Latest / Tabernacle Talk - A Bible Study Podcast with Pastor Bryon Self / Psalm 112 - Generosity and the Fear of God

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Psalm 112 - Generosity and the Fear of God · 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 112, Psalm
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  112, we are making our way through Book 5 of Psalms, and
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  this Psalm says this Hallelujah, that is praise the Lord.
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  Happy is the person who fears Yahweh, taking great delight in
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  His commands. His descendants will be powerful
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  in the land. The generation of the upright
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  will be blessed. Wealth and riches are in His
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  house, and His righteousness endures forever.
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  Light shines in the darkness for the upright.
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  He is gracious, compassionate and righteous.
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  Goodwill come to the One who lends generously and conducts
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  his business fairly. He will never be shaken.
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  The righteous one will be remembered forever.
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  He will not fear bad news. His heart is confident, trusting
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  in Yahweh. His heart is assured.
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  He will not fear. In the end, He will look in
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  triumph on his foes. He distributes freely to the
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  poor. His righteousness endures
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  forever. His horn will be exalted in
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  honor. The wicked one will see it and
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  be angry. He will gnash his teeth in
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  despair. The desire of the wicked leads
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  to ruin. All right, so we've got here a
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  very, very interesting Psalm. And this is one of those ones
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  that as you read through it, there is probably not a
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  indication for you that this is something normatively true
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  within the world. That even as I read through, I
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  don't have people very often coming to mind that I go, Oh
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  yes, this perfectly encapsulates this person.
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  So I want to remind us that there are a couple of things
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  that are true here. Number one, this is Speaking of
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  God's blessing, if you will. It's it's the blessing of Eden,
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  of how God created our world to work from the beginning.
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  That's the kind of thing that the psalmist here is talking
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  about, about God's great blessing on a person.
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  And so to that extent, until we are back in Eden, we are
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  probably not going to experience what happens in this Psalm.
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  We're not going to experience it all the time.
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  We're not going to experience it in every season of our life.
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  But that doesn't mean that the Psalm is not true, and it does
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  not mean that we won't experience aspects of this Psalm
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  as we follow the Lord. So let's walk through the Psalm
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  together. And I think there are some very
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  practical things that you and I can adopt into our life, even as
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  we recognize God. This amazing kind of life, it
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  isn't what I always experience right now, but it is the life
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  that is coming for us. So I'm, I'm probably going to
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  get to that portion of it. I'll, I'll put the cart before
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  the horse right here for us. This is the life that we will
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  experience when Jesus reigns on this earth and we reign with him
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  as a Kingdom of priests to our God.
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  We will experience this kind of life with Jesus as our King.
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  This is the good life that we will experience throughout all
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  of the ages that His blessings, His goodness towards us, we will
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  get to experience it day after day after day, forever and ever.
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  So it one day is coming. It will be true for us every
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  single day, but we get to experience little glimpses of
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  that someday, even here on earth.
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  And so this ought to cause us to do what is right, to do what is
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  good as God has called us to, while also recognizing in the
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  times when we fall short of identic bliss, that is the good
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  life that God planned for us in Eden, we can still rejoice in
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  the good Providence and care of our God for us.
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  So verse #1 Hallelujah. Happy is the person who fears
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  Yahweh, taking great delight in His commands.
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  So starting off the Psalm, before you get to any of the
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  things about happiness and endless generations of good, you
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  read this, that the person that truly fears Yahweh, the one that
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  worships the Lord. I think we talked about an
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  episode or two ago. Yes, there's an aspect of this
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  that is reverential awe and terror of God that we recognize
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  how amazing and how great and how powerful He is.
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  And so as a result we ought to fear.
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  But there's also the other aspect that we've mentioned that
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  when we walk in relationship with God, we're walking in the
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  fear of God. When we love Him and when we
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  obey Him and when we pray to him, that is also walking in the
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  fear of God. It's not just, wow, he could
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  crush me, it's also man, He's so worthy of my respect and my love
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  and my worship. So a person that fears Yahweh,
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  that follows God, that has a relationship with God takes
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  great delight in His commands. And I think here in my own life,
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  how many times do I wish that I would would experience good day
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  after good day, that all of my kids would be blessed, that my
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  descendants would be powerful in the land, that God would give me
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  wealth and riches. And I want the blessings that
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  come from a relationship with God.
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  But yet I don't take great delight in the commands of God.
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  People want to be rich, but they don't want to give to the poor
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  that people want to have generations worth of, you know,
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  great kids that walk with Him and yet they will not personally
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  worship and be rid of evil within their own life.
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  It all starts with walking with God.
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  It starts with fearing the Lord. It starts with taking great
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  delight in the commands of God. Are God's commands His
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  instructions for you? Is it something?
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  Are they something that are a burden to you?
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  Are they something that you are happy about?
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  Are you happy to be told to walk in the fruit of the spirit?
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  Are you happy to be told add to your faith virtue and a virtue
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  knowledge and to knowledge self-control and, and to
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  temperance, patience and the patience brotherly kindness and
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  the brotherly kindness love are. Are you happy about the commands
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  of God and are you wanting to follow those?
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  Or are you a little annoyed that you have to actually walk with
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  God or that you have to adopt His character into your life?
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  May we take great delight in the commands of God and want to obey
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  Him and emulate Him. So based on that, as we walk
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  with God, here are the kinds of things that come out of our
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  life. Verse #2 His descendants will be
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  powerful in the land. The generation of the upright
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  will be blessed. Now there's just a practical
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  take away that we can have from verse #2 if you do evil, wicked,
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  underhanded things, if you murder others, if you are
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  constantly stealing from others, people will not be happy with
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  you. There is whatever likelihood
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  that people might try and take revenge on you, that you might
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  be killed and you might not have descendants.
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  Or if you are wicked and you are imprisoned, you're put into jail
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  as a result of what you have done.
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  Your kids, they aren't going to be raised well.
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  They're not going to be raised with you loving them and caring
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  for them, and instead they'll be all on their own.
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  Set up your kids for success in their lives by being present, by
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  actually being there, by loving them day after day so that they
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  are not having to start over from scratch.
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  They're not having to reinvent the wheel.
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  They're not as they enter into adulthood, just trying to get
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  their feet under them, but that you are able to put them on a
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  trajectory towards a good life. I, I, I think there's many
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  aspects of verse #2 that can be hopeful in our expectations as
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  parents of what should we be doing?
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  What should we be aiming for, if you will?
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  And let's aim to help our kids go forward in a good and a godly
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  way. I love that phrase there.
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  The generation of the upright will be blessed.
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  Let's be honest. Let's be straightforward.
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  Let us be good and kind and having integrity in our dealings
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  with others. Verse #3 Wealth and riches are
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  in his house and his righteousness endures forever.
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  I notice here it doesn't say, well his wealth and righteous.
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  Sorry, his wealth and riches endure forever.
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  Instead it says wealth and riches, they are in his house
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  and his righteousness endures forever.
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  The thing that more typifies a person that fears the Lord even
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  more so than material goods, is an enduring walk with God, that
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  they're doing right by God and by people.
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  And so the righteousness endures forever.
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  I think of the story of Job that at one point he had wealth and
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  riches in his house, and then through sickness, through
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  robbery, through tragedy, he lost his wealth and his riches.
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  He lost his kids, his descendants, his his family
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  members. But what did not go away was his
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  integrity. And that was something that God
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  even said to Satan. And so I want to be the kind of
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  person that, you know, if I get wealth and riches, yeah, they
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  are in my house. And I'm going to do what's right
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  even with those, as we'll see in the following verses.
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  But what sticks around in my life, I want it to be
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  righteousness. If you had the choice between I
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  can have wealth or I can have righteousness, which one would
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  you want to stick around in your life if you had to choose
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  between 1. I think the righteous man, the
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  one that walks with God, the one that fears Yahweh, he's the one
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  that he would rather have a right standing, right
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  relationship with God and with people rather than having wealth
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  and riches. And so may that be what we
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  invest more into. Invest more into your character,
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  invest more into your relationships with God and with
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  people than you do even into your wealth.
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  Now there are good uses of wealth even as we're going to
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  see. Riches can be used to bless
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  others, to bless the following generations after you, your
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  kids, your grandkids. Wealth can be used to bless the
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  poor. But even more important than
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  that is that you would pass on righteousness and integrity,
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  love for God and love for people.
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  Verse #4 Light shines in the darkness for the upright here,
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  even in dark times, in hardships and trials.
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  Light shines for those that fear the Lord and in my moments of
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  anguish in my soul and I, I tend to be a little bit more
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  emotional of a person. And so I know that there is so
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  many times in my life where I imagine that everything is much
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  darker than it truly is. But as I walk with God, I can
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  see that there is hope. There's hope for a future,
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  there's hope in heaven. There's hope in my brothers and
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  sisters in the Lord being there for me and being able to come
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  alongside me. So I'm so grateful that light
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  always shines even in the darkness for those that that are
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  upright, if you will. This is saying there is hope on
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  the horizon. Or in the words of another one
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  of the Psalms, weeping may endure for the night, but joy
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  comes in the morning. Verse #4 concludes with saying
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  the upright is gracious, compassionate, and righteous,
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  that they deal kindly and patiently with other people.
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  They genuinely care about others, and so they are going to
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  do right by them. Are you typified by this?
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  Is your life typified by hope, by patience and love and
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  compassion for others? That is how the upright person,
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  the person that fears Yahweh, That's the way that they live.
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  That's the way I want to live. I fail in that.
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  I am impatient with other people.
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  I'm like I, I don't want to be around people today that this is
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  just the worst. No, God calls me to be
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  compassionate. Even I think of Jesus as he sees
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  people that are spiritually hungry.
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  Yes, he saw people that were literally physically hungry,
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  that he had a care for them and he was gracious.
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  He was patient with them even in their failings.
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  He's been patient with me and my failings.
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  He had compassion on me. And so he did right by me.
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  And so that's what I'm called to do, even to others.
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  Verse #5 goodwill come to the one who lends generously and
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  conducts his business fairly. God says His blessing is
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  reserved for those that have a generous heart and that deal
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  with integrity in their business for various people.
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  I don't know what who all we have on the podcast even today,
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  just whatever your business is, do it the right way.
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  Don't cut the corners, Don't do things that are easy for you,
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  but kind of short change your customers instead.
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  Do all of your business dealings fairly.
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  And then as God gives to you, give to others, give to those
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  that are in need, give to God's work.
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  Obviously we, we talked about that even in the book of Micah.
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  So give to others, give to God's work, give if you will, give to
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  your family for their future. So I, I want to explain what I
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  mean here, especially nowadays. And I'm in an American context.
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  I know we have some people from other countries as well, but in
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  the American context, end of life can be so expensive.
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  One way that you can be looking out for your family in the
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  future is to invest in some things now.
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  So maybe that might be you invest in a cemetery plot, or
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  you invest right now through life insurance or something
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  else. You invest in a casket, you
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  invest in, you know, funeral costs and you make sure that
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  your family is taken care of in the future when you are no
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  longer there. That can be a way that you can
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  give to others. And that can be a way that you
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  give to help out the people that mean the most to you, that on
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  their worst day, when you are no longer with them, they're not
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  then also having to go through some financial hardship as a
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  result of dealing with, you know, all of the added finances
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  of funerals, costs, caskets, all of that.
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  That can be a way that you love your family and through giving
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  generously to them. I know that's not what the
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  psalmist here had particularly in mind, but that is a, a,
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  something that I've walked through even as a pastor
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  interacting with many funerals and then even within some
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  extended family members of mine. Even recently seeing all of that
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  stuff take place made me go, oh, I need to be preparing for my
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  eventual passing because none of us will live forever and God has
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  not told us every single one of you is going to live to 95 years
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  old. So when you get to 90, yeah, you
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  should start planning that. No, people of all ages, of all
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  different health statuses pass each and every day.
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  Do what you can now to care for your family in the future.
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  Verse number six. He will never be shaken.
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  The righteous one will be remembered forever.
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  As a pastor, I've been to funerals where people were very
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  well loved, where they left a great legacy of love and
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  kindness behind them. I've also been in the funerals
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  where one or two family members were all that showed up and even
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  they had almost nothing to say that it was, well, they kept to
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  themselves. They had, you know, this one
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  hobby that totally defined their life or this one pet or
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  something that totally defined their life and they never made
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  an impact. They never interacted really
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  with other people and so they left behind almost no legacy.
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  And so may we have a mindset that says I am indwelt by the
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  Holy Spirit of God. I've been given the Great
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  Commission by Jesus. And so my legacy at the end of
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  the day isn't even really about me.
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  I don't want to leave a name for me to be remembered, but I want
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  people to know that God loves them.
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  I want them to know that they are loved by me.
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  And so I want to invest in others with my life.
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  That a part of our legacy is we want to leave a legacy for
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  others, that they will have experienced the love and care of
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  Jesus through our lives. So have an intention that I'm
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  going to be remembered by others, not because I was great,
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  but because they know Jesus loves them because I loved them.
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  Verse #7 I love this verse. He will not fear bad news.
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  His heart is confident, trusting in Yahweh.
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  I can tend to be a very anxious person and so this is something
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  that is different than the way I often live my life.
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  But if I want the blessed life, may I not fear bad news, but may
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  I trust Yahweh. Our world loves fear.
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  Fear sells. Fear will make you buy guns and
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  ammo and you know the the underground bunkers and tons of
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  non perishable food and and you can just stockpile all sorts of
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  things as a result of fear. When you say God will take care
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  of me, God will take care of my loved ones.
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  The Lord the judge of all the earth will do what is right.
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  And so I don't have to fear if I die, God will call me home, but
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  I'm not going to live my life and anxiety of what could come.
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  That's not if you will. That's not sexy.
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  That doesn't sell things that won't get me on all of the news
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  channels saying I'll just listen to what this guy has to say.
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  We're all really in trouble. No, fear sells.
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  Trust in the Lord doesn't sell. But it is what God has called us
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  to. And we can have confidence in
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  him. He has never once failed us.
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  He never will. And so we can have confidence.
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  Knowing who our God is verse #8 His heart is assured.
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  He will not fear in the end, He will look in triumph on his
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  foes. There are foes, there are
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  enemies of the one that walks with God, but he's not scared of
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  them because he knows who his God is, and so he can trust in
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  him. Verse #9 He distributes freely
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  to the poor. His righteousness endures
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  forever. His horn will be exalted in
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  honor. That is his strength.
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  He will be highly esteemed by others because he cares, he
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  loves, he's generous. People know that he is a person
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  of integrity. I think they're in verse 9.
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  He distributes freely to the poor.
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  His righteousness endures forever.
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  It's not an accident that those two are paired together.
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  That those that are generous with their finances, especially
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  towards those that don't have as much.
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  That is the mark of a person that genuinely believes that God
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  will take care of their needs, that God will keep them safe on
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  the rainy day even as they have cared for others on their rainy
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  days. I think right now of a person in
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  my family that they have cared for a family friend of theirs
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  for many years and their family friend has served the Lord has
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  served the next generation, but they have not gotten financially
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  rich as a result of that. But my family member, they have
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  so loved and taken care of this other person and God has enabled
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  my my family member to be a little bit better off in their
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  financial state. And they have not used that
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  financial state to just enrich themselves.
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  They have consistently used the money that God has given them to
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  bless others and to care for those that are poor, that don't
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  have everything. And I am so, so grateful for
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  times in my life where I have been blessed by those
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  individuals. And I'm very thankful that they
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  have exemplified this. I think of their righteousness,
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  their right dealings with other people.
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  It is clearly seen and they are exalted even in my eyes, that I
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  think the world of those individuals because they have
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  loved and cared for others. They are these righteous people.
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  Verse #10 the wicked one, the one that doesn't walk with God,
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  the one that doesn't fear Yahweh, He will see it.
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  He'll see the generosity and the joy, the lack of fear that
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  happens in the person that knows God.
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  And the wicked one will be angry.
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  He'll gnash his teeth in despair.
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  I don't know if the sound would come through on the microphone
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  if I did this, but you that are watching the, the video podcast,
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  the gnashing of teeth is like you're just grinding your teeth.
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  It's, it's a horrible, well, it's a horrible feeling.
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  It's also just a horrible sound and and word picture just makes
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  a person miserable who doesn't know God when they see God
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  blessing people that by any worldly metric you look out for
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  yourself and you just try and build your stack of gold as high
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  as you can. But that's not the way God's
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  people are called to live. So the wicked one, they're
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  angry, they gnash their teeth in despair says the desire of the
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  wicked leads to ruin. On the flip side, the desire of
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  the godly leads to more and more, not because we want stuff
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  for ourself, but because we want to share the blessing of God on
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  our life. That Eden blessing.
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  We're sharing it with others so that in our blessing, everyone
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  around us would be blessed. I want to encourage you today as
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  God blesses you, bless others. God's been good to you,
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  compassionate to you, loving to you, forgiving of you.
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  Pass all of those things on to others.
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  If God has blessed you financially, choose to bless
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  others financially, that would be an honoring and a glorifying
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  thing to your God. It would be a rejection of greed
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  and you'd say money. It's in my house, but my
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  righteousness, my in my relationship with God and with
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  people, that endures forever. It keeps on going.
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  I'm going to keep on trusting the Lord in every circumstance.
• 24:57
  Well, this Psalm was frankly just an encouragement to my
• 25:00
  heart today. I hope it was an encouragement
• 25:02
  to you and looking forward next week to Psalm 113.