1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:21,500 More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold, sweeter also than honey, and drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them is your servant warned, and keeping them there is great reward. This is the word of the Lord. Let's pray. 2 00:00:21,500 --> 00:00:48,500 God, we thank you so much to be able to gather here today, and to worship you together, and to be revived by your word and your ways, Lord. And we thank you for those that are watching online, and we pray that we're an encouragement to them as well. And we just ask that you be with our service today, and allow it to glorify you. In Jesus' name. Amen. 3 00:00:48,500 --> 00:00:53,500 All right, we're going to be starting with "Christ the Lord is Risen Today." 4 00:01:18,500 --> 00:01:37,500 Alleluia. Raise your joys and triumphs high. Alleluia. Sing ye hands and earth reply. Alleluia. 5 00:01:46,500 --> 00:02:14,500 Live again our glorious King. Alleluia. Where, O death, is now thy sting. Alleluia. Once he died our souls to save. Alleluia. Where's thy victory, boasting grave? 6 00:02:14,500 --> 00:02:19,500 Alleluia. 7 00:02:19,500 --> 00:02:42,500 God's redeeming work is done. Alleluia. For the fight, the battle won. Alleluia. 8 00:02:42,500 --> 00:03:02,500 Death in vain forbids him rise. Alleluia. Christ has opened paradise. Alleluia. 9 00:03:06,500 --> 00:03:18,500 All right. We're going to be moving into our prayer and share time next. If you're watching online, there will be a phone number up that you can text if you have any prayer requests or anything you'd like to share with us here. 10 00:03:18,500 --> 00:03:28,500 Please text that number, and then we're going to be muted here during that time together. And so give us a few minutes, and after that, we'll be back to move into our time of communion. 11 00:03:28,500 --> 00:03:34,500 And we're going to be singing "Who You Say I Am." 12 00:03:36,500 --> 00:04:03,500 Who am I that the highest King would welcome me? I was lost that He brought me in. Oh, His love for me. Oh, His love for me. 13 00:04:03,500 --> 00:04:19,500 Who the Son sets free. Oh, is free indeed. I'm a child of God. Yes, I am. 14 00:04:19,500 --> 00:04:28,500 Free at last He has ransomed me. His grace runs deep. 15 00:04:30,500 --> 00:04:40,500 While I was a slave to sin, Jesus died for me. Yes, He died for me. 16 00:04:40,500 --> 00:04:56,500 Who the Son sets free. Oh, is free indeed. I'm a child of God. Yes, I am. 17 00:04:57,500 --> 00:05:13,500 In my Father's house, there's a place for me. I'm a child of God. Yes, I am. 18 00:05:13,500 --> 00:05:26,500 I am chosen, not forsaken. I am who you say I am. You are for me, not against me. 19 00:05:27,500 --> 00:05:47,500 I am who you say I am. Who the sun sets free. Who is free in me. I'm a child of God. Yes, I am. 20 00:05:48,500 --> 00:06:04,500 In my Father's house, there's a place for me. I'm a child of God. Yes, I am. 21 00:06:04,500 --> 00:06:09,500 You may be seated. 22 00:06:18,500 --> 00:06:20,500 You may be seated. 23 00:06:48,500 --> 00:06:53,500 Let's pray. 24 00:06:53,500 --> 00:06:58,500 Let's pray. 25 00:06:58,500 --> 00:07:04,500 Let's pray. 26 00:09:16,500 --> 00:09:18,500 Amen. 27 00:09:46,500 --> 00:09:48,500 Amen. 28 00:10:16,500 --> 00:10:18,500 Amen. 29 00:13:16,500 --> 00:13:41,500 Thanks, Russell. As we move into our time of communion, we're going to be singing "Above All." 30 00:13:46,500 --> 00:14:15,500 Above all powers, above all kings, Above all nature and all created things, Above all wisdom and all the ways, 31 00:14:15,500 --> 00:14:44,500 as man. You were here before the world began. Above all kingdoms, above all thrones, Above all wonders the world has ever known. Above all wealth and treasures of the 32 00:14:44,500 --> 00:15:13,500 earth. There's no way to measure what you're worth. Crucified, laid behind a star. Live to die, rejected and alone. Like a rose trampled on the 33 00:15:13,500 --> 00:15:42,500 ground. You turned the bow and thought of me above all. Above all powers. Above all kings. Above all nature and all created things. 34 00:15:42,500 --> 00:16:11,500 Above all wisdom and all the ways of man. You were here before the world began. Above all kingdoms. Above all thrones. Above all wonders the world has ever known. 35 00:16:11,500 --> 00:16:40,500 Above all wealth and treasures of the earth. There's no way to measure what you're worth. Crucified. You laid behind the stone. You lived to die. Rejected and dead. 36 00:16:40,500 --> 00:17:01,500 Rejected and belonged like a rose. Trampled on the ground. You took the fall and thought of me above all. 37 00:17:10,500 --> 00:17:38,500 In our world, it's often, I think, very easy for us to focus exactly on what we are doing in our world. 38 00:17:38,500 --> 00:17:56,500 Whether that is good, we look at what's around us, and we see joy, or in some cases, we look around us and we see the hurt and brokenness of this world, and we find ourselves in sort of a stage of discouragement. 39 00:17:56,500 --> 00:18:06,500 And so I want to read this morning as we pair together around the table from the seventh chapter of the book of Revelation and sort of remind us this morning 40 00:18:06,500 --> 00:18:22,500 that as Christians we have a different perspective on the world in which we live than many of those who surround us, that our perspective is based not upon those things that are temporary, but those things that are eternal. 41 00:18:22,500 --> 00:18:34,500 And I'm going to begin reading in verse 11. It says, "And all the angels were standing around the throne, and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne, 42 00:18:34,500 --> 00:18:45,500 and worshiped God, saying, Amen, blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might be to our God forever and ever." 43 00:18:45,500 --> 00:18:53,500 Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, "Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?" 44 00:18:53,500 --> 00:19:00,500 And I said to him, "Sir, you know." And he said to me, "These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. 45 00:19:00,500 --> 00:19:06,500 They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." 46 00:19:06,500 --> 00:19:10,500 And there you have a picture of rejoicing and worship in heaven. 47 00:19:10,500 --> 00:19:16,500 And then this group shows up in white. He said, "Where did all these people come from?" 48 00:19:16,500 --> 00:19:21,500 They're those who have lost their lives, given their lives for their faith. 49 00:19:21,500 --> 00:19:26,500 And then this song of worship from Isaiah is present in Revelation chapter 7. 50 00:19:26,500 --> 00:19:32,500 "Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple. 51 00:19:32,500 --> 00:19:37,500 And He who sits on His throne will shelter them with His presence. 52 00:19:37,500 --> 00:19:41,500 They shall hunger no more, neither shall they thirst any more. 53 00:19:41,500 --> 00:19:44,500 The sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. 54 00:19:44,500 --> 00:19:51,500 The Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and He will guide them to springs of living water. 55 00:19:51,500 --> 00:19:56,500 And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes." 56 00:19:56,500 --> 00:20:02,500 And so there is this picture of those who have sacrificed for the good news of the Gospel. 57 00:20:02,500 --> 00:20:08,500 And from the world's perspective, they are those who have maybe thrown their lives away 58 00:20:08,500 --> 00:20:11,500 for something that maybe in their eyes doesn't matter. 59 00:20:11,500 --> 00:20:14,500 But then you see the perspective in heaven. 60 00:20:14,500 --> 00:20:18,500 And you see this perspective where there is no longer any suffering. 61 00:20:18,500 --> 00:20:23,500 There is, in fact, joy. There is refreshment. There is peace. 62 00:20:23,500 --> 00:20:29,500 And they are with their great shepherd Jesus, and God Himself wipes away every tear. 63 00:20:29,500 --> 00:20:35,500 And so as we remember the Gospel this morning through this bread and through this cup, 64 00:20:35,500 --> 00:20:39,500 we're reminded that our hope is not in the physical things of this earth, 65 00:20:39,500 --> 00:20:43,500 that our hope is in Jesus, who gave His life for us. 66 00:20:43,500 --> 00:20:49,500 The God who saves us and who has prepared a place for us. Let's pray. 67 00:20:49,500 --> 00:20:57,500 Father, help us as we so often get focused on the temporary, 68 00:20:57,500 --> 00:21:02,500 whether those things are good and joyful or whether that is suffering and difficulty. 69 00:21:02,500 --> 00:21:05,500 Help us to see that there is more. 70 00:21:05,500 --> 00:21:12,500 That we have a hope that lasts not just in this life, but for all eternity. 71 00:21:12,500 --> 00:21:19,500 Thank you that you are the one who refreshes us, the one who protects us, the one who comforts us. 72 00:21:19,500 --> 00:21:22,500 So help us remember the Gospel this morning. 73 00:21:22,500 --> 00:21:26,500 It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. 74 00:21:26,500 --> 00:21:31,500 If you would take the bread with me, and as Jesus with his disciples said, 75 00:21:31,500 --> 00:21:41,500 "This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." 76 00:21:41,500 --> 00:21:54,500 If you would take the cup with me, as Jesus says, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me." 77 00:21:54,500 --> 00:22:10,500 And Jesus will say this, "For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes." 78 00:22:10,500 --> 00:22:21,500 All right, we are going to spend just a few minutes this morning in sort of the second section of the 19th Psalm. 79 00:22:21,500 --> 00:22:27,500 We're talking about how God has refreshed us and how God revives us and how God restores us. 80 00:22:27,500 --> 00:22:39,500 We saw last week Hagar in the wilderness feeling unwanted, taking advantage of, full of hurt and grief, and there in the midst of the wilderness she sees the faithfulness of God. 81 00:22:39,500 --> 00:22:49,500 And so this morning we're going to take a look at the Word of God and how that strengthens, refreshes us, and also points us toward the hope of the Gospel. 82 00:22:49,500 --> 00:22:55,500 So we read this together earlier, but I'm going to read it again one more time. We'll pray and dive right in. 83 00:22:55,500 --> 00:23:08,500 The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart, and the commandment of the 84 00:23:08,500 --> 00:23:18,500 Lord is pure, and lightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The rules of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. 85 00:23:18,500 --> 00:23:32,500 More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold. Sweeter also than honey, and drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them is your servant warned, in keeping them there is great reward." 86 00:23:32,500 --> 00:23:51,500 This is the word of the Lord. Father in heaven, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the hope and the transformation that has worked through your word and through your spirit applying the word in our lives. 87 00:23:51,500 --> 00:23:59,500 And I just ask this morning that you would help us to see this treasure, that we would be refreshed by it and encouraged by it. 88 00:23:59,500 --> 00:24:05,500 Just be with us this morning during this time, and it is in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. 89 00:24:05,500 --> 00:24:14,500 So one of the things that I learned early on is that I learn better with things. I can see a practical application for things. 90 00:24:14,500 --> 00:24:27,500 So in school, you would be given an assignment, and if I could see the practical application, like how I would use that in the future, I understood it, and it was great, and I enjoyed it. 91 00:24:27,500 --> 00:24:39,500 Now, if I looked at that and said, "I see no way that this applies to my future," my thought was, "Well, this really doesn't matter. Why do I even need to bother with it?" 92 00:24:39,500 --> 00:24:50,500 And probably many of us are like that. I noticed that this year as we were finishing up school with our kids, and we got to fractions, and it was like, "Why do I need to know this? Why does it matter?" 93 00:24:50,500 --> 00:24:57,500 And thankfully, I understood that objection because I had been there as a kid as well, and I was like, "Well, let's bake a cake," right? 94 00:24:57,500 --> 00:25:07,500 You've got one cup. You've got a fourth cup. You've got a third cup. These are all fractions. Or when you go to count out your money and it's $1.25, you grab a quarter, right? 95 00:25:07,500 --> 00:25:19,500 Because it's one quarter of a dollar. And so I think sometimes when we think something is just sort of simply an intellectual exercise, we have a tendency to sort of take it for granted. 96 00:25:19,500 --> 00:25:26,500 But if we can see how that has an impact in our life and in the world, all of a sudden it becomes more important. 97 00:25:26,500 --> 00:25:45,500 And I think one of our struggles as Christians is that many of us sort of see the Bible as sort of just facts to be memorized or information to be absorbed, rather than something that is incredibly practical, that is something that is incredibly applicable, something that matters and changes your life. 98 00:25:45,500 --> 00:26:02,500 And one of the reasons that I love the 19th Psalm, we talked about the first part of this several weeks ago on a Wednesday night, how God declares His glory through the creation that He's made, and then He talks about how God has spoken to us through His Word. 99 00:26:02,500 --> 00:26:13,500 And that's what we want to take a look at this morning. And I'm going to sort of do it in reverse. I'm going to take the last two verses first, and then we'll go back to verse 7 and kind of walk through 7, 8, and 9. 100 00:26:13,500 --> 00:26:26,500 So just to remind you of verses 10 and 11, familiar? If you've ever sung, there's a song that takes these words almost verbatim that we have sung from time to time. It says this about God's Word. 101 00:26:26,500 --> 00:26:38,500 "More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold, sweeter also than the drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them is your servant warm, and there is great reward." 102 00:26:38,500 --> 00:26:47,500 And so you start off by the psalmist saying here, after he's talked about the characteristics of the Word of God, that the Word of God is a treasure. 103 00:26:47,500 --> 00:26:58,500 And our minds are captivated by the idea of treasure, right? So the Mega Millions this last week was like, right, a little over a billion dollars. 104 00:26:58,500 --> 00:27:03,500 And when we hear that kind of money being given away, right, it sort of captures our imagination. 105 00:27:03,500 --> 00:27:10,500 And then there's television shows, books, and movies that have all focused on treasure. 106 00:27:10,500 --> 00:27:16,500 Maybe it's lost treasure, maybe it's following a map to treasure, it's figuring out the clues to treasure. 107 00:27:16,500 --> 00:27:25,500 And we even have shows like, for example, Antiques Roadshow, where you go raid your grandpa's basement or attic and try to find treasure there, right? 108 00:27:25,500 --> 00:27:28,500 You show up and hopefully you find something that's worth a whole lot of money. 109 00:27:28,500 --> 00:27:35,500 We as a people are fascinated with the concept of treasure. And look at what the psalmist says. 110 00:27:35,500 --> 00:27:46,500 He says that the Word of God is worth more than gold, and just in case we don't get that, he says more than much fine gold, right? 111 00:27:46,500 --> 00:27:55,500 Because gold is rated based on how pure it is, and so he says it's not just some random gold, but it's a giant pile of very pure gold, 112 00:27:55,500 --> 00:28:05,500 pure gold, incredibly valuable, a treasure to be guarded and protected, and one that brings joy to us when we see it. 113 00:28:05,500 --> 00:28:11,500 The second thing that he tells us about the value of the Word of God is that it is sweet. 114 00:28:11,500 --> 00:28:18,500 And this idea of honey for us, you find it throughout the Bible. In fact, when the Israelites were getting ready to go into the promised land, 115 00:28:18,500 --> 00:28:26,500 bring you into a land flowing with milk and honey. And there's a two-fold picture there. 116 00:28:26,500 --> 00:28:33,500 One is of raising animals, right? If you have enough space for cows and goats, creatures that produce milk, 117 00:28:33,500 --> 00:28:39,500 it's good farmland. But also, if you're getting honey, it means that you're able to plant flowers, 118 00:28:39,500 --> 00:28:46,500 and you're able to plant crops, and those bees come and they pollinate. So what he's saying is that this land is a rich land, right? 119 00:28:46,500 --> 00:28:55,500 You can raise crops, you can raise animals, and then you have this wonderful blessing that just overflows with milk and honey. 120 00:28:55,500 --> 00:29:01,500 But more than just sort of the abundance of the land, honey is a picture of something that's delicious and sweet. 121 00:29:01,500 --> 00:29:10,500 And for us, a couple thousand years later, that's a hard picture because we have a very good access to all kinds of sugar, right? 122 00:29:10,500 --> 00:29:19,500 All kinds of sweet things. In fact, if you start reading labels, you'll find just about everything contains some kind of sweetener, right? 123 00:29:19,500 --> 00:29:26,500 We are swimming in things that are sweet. But if you're living in David's time, do you know how you sweeten things? 124 00:29:26,500 --> 00:29:37,500 There's no sugar cane, there's no artificial sweeteners, you have honey. And honey is hard to be raised, it has to be found, it has to be collected, 125 00:29:37,500 --> 00:29:44,500 and so honey is this rare commodity. And so, it's just like if you're as a kid, you never get candy, 126 00:29:44,500 --> 00:29:49,500 and then all of a sudden you get candy, it's like the best thing in the world. Imagine you've never had anything sweet, 127 00:29:49,500 --> 00:29:57,500 and you get your first taste of honey, and it is something wonderful that you've never experienced. It's something to be treasured. 128 00:29:57,500 --> 00:30:06,500 But more than that, you see in Scripture, honey revives and restores. There's this passage where Saul and his army, 129 00:30:06,500 --> 00:30:13,500 they're pursuing the Philistines in 1 Samuel 14. And Saul gets a little rash, 130 00:30:13,500 --> 00:30:18,500 and he goes, "Until we've defeated the army, nobody eats." And if you've ever heard the saying, 131 00:30:18,500 --> 00:30:24,500 "The army marches on its stomach," that's a really bad call to make. Because all your soldiers 132 00:30:24,500 --> 00:30:28,500 are going to be tired, they're going to be depressed, they're going to be, depending on how long you go, 133 00:30:28,500 --> 00:30:34,500 they may even become weak from this. And his son Jonathan has not heard this command, so they're moving 134 00:30:34,500 --> 00:30:41,500 through this forest. And they're in pursuit of the Philistines, and Jonathan sees honey, and so he takes 135 00:30:41,500 --> 00:30:48,500 his staff that he's been walking with, dips it in the honey, and eats it. And the Scripture will say in 136 00:30:48,500 --> 00:30:53,500 1 Samuel that his eyes were brightened. And the picture there is like he was energetic, right? Just 137 00:30:53,500 --> 00:30:58,500 like when we're tired, and we're very, very hungry, and we eat a meal, and we feel refreshed and revived, 138 00:30:58,500 --> 00:31:03,500 and we have energy again. That's what happens to Jonathan, and everybody begins to say, "You know you're not 139 00:31:03,500 --> 00:31:08,500 supposed to eat." He said, "Well, I didn't hear that. Don't you see the benefit that this 140 00:31:08,500 --> 00:31:15,500 has had to me? This honey has restored me and energized me." And so you have, at the beginning, 141 00:31:15,500 --> 00:31:21,500 three pictures of the Word of God, verses that we're in. The first is that it's valuable. 142 00:31:21,500 --> 00:31:27,500 Secondly, is that it's a picture of abundance, a picture of sweetness, a picture of being 143 00:31:27,500 --> 00:31:36,500 energized, and then third, it will talk about how God's Word protects us. When 144 00:31:36,500 --> 00:31:41,500 it talks about how your servant is warned, that word warned literally means to shine a 145 00:31:41,500 --> 00:31:47,500 light upon. The reason we have headlights in our cars is so as we're driving, we can 146 00:31:47,500 --> 00:31:51,500 see the dangers, and we can see the obstacles, and we can navigate clearly. And 147 00:31:51,500 --> 00:31:56,500 the third picture of value at the end of our text this morning is that the Word of 148 00:31:56,500 --> 00:32:01,500 God shines a light so that we can see dangers and obstacles and see the path 149 00:32:01,500 --> 00:32:08,500 upon which we are to walk. So in this second part of our text, we 150 00:32:08,500 --> 00:32:14,500 find this beautiful, practical value. Right? That it shows us the world as it is. 151 00:32:14,500 --> 00:32:17,500 By this we're warned. The light of the Scripture is shown upon it. That it's 152 00:32:17,500 --> 00:32:21,500 sweet. It revives. It restores. It encourages us. It's a picture of 153 00:32:21,500 --> 00:32:27,500 abundance. And that it's valuable like gold. Now in the first part of 154 00:32:27,500 --> 00:32:33,500 our text, these three verses, seven to nine, David lists. And they're not just for 155 00:32:33,500 --> 00:32:36,500 our intellectual understanding, because they lead to the treasure, and to the 156 00:32:36,500 --> 00:32:41,500 sweetness, and to the protection of the Word of God. And David, in these 157 00:32:41,500 --> 00:32:45,500 first three verses, seven through nine, that we're going to look at, he has a lot 158 00:32:45,500 --> 00:32:52,500 to say. It doesn't seem very long, but he says a lot about the Word of God. In 159 00:32:52,500 --> 00:32:59,500 fact, in these three verses, he gives us 18 things about the Word of God. He gives us 160 00:32:59,500 --> 00:33:04,500 six names for the Word of God, six descriptions of the Word of God, and six 161 00:33:04,500 --> 00:33:10,500 impacts of the Word of God. Now, I don't think we have time to unpack 162 00:33:10,500 --> 00:33:15,500 every detail, but I want you to see these sort of glittering facets of 163 00:33:15,500 --> 00:33:19,500 the Word of God. And they're all sort of connected and support each other. So I 164 00:33:19,500 --> 00:33:22,500 don't know if you've ever used a kaleidoscope. When I was a kid, you know, 165 00:33:22,500 --> 00:33:26,500 it's a plastic tube with a little lens in it, a little filled with little bits of 166 00:33:26,500 --> 00:33:29,500 plastic, and you put your eye up and you twist it, and because of the mirrors, it 167 00:33:29,500 --> 00:33:32,500 creates all kinds of amazing patterns, and you twist it again, and a different 168 00:33:32,500 --> 00:33:37,500 pattern appears. You twist it again, and a different pattern appears. All the same 169 00:33:37,500 --> 00:33:42,500 parts, just as you look at it a little differently, it changes the beauty of that 170 00:33:42,500 --> 00:33:48,500 pattern. And what David does as he praises the Word of God is he holds it up, and he 171 00:33:48,500 --> 00:33:51,500 shows us the beauty, and then he'll turn it a little bit, and then we'll see some 172 00:33:51,500 --> 00:33:55,500 more beauty, and then he turns it again, and we see a little more beauty. Some 173 00:33:55,500 --> 00:34:01,500 people have compared this to the facets in a gem that sparkle as you shift and 174 00:34:01,500 --> 00:34:06,500 move the gem. That's what David is doing with the Word of God. 175 00:34:06,500 --> 00:34:12,500 So we have these 18 different things, six different names for Scripture. You have 176 00:34:12,500 --> 00:34:17,500 law, testimony, precepts, commandments, fear, and rules. Six different descriptions: 177 00:34:17,500 --> 00:34:23,500 perfect, sure, right, pure, clean, and true. Six different effects: revival and 178 00:34:23,500 --> 00:34:28,500 restoration, wisdom, rejoicing, enlightening, enduring, and ultimately 179 00:34:28,500 --> 00:34:35,500 bringing us to righteousness. So we're going to take a very brief look at these sort 180 00:34:35,500 --> 00:34:41,500 of big six things that contain 18 sort of different parts. It starts like this: 181 00:34:41,500 --> 00:34:46,500 "The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul." So I imagine probably 182 00:34:46,500 --> 00:34:52,500 most of us have never really been that excited when a new law is passed. 183 00:34:52,500 --> 00:34:56,500 We're like, "Hooray! New laws!" Now, Virginia, July 1st, a new law 184 00:34:56,500 --> 00:35:00,500 went into effect that your muffler on your car has to be the standard-sized 185 00:35:00,500 --> 00:35:04,500 muffler for that car. And as a man who is getting older and more grumpy, 186 00:35:04,500 --> 00:35:07,500 older and more grumpy as I age, I'm all about this, right? 187 00:35:07,500 --> 00:35:10,500 It's like, you know, the guy who drives up and down the street just... 188 00:35:10,500 --> 00:35:13,500 It's like, "Hey, buddy, you can't do that anymore. 189 00:35:13,500 --> 00:35:17,500 July 1st, there's a new law." And I'm excited about it, right? 190 00:35:17,500 --> 00:35:23,500 But for most of us, we've never really been like, "Man, I'm really excited for some new." 191 00:35:23,500 --> 00:35:28,500 And so it seems a little strange to us when David says this: 192 00:35:28,500 --> 00:35:33,500 "The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul." 193 00:35:33,500 --> 00:35:37,500 Right? We hear the word "law" and we think "rules." 194 00:35:37,500 --> 00:35:39,500 Now, that is certainly true of God's Word. 195 00:35:39,500 --> 00:35:46,500 He does contain very specific ways in which we are to live, very specific rules about life. 196 00:35:46,500 --> 00:35:49,500 But the picture of law here is more than just... 197 00:35:49,500 --> 00:35:53,500 It does include rules, but it's more than that. 198 00:35:53,500 --> 00:35:56,500 Right? The picture here is also instruction. 199 00:35:56,500 --> 00:36:02,500 It's used over and over again in the book of Proverbs where fathers and mothers are taught 200 00:36:02,500 --> 00:36:07,500 to instruct their children in the way to live. 201 00:36:07,500 --> 00:36:09,500 Right? Part of that includes rules. Right? 202 00:36:09,500 --> 00:36:11,500 Don't do this. Do do this. 203 00:36:11,500 --> 00:36:14,500 But it's also a demonstration of how to live. 204 00:36:14,500 --> 00:36:17,500 And so the psalmist David, as he looks at the Word of God, 205 00:36:17,500 --> 00:36:21,500 he says, "The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul." 206 00:36:21,500 --> 00:36:28,500 He's picturing a parent, a father speaking to his children and saying, "This is how you are to live. 207 00:36:28,500 --> 00:36:31,500 You avoid these things. You don't do these things. You do do these things. 208 00:36:31,500 --> 00:36:36,500 But let me show you, not just instruct you, but show you how to walk." 209 00:36:36,500 --> 00:36:43,500 And he says, "Unlike laws in our countries, this law is perfect." 210 00:36:43,500 --> 00:36:46,500 Right? God is instructing us how to live. 211 00:36:46,500 --> 00:36:49,500 And look at what it says. It revives the soul. 212 00:36:49,500 --> 00:36:53,500 The picture there is that God's Word transforms us. Right? 213 00:36:53,500 --> 00:36:56,500 It's translated, depending on your translation, a bunch of different ways. 214 00:36:56,500 --> 00:37:00,500 Revive, restore, transform, refresh, convert. 215 00:37:00,500 --> 00:37:05,500 And all of these things carry with it the idea of changing our life. 216 00:37:05,500 --> 00:37:08,500 And not just in a superficial way. Right? 217 00:37:08,500 --> 00:37:11,500 Not just putting some paint on the house. 218 00:37:11,500 --> 00:37:15,500 Or changing the spark plugs and the oil in your car. 219 00:37:15,500 --> 00:37:19,500 But rather, a transformation at the very depths of the being. 220 00:37:19,500 --> 00:37:29,500 And David said, "One of the reasons we rejoice, and the Word of God is such a treasure, and it's so sweet, and it protects us, is because it instructs us on how to live." 221 00:37:29,500 --> 00:37:35,500 And it does so perfectly. And it transforms us in our soul. 222 00:37:35,500 --> 00:37:45,500 The depth of our being. That the Word of God changes, transforms, restores, revives, strengthens, and helps us. 223 00:37:45,500 --> 00:37:51,500 You see, the purpose of the Word is not just to cover up the blemishes in our life or repair some small problems. 224 00:37:51,500 --> 00:37:55,500 But it's to completely and totally transform you. 225 00:37:55,500 --> 00:38:01,500 He'll say this next, "The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple." 226 00:38:01,500 --> 00:38:05,500 And so David has now moved from talking about the transformation brought by the Word. 227 00:38:05,500 --> 00:38:11,500 He's going to turn us a little bit and see another facet of this, and he's going to talk about the truth of God's Word. 228 00:38:11,500 --> 00:38:15,500 And so what he says, "The testimony of the Lord is sure." 229 00:38:15,500 --> 00:38:22,500 Now, a testimony is simply a declaration of your witness, the things that you have seen or have done. 230 00:38:22,500 --> 00:38:26,500 And God, as He speaks, His words are sure. 231 00:38:26,500 --> 00:38:38,500 And the picture behind this Word of being certain or being sure, the root of this Word is the picture of a pillar that supports a building that is made of stone and is strong, and it doesn't sway or move. 232 00:38:38,500 --> 00:38:49,500 And what David is saying is that God speaks His testimony as He speaks about life, as He speaks about creation, as He speaks about Himself, as He speaks about us. 233 00:38:49,500 --> 00:38:59,500 His words are like a pillar that cannot be moved. And what He is saying is the testimony of the Lord is sure, and it's so much different than ours. 234 00:38:59,500 --> 00:39:05,500 So when we talk about things, maybe we forget things. And not intentionally leave them out, but we forget. 235 00:39:05,500 --> 00:39:11,500 And then there's sometimes we do intentionally leave things out. And then there's sometimes we stretch the truth a little bit. 236 00:39:11,500 --> 00:39:18,500 I've joked from time to time that I love going fishing because I can catch something this big, and by the time I get it home, 237 00:39:18,500 --> 00:39:25,500 I can get it up to being this big, right? And so sometimes, in order to make ourselves look better, we'll just stretch the truth a little bit. 238 00:39:25,500 --> 00:39:34,500 And then we've all experienced people who have completely disregarded the truth. And so when we hear somebody tell us something, 239 00:39:34,500 --> 00:39:44,500 usually we want proof. We want to verify, because we're used to things being forgotten, things being twisted, or things being outright lies. 240 00:39:44,500 --> 00:39:52,500 And what David says is that God's testimony is not like that. You can look at his track record of keeping his promises. 241 00:39:52,500 --> 00:40:00,500 You can look at how his word lines up with the world. You can look at the logic and the truth and the evidence that is behind it. 242 00:40:00,500 --> 00:40:13,500 God's word is sure, and what it does is it makes us wise. What this simply means is it shows us how to live rightly in the world that God has given us. 243 00:40:13,500 --> 00:40:20,500 It shows us right. It shows us wrong. It shows us where we should be walking. It shows us how to live. 244 00:40:20,500 --> 00:40:28,500 Because we can trust God's word as a pillar upon which our life is supported, it shows us how to live. 245 00:40:28,500 --> 00:40:34,500 Third, he says, "The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart." 246 00:40:34,500 --> 00:40:42,500 And I don't know if you've ever been lost while you're driving somewhere. It's never a very good feeling to not know where you are. 247 00:40:42,500 --> 00:40:49,500 Probably two or three times a week, we'll go out of our house, or somebody will knock on our front door, 248 00:40:49,500 --> 00:40:57,500 and it'll be like a DoorDash food delivery driver or a pizza delivery driver, and they'll be like, "Hey, we brought food." 249 00:40:57,500 --> 00:41:02,500 And it's like, "Well, this isn't for us." And I'll say, "What address are you trying to deliver to?" 250 00:41:02,500 --> 00:41:07,500 And they'll say, "You know, 104." I can't remember the name of the street, but it's right there behind us. 251 00:41:07,500 --> 00:41:11,500 And their GPS takes them into our parking lot and says, "This is the address." 252 00:41:11,500 --> 00:41:17,500 When in fact, they have to drive down to the stop sign, take a right, drive down to the cul-de-sac, and there it is. 253 00:41:17,500 --> 00:41:24,500 They've tried to deliver lumber. This week, they've tried to deliver pizza and deliver Chinese food because they're lost. 254 00:41:24,500 --> 00:41:30,500 And when you tell them where it is, you can sort of see a sense of relief, right? I know where I'm going. 255 00:41:30,500 --> 00:41:37,500 And if you've ever been lost, and then you've found where you're supposed to be, you know it's a feeling of joy and of relief. 256 00:41:37,500 --> 00:41:48,500 The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The idea of precepts are God's commands and directions for life, right? 257 00:41:48,500 --> 00:41:54,500 The world we live in is confusing. How do we address the things that we aren't certain about? 258 00:41:54,500 --> 00:42:02,500 God shows us where to go. And when we find where we're supposed to be, it is a joyful thing. 259 00:42:02,500 --> 00:42:09,500 That the Word of God keeps us from being lost and from facing this life with uncertainty. 260 00:42:09,500 --> 00:42:14,500 The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. 261 00:42:14,500 --> 00:42:21,500 It's very similar to what he just said, that show us where we're to live and how to live, and that is a joyful thing. 262 00:42:21,500 --> 00:42:27,500 But now he's giving us this picture of warning, right? We see rejoicing because we're not lost. 263 00:42:27,500 --> 00:42:33,500 Now we see that we are warned about the difficulties on the way, right? 264 00:42:33,500 --> 00:42:38,500 That God's Word enlightens our eyes, and the picture is that it brings light. 265 00:42:38,500 --> 00:42:48,500 The 119th Psalm, which is a whole lot of verses all about the Word of God, says this, "Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." 266 00:42:48,500 --> 00:42:54,500 And when we take the dogs out late at night, have a little flashlight on Dodgers' collars' remote, 267 00:42:54,500 --> 00:43:00,500 so we can kind of see and watch, because my greatest fear, not to worry about the bunnies or the cats, 268 00:43:00,500 --> 00:43:07,500 but we have some skunks that have been inhabiting the neighborhood, and that's the last thing I want to do at 1130 at night, 269 00:43:07,500 --> 00:43:14,500 is try to get an 85-pound dog who's just tried to play, not grumpy about, but tried to play with the skunk. 270 00:43:14,500 --> 00:43:21,500 I don't want it, right? So I want to be able to see. And in a world filled with darkness, what the Word of God does 271 00:43:21,500 --> 00:43:31,500 is it lets us see, and it warns us of danger and struggle. The fear of the Lord is clean and doing forever. 272 00:43:31,500 --> 00:43:37,500 So we're people who change. We have different preferences. Our preferences change over time. 273 00:43:37,500 --> 00:43:42,500 We have different hobbies. From time to time, we'll switch favorite restaurants. 274 00:43:42,500 --> 00:43:47,500 And I was thinking about this, as we've had a lot of kids in our house this week, right? 275 00:43:47,500 --> 00:43:52,500 So one time a child will love chicken nuggets, and the next they don't ever want to see them again. 276 00:43:52,500 --> 00:43:57,500 One time they'll love french fries, and then they'll never want to see them again, right? 277 00:43:57,500 --> 00:44:03,500 And their tastes don't always last. It goes from this to this to this. And we're the same way, right? 278 00:44:03,500 --> 00:44:07,500 What's our favorite place to eat one month might be different next month, right? 279 00:44:07,500 --> 00:44:12,500 The hobby that we're all in on right now, next year we may be into something else, right? 280 00:44:12,500 --> 00:44:17,500 The job that we love, we may change. The place in the house we love, we may move, right? 281 00:44:17,500 --> 00:44:23,500 We tend to change what it is we think will bring us joy. 282 00:44:23,500 --> 00:44:32,500 And what you find is that sometimes it's not just that we change, sometimes the joy in has spoiled, has gone bad. 283 00:44:32,500 --> 00:44:38,500 And specifically, think about food. The reason food spoils is because one of two things: 284 00:44:38,500 --> 00:44:45,500 either bacteria has been introduced that began to cause that meat to rot and go bad, 285 00:44:45,500 --> 00:44:52,500 or fungus somewhere has been introduced, and you open the bread bag that you just got two days ago, 286 00:44:52,500 --> 00:44:57,500 and you look and there's green mold growing in your bread, and you've got to throw it out because it's ruined. 287 00:44:57,500 --> 00:45:02,500 The problem isn't the thing itself, it's what gets introduced into it, right? 288 00:45:02,500 --> 00:45:05,500 So we go to our favorite restaurant, and we have a terrible experience, 289 00:45:05,500 --> 00:45:11,500 and we say, "I'm never going there again," right? We eat something, and all of a sudden maybe it's bad, 290 00:45:11,500 --> 00:45:14,500 or it doesn't taste good, and we say, "Well, I don't want that for a while," right? 291 00:45:14,500 --> 00:45:22,500 The brokenness of our world takes those things that we find joy in, and oftentimes spoils them. 292 00:45:22,500 --> 00:45:28,500 What you find in these words, the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. 293 00:45:28,500 --> 00:45:33,500 The fear here is not being scared of the dark or of spiders, 294 00:45:33,500 --> 00:45:36,500 but rather it's a picture of worship and reverence, 295 00:45:36,500 --> 00:45:39,500 that we see God's greatness in our smallness, 296 00:45:39,500 --> 00:45:42,500 and we fall on our face in worship. 297 00:45:42,500 --> 00:45:46,500 And what the psalmist says is that it's pure and that it endures forever, 298 00:45:46,500 --> 00:45:52,500 meaning that there is nothing that can cause the worship of God to spoil, right? 299 00:45:52,500 --> 00:45:55,500 It doesn't go bad like your bread. It doesn't rot like meat. 300 00:45:55,500 --> 00:45:59,500 It doesn't go bad like vegetables that start to get bad spots in them. 301 00:45:59,500 --> 00:46:08,500 It's a worship of God. It's the one thing that will not change if we see Him for who He is and what He has done. 302 00:46:08,500 --> 00:46:13,500 Unlike our restaurants and our food preferences, our hobbies, even the places that we live that change, 303 00:46:13,500 --> 00:46:20,500 maybe because something is bad that has happened, the worship of God, the psalmist says, will never change. 304 00:46:20,500 --> 00:46:25,500 Because it's clean, it never spoils, it never fades, and it never wears out. 305 00:46:25,500 --> 00:46:32,500 The rules of the Lord are true and righteous altogether, right? 306 00:46:32,500 --> 00:46:36,500 Think about the rules that we sometimes have to endure, right? 307 00:46:36,500 --> 00:46:42,500 Some stifle us. Some are there to maybe, in our eyes, take advantage of us. 308 00:46:42,500 --> 00:46:48,500 Some are for gain, to raise money. Some have an agenda behind them. 309 00:46:48,500 --> 00:46:53,500 And what I've come to learn as I've gotten older, just because something is legally right 310 00:46:53,500 --> 00:46:56,500 doesn't necessarily make it morally right, right? 311 00:46:56,500 --> 00:47:04,500 And so laws all the time that are maybe unfair or unjust, or allow something that is unfair and unjust. 312 00:47:04,500 --> 00:47:12,500 Laws with a motive and agenda behind them. And so we become suspicious of all laws and all authority. 313 00:47:12,500 --> 00:47:19,500 But look at what the psalmist says, "The rules of the Lord, first of all, are true, and they're righteous altogether." 314 00:47:19,500 --> 00:47:26,500 These rules just aren't just true, but they're good, right? Just like we say to our kids, right? 315 00:47:26,500 --> 00:47:32,500 Don't play in the road because it's for their good, not to hamper their joy. 316 00:47:32,500 --> 00:47:39,500 But these rules aren't just true and righteous in themselves, but they lead us into truth and righteousness. 317 00:47:39,500 --> 00:47:44,500 That if we seek truth and righteousness, the place to do so is in the Word of God. 318 00:47:44,500 --> 00:47:50,500 And so you have these six pictures that contain three parts each. 319 00:47:50,500 --> 00:47:59,500 You have the picture of solidness, of transformation, of refreshment, of learning, of being warned. 320 00:47:59,500 --> 00:48:08,500 All of these different things show us that the Word of God is a treasure, that it's sweet, and that it protects us. 321 00:48:08,500 --> 00:48:14,500 But this Word of God also points us to another way that God has spoken to us. 322 00:48:14,500 --> 00:48:18,500 In Hebrews, the first chapter, it says this: 323 00:48:18,500 --> 00:48:26,500 "That long ago, in many times, and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 324 00:48:26,500 --> 00:48:31,500 but in these last days He has spoken to us by our Father, 325 00:48:31,500 --> 00:48:37,500 whom He appointed heir of all things, and through whom He also created the world." 326 00:48:37,500 --> 00:48:40,500 And He will go on to talk about how He is, the radiance of His glory. 327 00:48:40,500 --> 00:48:43,500 All of these wonderful things about Jesus. 328 00:48:43,500 --> 00:48:50,500 John begins by saying, "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us." 329 00:48:50,500 --> 00:48:56,500 Alright, you want to see real truth, real righteousness, real justice? 330 00:48:56,500 --> 00:49:02,500 We see it in the Word of God, but that Word points us to Jesus. 331 00:49:02,500 --> 00:49:12,500 Our hope. Our salvation. The one who has loved us. The one who has rescued us. The one who is helping us. 332 00:49:12,500 --> 00:49:23,500 The one who doesn't command us angrily, but rather, as every great leader has said, "Follow me, and I will show you the path upon which you are to walk." 333 00:49:23,500 --> 00:49:31,500 You see, the call to love the Word of God is also, for the Christian, the call to follow in the footsteps of Jesus. 334 00:49:31,500 --> 00:49:41,500 Let's pray. Father, refresh our hearts by your Word. Strengthen us through your grace. Give us hope. 335 00:49:41,500 --> 00:49:47,500 Thank you for the light that it shines upon our path. The firm foundation that it puts under our feet. 336 00:49:47,500 --> 00:49:58,500 And help us, most of all, through your Word, to see your Son, who loved us, who gave his life for us, who rose again, and in whom we are saved. 337 00:49:58,500 --> 00:50:04,500 Help us to seek and to pursue righteousness and truth and goodness. 338 00:50:04,500 --> 00:50:12,500 Strengthened by your Word, following your Son, and empowered by your Spirit. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. 339 00:50:12,500 --> 00:50:18,500 We're going to stand and sing about the faithfulness of God. 340 00:50:18,500 --> 00:50:23,500 And one of the remarkable things about the Word of God is that we don't just have a Bible, 341 00:50:23,500 --> 00:50:29,500 but we have a Bible that has been faithfully passed down from generation to generation. 342 00:50:29,500 --> 00:50:33,500 A great treasure. So let's sing about God's faithfulness. 343 00:50:47,500 --> 00:51:15,500 Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father. There is no shadow of turning with Thee. Thou changest not. Thy compassions, they fail not. As Thou hast been, Thou forever wilt be. 344 00:51:15,500 --> 00:51:43,500 Great is Thy faithfulness, Great is Thy faithfulness. Morning by morning new mercies I see. All I have needed, Thy hands have provided. Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me. 345 00:51:43,500 --> 00:52:11,500 Pardon for sin and the peace that endureth. Thy own dear presence to cheer and to guide. Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow. Blessings 346 00:52:11,500 --> 00:52:39,500 all mine with 10,000 beside. Great is my faithfulness. Great is thy faithfulness. Morning by morning new mercies I see. All I have needed thy hands have provided. Great is 347 00:52:39,500 --> 00:53:07,500 my faithfulness hold on to me. I want to thank you for being with us this morning. We are so grateful that you are here with us. We'll be back here on Wednesday night for our Wednesday evening Bible study. We won't have ladies class this week, and are we going to do the week after, or do you want 348 00:53:07,500 --> 00:53:35,500 to do the week after. So, not this week, but next week, sort of getting back into our normal schedule. Also, coming up this coming Saturday, we are going to celebrate Holly and her master's degree and Theo. We just did in general because he is a good dog. So, come join if you need an address. You can talk to Cody and Holly or Russell or to me and Rachel. We have that. It's also in the email 349 00:53:35,500 --> 00:54:03,500 I sent out this weekend, or this, yeah, earlier this weekend. Also, two Sundays from now, August 14th, we're going to have a cookout after church. We want to sort of celebrate Derek and Chrissy and the new baby that's on its way here in probably about a month. So, we're excited for that. So, come and join us. We're going to provide the meat. So, if you have a side dish that you like to make, bring some sides 350 00:54:03,500 --> 00:54:31,500 and come and share in a time of fellowship and sort of celebrating Derek and Chrissy. One more announcement. This is a little more long-term, but sort of in theme with what we have done today. One of the things we're starting in September is kind of a small activity. We're starting with the kids, but we want to invite any adults who want to be a part of it as well. It's called the Bible Memory Project. There's one verse to memorize sort 351 00:54:31,500 --> 00:54:59,500 of each week, and they send you some little cards with the verses on them and a little bit of art, a sticker, and a little kind of wristband that has the first letter of each word so you can kind of remember the verse a little easier. So, for example, this week is, "The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit," from Psalm 34, and sort of some tools to help you memorize some Scripture. So we're going to start that with our young people. We'd love to have any adults who want 352 00:54:59,500 --> 00:55:27,500 to participate. So if you're interested in doing this, we're going to start the first week of September. With that, just let me or Rachel know so we can get a count of how many people who are going to be participating in that. So we're going to go ahead and pray. We'll read a verse from 1 John, and then we will sing the doxology. Father in heaven, thank you for Jesus and for grace. Thank you that you 353 00:55:27,500 --> 00:55:55,500 have saved us, and you love us, and you have equipped us with your word. Be with us through this week. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In 1 John, the fifth chapter, it says, "We know the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know him who is true, and we are in him who is true in his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life." Let's sing the doxology. 354 00:55:55,500 --> 00:56:23,500 Praise God, from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him, all creatures here below. Praise Him, above ye heavenly hosts. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. 355 00:56:23,500 --> 00:56:25,500 Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. 356 00:56:53,500 --> 00:57:23,480 Thank you. 357 00:57:23,500 --> 00:57:53,480 Thank you.