through my work ethic. And so God, would you breathe
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  new life into the way that I work and I interact with others?
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  God, would you breathe life into your local church that I am a
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  part of through your word? What we need quintessentially is
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  the word of God. We need his declarations.
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  His way of living is what we need to be all about.
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  So that's number one that I can see from this section of
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  Scripture is that God's Word gives us life.
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  And so we can ask God to give us life, that He would energize us,
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  that He would bring us comfort, that he would bring us up from a
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  place of rock bottom into a place of joy.
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  That's something we can ask God for.
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  Then secondly, I noticed in this portion that God's Word can only
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  be understood rightly with God's help.
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  God's word can only be understood rightly with God's
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  help. You can see this in verse #26
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  the end of it. He says, I told you about my
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  life and you answered me. Teach me your statutes or verse
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  27, help me understand the meaning of Your precepts so that
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  I can meditate on your wonders or all the way down in verse 32,
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  I pursue the way of your commands for you.
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  Broaden my understanding there. God is the one that teaches us
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  his statutes. Now you can say, OK, well, I'm,
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  I'm reading scripture. I'm going to grab real quick.
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  I've got my my preaching Bible is right next to me.
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  I have this Bible and I can say, well, I'm, you know, reading
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  this verse. Here's John 938 I believe Lord,
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  he said, and he worshipped him. Okay, well, I can read a verse
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  and I can say, well, I have taught myself statutes of the
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  Lord and I can believe in the Lord and I can worship him.
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  But what Paul tells us in Second Corinthians is that the things
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  of God like the truths of the Word of God, the ability to
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  believe what Scripture says and take it as it truly is, not the
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  word of man, but the Word of God that requires the work of the
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  Holy Spirit. Because all of us, because of
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  sin, have blinders on our eyes. And Paul says they've been those
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  blinders have been placed there by Satan who wants to keep us
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  from seeing the glorious light of the gospel.
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  And So what we need is for God to illuminate our understanding
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  because we are earthly minded. We are not heavenly minded.
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  We don't see things from God's perspective or God's way.
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  We encounter sin, whether in our own life or in the lives of
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  those around us. And we excuse it away because we
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  don't think about the ramifications that sin has.
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  We don't think about the fact that it's an affront to God's
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  character and his nature. It's not just a a random list of
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  rules and do's and don'ts. God's word is a reflection of
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  who he is. And so we need God to help.
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  We need God for us to understand his word.
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  And I love there in verse 27. Help me understand the meaning
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  of your precepts. You can just read a verse and if
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  you will, you can take it just at face value.
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  And certainly there's times where that is the meaning of the
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  precept of the word. But especially as I think about
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  what the psalmist here would have likely had, would not have
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  been like the, you know, epistles of Paul where it's
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  super easy and he's like, hey, forgive people as Christ has
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  forgiven you. And we go, OK, you don't really
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  have to think super deep about what's the meaning of this.
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  But as the psalmist here most likely had the initial five
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  books of scripture, the the Pentateuch, the Torah, Genesis
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  through Deuteronomy, he would need to understand God.
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  What am I supposed to learn as a result of the story that you are
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  writing through my people, the Jews?
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  And for us today as we interact with the word of God, certainly
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  there are just kind of very clear, easy things that we can
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  understand and we get the meaning of as we read through
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  them. But there are other portions of
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  Scripture that is I'm reading through even as a pastor and I,
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  I love preaching expository messages, working verse by verse
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  through a book of Scripture. That's the way that I just, I
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  love it, I grow from it. But as I encounter new portions
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  of Scripture that I've never preached through before, I've
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  never talked through before, I'm going, God, would you help me?
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  Like I don't want to just get up on a Sunday and give a talk.
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  I don't just even want to regurgitate previous things that
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  I've said. I want to bring the Word of God
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  to the people of God in such a way that the Spirit of God uses
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  it to transform us. And so if that's going to
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  happen, then I have to hear from the Holy Spirit.
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  I have to know the meaning of the precept of the word of God.
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  And how do we do that? It's not through.
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  OK, God, would you help send me to some fancy seminary so that I
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  can get a Mdiv so that then I can finally understand the word?
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  No, though certainly theological training can help you understand
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  the Word of God. I'm thankful for the theological
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  training that I've received, but that's not the quintessential
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  thing that helps you understand the Word of God.
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  There are plenty of people that have an MDV or that have a
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  doctorate of ministry, and yet they do not understand the Word
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  of God because they know a lot about it, but they don't have
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  the Holy Spirit of God that is living inside of them.
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  They're not relying on the Lord to tell them the meaning of the
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  Word of God. And so this isn't something
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  that's inherently just individualistic.
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  When God made a people, he made a people that there are multiple
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  people together. And so we listen to our brothers
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  and sisters in the Lord because sometimes we might think a
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  passage means something when it truly doesn't.
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  And being able to have some faithful, you know, pastors or
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  elders or teachers or even just other people within the church
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  that are able to say like, Hey, you said this, but actually this
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  verse over here says this or no, no, no, you're just
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  misunderstanding that word. It actually means this.
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  And so we can listen to one another and through the Holy
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  Spirit of God working through the people of God, we can
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  understand the word of God. But the ultimate understanding
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  of the word comes through reliance on God.
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  So the word of God gives us life.
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  The word of God can only be understood through the Holy
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  Spirit of God. It has to be taught to us by
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  God. And so we need to pray and ask
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  the Lord God, would you help me to understand what I'm going
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  through right now in your word or in this passage of Scripture?
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  It's even a great thing to pray each Sunday as you hear the word
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  of God preached at your church, that you would pray before the
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  message. God, would you help me to
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  understand what you want from me as a result of what I'm going to
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  hear from your word. And that would be a great prayer
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  to pray. Then lastly, today God's Word
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  shows us that there is a good way and there is a wrong way.
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  We can see this in verse #29 and 30.
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  He says keep me from the way of deceit and graciously give me
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  your instruction. I have chosen the way of truth.
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  I have set your ordinances before me.
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  And then again in verse 32, I pursue the way of your commands.
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  So here there are two ways. There's a way of deceit, of
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  lies, of treachery, and there is a way of truth, the way of God's
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  commands and Scripture really lays out for us.
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  There's a way that follows Satan and his lies and this world and
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  their lack of understanding of how reality works.
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  Because God is the one that put this thing together and he put
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  it together in a specific way so that as we follow His commands
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  in his way and his truth, we experience the good life, the
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  life that He created us for. We find that bless that happy
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  life that we heard about just a couple episodes ago.
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  I believe it was in Psalm 119, one that there is a blessing, a
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  happiness for the people that follow the way of God and hear
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  the prayer of this psalmist is God.
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  It is easy for me to go the way of deceit that I think through
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  my anger, through my bitterness. I think through my greed and my
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  covetousness or my lust or my idolatry.
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  I think through focusing on myself and my selfishness that I
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  will have a good life. But the truth is, we need to
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  walk in the way of truth. How do we know what truth is?
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  How do we know what the right way to interact is?
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  We go to the Word of God. It tells us what is right, what
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  is wrong, how to get it right, and how to keep it right.
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  There from Second Timothy 316 and 17 that from a child you
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  have known the Holy Scriptures which are able to make you wise
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  unto salvation. For the Word of God is is quick
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  and powerful and and sharper than any 2 edged sword, piercing
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  even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and the bones
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  and marrow. And it is a discerner of the
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  thoughts and intents of the heart.
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  And so God's Word is the most important thing that we can ever
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  invest in. And so I want to encourage you
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  today as you encounter the word of God, ask Lord, give me life
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  through your word. Give me the energy that I need
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  for today. Bring me to a place of joy and
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  stability through your word. And you can ask the Lord.
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  God, help me to understand your word.
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  And he might use other people. He might use a podcast, He might
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  use a study Bible or something to help you understand His word.
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  But ask for the Lord to help you and realize when you come to the
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  Bible that you need supernatural aid if you are going to come
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  away with the understanding that God wants you to.
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  And so ask the Lord for that. And then recognize that
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  Scripture gives us the right way and the wrong way.
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  We are tempted towards the wrong way.
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  He says keep me from the way of deceit because it's a way I will
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  often try to go. He says keep me from the way of
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  deceit. And instead he says I have
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  chosen the way of truth. Choose each day.
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  I'm going to walk the way of God.
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  I'm not going to walk my own way.
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  Satan wants to trick me. He wants to lie to me.
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  He wants to send me to hell. But I'm not going that way.
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  I am going the way of Jesus, the way of truth.
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  I hope that today's portion of Scripture was life giving to
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  you. And I'm looking forward to next
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  episode. We're going to be in verses 33
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  through 40 looking at the verses that start with the Hebrew
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  letter. It's either he or heck, I'll
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  look before next episode. Thanks for tuning in.
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  Have a wonderful day.