[0:00] The sermon text for today is Psalm 5. At the conclusion of the reading, I will declare this! is the word of the Lord in the church in joyful response to his revelation given to us. We'll! together say thanks be to God. Psalm 5, a Psalm of David. Give ear to my words, O Lord. Consider my groaning. Give attention to the sound of my cry, my King and my God, for to you do I pray.
[0:34] O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice. In the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch. For you are not a God who delights in wickedness. Evil may not dwell with you. The boastful shall not stand before your eyes. You hate all evildoers. You destroy those who speak lies. The Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man. But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love, will enter your house. I will bow down toward your holy temple in the fear of you. Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness. Because of my enemies, make your way straight before me. For there is no truth in their mouth. Their inmost self is destruction. Their throat is an open grave. They flatter with their tongue.
[1:21] Make them bear their guilt, O God. Let them fall by their own counsels. Because of the abundance of their transgressions, cast them out. For they have rebelled against you. But let all who take refuge in you rejoice. Let them ever sing for joy. And spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may exult in you. For you bless the righteous, O Lord. You cover him with favor as with a shield.
[1:48] This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Hey, good morning.
[2:06] Turn it down a little bit. Turn it down a little bit. So first, the slides on my screen looked great. They were pristine. I recognize you can't see those up here. So we first plan was we're going to try and edit them in the last minute.
[2:21] It didn't happen. So COA 2 is we dim the lights and I'm going to give like two minutes for anyone that wants to be able to see the screen. This is your chance to move forward. I have a teaching background. So very comfortable making everyone move forward. So I highly encourage if you want to see it, there's a whole bunch empty here, here. So here's your chance. Move up.
[2:43] Let me pray first when we're going to this. Father God, we submit to you right now. We submit to your word as we read it. We want to understand what it means. We want to understand what it means for us, how you want us to use this. We don't want us to be hearers of the word, but doers as well. But we can't do this on our own. Holy Spirit, make it clear. Make it true. And change our hearts this morning, God.
[3:12] We submit to you as our leader. Amen. All right. No one moved up. Your poor decision. Thanks, Jordan. So some of the slides maybe you'll see. I don't know. We'll see. Pray and watch is the title of the sermon. Psalm 5. As a background, Matt Landek mentioned, you know, we've been going through the Psalms with the youth every other Sunday.
[3:43] It's been great. These third through eighth graders, like, understand and learning how to study the Bible on their own. It's been really good. And so when I was asked to preach a few months ago, I've been thinking about which psalm we're going to do. And I kind of decided, I want to do one that we've done in the shoreline youth.
[3:59] So that the youth in here, like Ella, Lennox, Sadie over there, they will have seen this before. And so they already have a leg up on their parents. It's not a competition. But so I was going through it, thinking about which one I was going to do.
[4:11] And I did Psalm 5. I wanted one that has this chiastic structure, which I'm going to introduce in a moment. That was pretty clear. And afterwards, one of my sons said afterwards, like, that was great, Dad.
[4:22] That was the best one ever. I was like, okay, easy. Thank you, God. This is the sermon that we're going to preach. I got affirmation from one of my sons. But so this is, it has a really cool structure.
[4:33] Hopefully I'll highlight it. And so not just the beauty of it, but also like it emphasizes the point, what God wants us to learn. So here is the outline where we're going to go.
[4:44] So first, we'll go through this poetic structure. And maybe you've seen this right, but we'll see this structure and I'll introduce it and why it's important. And then we're going to go through this pattern of what does it say?
[4:57] So like what is the word of God? What are the words on there? What are they telling us? And then what does it mean? Like what is the implication of these words? And how do they point to Jesus? And then what does it mean to me?
[5:07] What are the applications with these? So that's the outline. So first, the poetic structure. And I think we're all used to understanding, hopefully, like the structure of a story, a text, an argument helps emphasize a certain point.
[5:26] And so if you just read Psalm 5 or many of the Psalms through in order, you might miss the emphasis of like the central point of that verse. Because a lot of times in our Western culture, we have like a top ten list.
[5:40] Number one is the number one thing. Let's put it at the top. Maybe one of the most important things at the bottom. But we also have some examples of like the climax is in the middle. And so if you read a story, I thought of like Jordan Steeble, like literature.
[5:54] There's like this climax right in the middle. And that's kind of what happens in these structures as well. So these poems, many of the Psalms are in this piastic structure or chiasm.
[6:10] It comes from like this Greek letter chi. It looks like an X. And so what they do is they'll say a point right here in the very beginning. And then they'll say it again at the end.
[6:21] And then there's this structure. There'll be one, one, two, two, three, three. And then the middle point, that is like the most important. They sometimes call it the central axis of the passage.
[6:32] So that's what we're going to see here. This one has a very clear pattern. Sometimes they also call it a menorah structure. Because it goes three and then Miramath three.
[6:43] And then right in the middle there's one. So kind of like a menorah. And so we're going to see that in Psalm 5 here. But the big point I want you to take away is the central axis. The most important thing that the author, David, wanted you to get was right in the middle.
[6:56] And we'll see that. And it kind of leads up to it. There's also parallelism. And there's different types. You'll see that in the Psalms. And other preachers have mentioned that throughout the summer already.
[7:08] But parallelism where they'll say the same idea twice to emphasize it. They'll say one idea. Then an idea that's similar to Growit. It's called synergistic parallelism. Or there's an anti.
[7:19] Where they say how great God is compared to how bad the enemies are. I'm not going to highlight those a lot in this sermon. But those are present as well. And then the purpose of this.
[7:30] Why would the author, David, do this? And so there's a couple reasons. There's a few. One is for emphasis. You're going to see the same idea said twice. And building up to the central idea.
[7:43] One is for clarity. We do this all the time. Where if you explain a concept, maybe the person that heard that concept doesn't understand it. So you say it again but with different words. So just clarity. That's another reason that it would do this.
[7:55] And then engaging. It's beautiful. We're going to see some really cool symmetry in this poem. And it helps me remember it throughout the week. Or weeks leading up to this. Alright.
[8:08] So Psalm 5 again. And so now we're going to go through this chiastic structure. So there's this one. The first part and the last part have a mirror image. So we'll look at those two. Is red a little bit easier to see?
[8:20] I don't know. Okay, good. So we're going to highlight just this first two. So these have a. These two are a couple. They come together. So we'll look at the first one first. So.
[8:32] First we see this. Give ear to my words, O Lord. Consider my groaning. Give attention. To you do I pray. You hear. I prepare a sacrifice. So. The first thing that just kind of stands out is.
[8:45] This is. An emphasis on communicating with God. And in addition to that. There's like a reliance. A dependence on God through this part. And. It's.
[8:56] They escalate the communication words. See it first starts says. Give ear to my words. Then. It moves up. Consider my groaning. And then give attention to the sound of my cry.
[9:07] Like there is like a desperation. Like. Like I can't do life without you God. So I think it goes well with what Jim was singing earlier. And it was pointed out like. These are like. I need you Lord. Every hour I need you.
[9:21] I also want to point out in this part. In this first part here. David. I guess I should mention also. This is the. You know the Psalms are meant to be sung. This is another one that was. With flutes.
[9:33] This is the second Psalm. Like Psalm 4 is the first one to have a musical instrument attached. This is the. The. The second one. Like this is meant to be a song. A song that is sung. But.
[9:44] I also want to highlight. How personal this is. Uh. He recognizes. It's this. Oh Lord. So he uses the personal name of. Of. Yahweh. Uh. But. So he recognizes who he is.
[9:56] And he recognizes King God. But it's. It's my King. My God. And then he. Prayes directly to him. To you. To you. To you. So. Um. As we think about what prayer looks like.
[10:06] It is not a. Ritualistic. Practice. It's not a. I am going to talk one way to Caleb. But I'm going to talk a different way to God. Uh. I mean there's a respect aspect as well.
[10:16] But like. You know like. I don't have to like. Change who I am. God wants us to communicate with him. And so we see it here. Oh Lord. My King. My God. And then you. And then another thing.
[10:29] This is going to come up again. Especially in the application portion. Is. Uh. Is in the morning. In the morning. So the twice there. This is not a. A one time thing. This is supposed to be.
[10:42] Like. The habit of our life. Like. There is a. Daily. Pattern of coming to God. Regular occurrence. So maybe it's not in the morning for you. We'll talk about that later. But. It is a. It is a.
[10:53] Um. A pattern with which you build your life on. Is coming to God regularly. And we're going to see. In a moment. Why it's so important to do this. This is like. You know. First. And last verse.
[11:03] The inner portion. Talks about why it's so important. To come to God. In this regular fashion. So. Uh. And then. Yeah. One more. And then. We pray with faith. Faith and expectation.
[11:14] He finishes with. And he watches. He comes to God. And isn't. Isn't like. Caveatting his prayers. Like. You know. God. Please do this. If you want. If not. It's fine. I'll just do whatever you say.
[11:25] Like. There's an aspect. To submitting to God. But there's also an aspect. Of like. God. I need you. I trust you. I'm going to wait for you to act. So we watch.
[11:36] And. For God to act. And. This is what's going to tie it. To verses 11 and 12. At the end. Is this. He prays in the beginning. And he watches. And. At the end. We're going to see him respond.
[11:47] To seeing God in action. So here's. 11 and 12. So he watches. And then he rejoices. He sees.
[11:58] Those who take refuge in you rejoice. Let them ever sing for joy. It's like a. We talk about parallelism. Like. That's joy and joy. Basically the same word said twice. Watch and trust.
[12:11] So. We're going to see why he needs to trust. God in the middle portions. There's a whole bunch of stuff going on in his life. And in the culture he's surrounded. But. He trusts him. As his. As he spreads his protection.
[12:22] Over the righteous. And he is covered as a shield. Watch and praise. Says. Let those who love you. Let those who love your name.
[12:34] May exult in you. And then also like. Like receptive to his blessing. Like God. Desires. As a good father. To bless his children.
[12:44] Amen. But this is only going to happen. If we pray. And then actually watch. To see God respond to those prayers. To watch and see God in action.
[12:55] Not just as a. You know. A Santa Claus figure. Like. He's real. Play. I didn't burst any bubbles. Sorry. Sorry. All right.
[13:10] So this. This. If you're. If you're taking notes. And you got. If you can read it. This is the structure. We're going to build as we go. And this is what. My kids. And I think some of the shoreline youth.
[13:21] Enjoyed writing. Because it. Then he really highlights the parallel. The structure. So we did verse. The first part. Was verses one through three. And then. The corresponding part.
[13:31] And we'll see this very clearly. In two, three, and four. There's some like really. Words that tie them together. Watch for and rejoice. To answered prayer. So you pray up here.
[13:43] Answered prayer here. And the response. It's also hard. I'm like really. Just have to dive myself a little bit. Well I do presentations.
[13:54] If I like really want like. Clean formatting and stuff. And something happened. Where it was on Google Slides. To PowerPoint. Like. Like this here. Is like. We should like. All stop. We'll read this presentation next week. Is what I feel like.
[14:05] But. Nope. We'll keep going. We'll just grind. Alright. So now. Let's see. So we saw. Prayer. Praying to God.
[14:16] And then. Seeing his response. His answered prayer. And how we respond. So now we're going to go. To those middle portions there. So first we see. In blue here. The wicked cast out.
[14:28] So in verse four. And ten bravo. Are the corresponding there. It says. For you're not. A God who delights in wickedness. Evil may not dwell on you.
[14:40] And then the corresponding. In ten. Because of the abundance. Of their transgressions. Cast them out. For they have rebelled against you. You guys see the real tie.
[14:52] Between this two. The concept. There's like a. Give me a second. And look at it. So I think. The big thing. That really. Like there's idea of evilness.
[15:03] And wickedness. But there's this. It's the next one. Sorry. There's also. This isn't just like little. Like there's a magnitude. Delights and wickedness. And the abundance. Of their transgression. But really. The tie for me.
[15:14] Is. The first part. May not dwell with you. And then he casts them out. So there is. That's like the idea. Like the verbiage.
[15:25] Like make you like. Tie these. Like oh. Can't dwell. And cast out. That's the same idea. And once you see. These two are a couple. And so this is. This wickedness.
[15:37] Is. Oop. Wait. What just happened? Is. It's magnitude. Like these people. Are delighting wickedness. The abundance. Of their wickedness. And God. As a holy God.
[15:47] God. Will not. Tolerate that. Like in his people. It will be not. It will not dwell. And it will be cast out. We'll come back to that verse.
[16:00] Well all these verses. In the. So what does it mean? But. Right now. David. As he's praying. Is praying them. About his enemies. Okay. There's this culture of wickedness.
[16:10] Around him. And he's praying this. About his enemies. We will. Like. Spoiler alert. Like. This is not just. About David's enemies. It's. It's a bigger. Broader context. And Paul will help. Explain that later. But there's this culture of wickedness.
[16:24] That will not be. Tolerated. Like. Tolerate. Like a. Very. Western. Word. That's very. Glorified. Like here. This is not.
[16:34] Tolerant. May not dwell. And it's cast out. All right. So we see. Not dwelling. And cast out. That's the couple there. Don't. Don't.
[16:45] Don't. Don't. So let's go to the next. Next couple. All right. This is. The boaster. The boastful. Shall not stand before your eyes.
[16:56] You hate all evildoers. Make them bear their guilt. Oh God. Let them fall by their own counsels. So in the first part.
[17:07] He was talking about. Wickedness. And just kind of spreading. Wickedness. Now it's a little. It's slightly. But subtly different. He talks more about. The boastful. And the own counsels.
[17:18] So instead of like. I'll talk about this a little bit later. But like. This in my mind. Is more of a. Culture of pride. Than straight wickedness. Pride is also a sin. But like. This is like.
[17:28] They think. They got it all figured out. Again. Give you a moment. Like. See. If you see like. The verb or the phrase. That really ties these two together. Okay.
[17:44] Wrong way. Wrong way. They will be humbled. He talks about these proud. Individuals. They're going to be humbled. And specifically. They shall not stand.
[17:55] And let them fall. So before it was. Dwelling and casting out. And now it's. The idea of shall not stand. It's very similar to let them fall. But both have to do also with like.
[18:08] These proud. Boastful. Counselors. I think of. Wormwood. From Lord of the Rings. They got it all figured out. But they're going to be humbled.
[18:23] Also. We see like. Hate all evildoers. And then let them bear their guilt. You know. Mike mentioned. Revelation for the women. A number of the women from Shoreline.
[18:33] Are going through. A Bible study in Revelation. And how. God's judgment is sure. It's coming. There's a lot of things that are. Maybe difficult to understand. In the book of Revelation.
[18:45] But one thing that is not. Ambiguity. There's no ambiguity with. Is there will be a judgment. And that is a good thing. As Christians. Christians. To trust that God has an ultimate plan.
[18:55] This is not. God's not sitting back saying. I wonder how this is going to play out. Not like an infinite multiverse. He knows where it's going. And it's good for us.
[19:06] We can trust him. All wrong. Will be. Resolved. All things that are good. Will be remembered. But. So.
[19:16] Let them bear their own guilt. This is what. David prays for his enemies. So. In our. Lord have mercy.
[19:28] Boaster shall not stand. Let them bear. Let the guilty fall. Okay. So now. The final. Couple. Leading up to the central axis.
[19:41] Is. Liars speak death. I think this is really what. My son liked the most. Is all this. Graphic. Violence. PG 13 here. Uh.
[19:52] Says. You destroy those who speak lies. The Lord. Abhors. The bloodthirsty. And deceitful man. For there is no truth. In their mouth.
[20:03] Their inmost self. Is destruction. Their throat. Is an open grave. They flatter. With their tongue. This one. I don't even. I feel like I need to give you.
[20:14] A moment to look at it. It is about liars. On both ends here. We see. Speak lies. Deceitful man. No truth in their mouth. And then they flatter.
[20:27] Um. So. Real culture of lies. Here. So we saw. Wicked. And then like a boastful. Proud. Person. And then now it's someone that.
[20:38] A culture of just. Making things up. Saying things. That other. That you know are a lie. But just saying it anyways. This is the culture. That David's surrounded by. And is maybe being tempted by too.
[20:49] We don't know that part. But. Definitely. He's experiencing this around him. I also want to point out. Like. There is. It's not just a correlation. Between lies and death.
[21:00] There's a causation link. Between lies and death. Here we see. There is no like. White lie. That's not going to harm anyone. Like. These lies. Are causing death. And destruction.
[21:10] In. In people's lives. The Lord abhors. The bloodthirsty. The inmost self. Is destruction. Their throat. Is an open grave. Like what there's.
[21:22] When lies are spoken. It is creating. Death and destruction. Vampires. The. The other.
[21:33] point is like it is there's also a component where bloodthirsty in most self this is who that person is this is what they want they're bloodthirsty there is there's a person and again we'll see in paul like we are also that person uh it was seen romans that we want to tell this lie we are thirsty for what this lie is going to give us in our inmost self in our flesh this is who we are as well on our own um so bloodthirsty deceitful man oh then the last thing i want to point out here this will be one of the application which is i thought this you know there's all this language about bloodthirsty open grave it then ends here with a really subtle type of lie like flattery and so um that which is in some ways i think probably the more dangerous lie where it sounds good everybody likes the lie and just kind of moves forward with it um but so just be be guarded that is in the same category as the open grave in the same sentence as the throat is an open grave all right all right no it's closer um so we see our pattern here pray answer pray prayer rejoice the wicked won't dwell so now he's praying these he makes this prayer in the midst of all this wickedness boastfulness and lying so we see we see that he prays here and we see down here he rejoices in answered prayer and we know why he's praying but my argument is the central axis is what he's praying is is the what so we'll go down here verses seven eight the central part this is what the author david is really trying to communicate um like and like everything else is kind of leading up to this so he says it because of my enemies so because of all the things he just talked about so in this crooked rebellious generation or culture this is what he prays first he approaches god he he says he says here but i through the abundance of your steadfast love will enter your house i will bow down towards your holy temple so he comes to god we saw this also in the first part approaching god we saw the cries the words the groaning so so step one of what we're supposed to do is we approach we lean into god and so um recognizing this is not always easy but we lean in and trust in god next he prays and while he prays he is remembering who god is through the abundance of your steadfast love recognizing his holy temple in the fear of the creator god he prays for him to lead him as as the ultimate leader and then all because of god's righteousness on his own so we remember who god is as we pray we approach him we remember who he is it's like the the axe type prayer the um admire the thanksgiving uh confession thanksgiving supplication you admire who god is you come to him and then finally he really he submits to and trusts in god's leadership here this is the way he prays he says lead me oh lord in your righteousness because of my enemies make your way straight before me while there is a plethora of wickedness and transgressions and lies going on around him he prays to god and says lead me you're the great leader you are and make your path straight before me i need to know i i on my own will be tempted to go down one of those other paths
[25:35] so make it very clear to me god what is straight what is not crooked like all the crookedness around me what is straight what is true and um okay oh wait one but i i think this is i'm very grateful that david prayed this this is a prayer that we can pray as well i also believe that god has answered this prayer to for all us as christians having now the example of jesus as the template of how we are called to live so in our chiastic structure this is the kind of the final product so pray and pray this is this right here is cut off it says verses 11 12 and then the wicked won't dwell so now three through two through four all about that the culture surrounding him david's enemies wicked won't dwell boasts or shan't stand bloodthirsty liars throat graves let the guilty fall so like there's this symmetry and then right in the middle we see david approach god remember who god is and then ask for god's help to to lead him and make straight the path he's going down so this is i argue what the text text what the the psalm 5 says so now what does it mean what are the implications of this so first i i mentioned this a few times but if let's uh if we turn our bibles to the new testament to romans um in romans 3 uh i know you can't read it so i'll read it for you so three uh starting verse 9 i'm skipping around a little bit what then are we jews any better off no not at all for we have already charged that all both jews and greek are under sin as is written and i'm gonna skip down here then he quotes the number of passages from the old testament says their throat is an open grave they use their tongues to deceive it's like this is um paul not plagiarizing because he quoted it and like gave his sight the sort of sight of source but their tongue he quotes psalm 5 so then paul goes on to explain he explains for us he does our job like he explains what it means now we know and this is verse 19 in romans 3 now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under law so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable to god for by the works of the law no human will being will being no human being will be justified in his sight since through the law comes knowledge of sin so david was saying this prayer uh the psalm in response to the enemies around him but paul and then spurgeon here helps clarify as well this is not about this is not just about his enemies we are all in this camp as well spurgeon commenting in romans 3 this description of depraved man has been copied by the apostle paul together with some other quotations as an accurate description of the whole human race see down here the whole world no human being not of david's enemies only so as we read psalm 5 psalm 5 don't just be thinking those people out there don't be thinking that news outlet or that other news outlet or those people at work like this is is true they are also susceptible if those non-christians to the wickedness and boastfulness and and pride uh but we also are in that camp especially when we try and do life without jesus so we on our own that we on our own are speaking death that's what our natural fleshy self will do is by god's grace that he is reworking and changing us um
[29:35] okay so first what does this mean this means it is true there is sin out there but there's also a tendency of sin within myself second what does it mean uh verse 8 i got ahead of myself it says lead me o lord in your righteousness make your way straight before me um and i said before i i i argue that part of this has been answered in a big way by the person of jesus and jesus is our he is much more than our example he is our our sacrifice he's our king he but he is also our example of how we're called to live life and so uh the verse that came to my mind is is hebrews chapter 12 i'll read this one as well therefore since we have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us let us lay aside every hindrance and the sin that so easily ensnares us let us run with endurance the race that lies before us keeping our eyes on jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith uh so jesus was our example so we said make the way straight jesus ran the path so we just follow his footsteps um we he prays up here you know lead me in your righteousness jesus shows us what it looks like to live a life in righteousness without the hindrance of sin and i highly this word pioneer here i don't think i'd get like full preaching credit if you don't know one foreign word so uh so what that means in greek so mark this down caleb for my evaluation arc j and ago so beginning and lead and i think i mean this is pioneer is a good word for it but another word i was looking at one of the commentaries is the trailblazer i think that's a good one not to be confused with the portland jailblazers but uh the trailblazers are those that arrive at the destination the end of the goal and where others are to follow so we ask for like when we pray lead me oh lord you're righteous make your way straight before me like we have the person and the work of jesus to look to as an example or a template of what that looks like he is our trailblazer so as we read psalm 5 we see both the depravity of the human condition but we also see there is a leader our leader that is with us going along the way and led the path all right so final part application what does it mean to me so first i think uh this um psalm 5 shows that there's a different variety of of you know wickedness out there and uh we see three different categories here we talked about the wicked he talked about the boastful the proud and he talked about liars and so uh this could be way off base but this is what came to mind i ran it by one other person but the wicked could be we'll see uh believing lies and acting them this is like the followers of the rebellion to god they're they're believing lies and they're just going along you know living the yolo life you know this i don't know people still say that i don't know if that's no cap or not but so they're just the followers and the rebellion so they're still rebelling to god okay they're they're performing wickedness and transgression and crooked but they're just going along then there was this other category the proud the boastful those that are giving counsel so those are the ones that are propagating the lies against god so in my mind they're like the mid-level managers in rebellion against god they're they're taking lies and they're propagating them and leading others astray they're poor counselors and then the the middle part i just had the most
[33:41] graphic language that my son likes the open grave and the the bloodthirsty vampires this could be like those that have are leading the rebellion against god they're developing and making lies and lies that they know aren't true and sharing those so why i consider this an application point is one if it is a a non-christian that is struggling in one of these three areas um it kind of gives you an idea of like maybe how you approach that person if they are just spreading a lie but they don't know it's a lie maybe you can help them point out that it's a lie you know it gives them more like a teaching type part if it is a proud person maybe it's you ask a tough question that challenges what they're believing or what they're saying and if it's someone that's spreading a lie and they know it's a lie maybe you don't have the conversation you just pray for that person individually you walk away shake your dust off your sandals i don't know but i'm saying i think it is important to know our audience as we address and are evangelizing those around us in addition if it is a christian that is acting in one of these ways following a lie spreading a lie or starting a lie i think very similar is how you would address that person but i think uh i go back to um second timothy 3 16 all scriptures breathed out by god is profitable for teaching reproof for correction for training and righteousness so that the man of god may be a complete equipped for every good works uh this is a pastor of mine back in charleston showed me something like this and i thought it was helpful so we are the scripture is teaching us what is good what is right what is true uh but then we're going to mess things up and so maybe if you're believing in some lie you need to have some reproof some of christian brother sister needs to help in a loving way reprove you or me if you're believing a lie and then maybe it's they need a correction so they not just a reproof but they need some correction and they were taught something but now they've they've twisted it or they didn't understand it fully and then there's a train aspect this is just like an ongoing thing this is a reinforcing loop leading us to like this infinite uh grace and what the person god is think the finest to be but i think again it knows like to see which you know if someone's actually believing a lie or someone is spreading that lie or that that wickedness kind of might affect you as a brother christ brother sister christ and how you are going to approach is it a teaching does this basically does this person need teaching correction or a proof yes oh yeah uh so the question was can you define the difference between correction and reproof and so uh the non-spiritual answer i'll give to start with is uh if you are teaching your child how to shoot a basketball hoop you'll you'll get up there and you'll say hey you need to like you need ball dribble twice and shoot the free throw okay so that's the teaching part and then you let them do it and then they shoot they shoot and then they're shooting to the side so then the reproof part is hey you got your arm too far over here zachary okay you got your arm too far you need to be more in front of you okay so the reproof part is saying telling them what they did wrong and the correction part is telling what they need to do to fix it so reproof tell them the wrong correction telling them what they need to change and then the training is you need to now go to a thousand free throws does that answer your question okay bring on the questions i love them we should have more questions in church i argue
[37:51] i mean for real it's great oh i meant to do it like a trigger warning that there's gonna be a lot in the next slide sorry ptsd all right so the next slide has a lot on it so you're about to see it um so the next part is is the application for this is knowing kind of like i talked about the one part that was the flattery of the tongue there's a lot of very subtle lies out there but uh most of these lies or questions of the faith um have been discussed in the christian world for 2 000 years so while it might seem like a really hard challenging lie because if you're confronted with this um there's a lot of resources to help okay and so one of them that uh a number of the men in in shoreline there's a book club every friday uh friday morning norms big plug for phil yeah phil leads that so you have questions about highly encourage but one of the books that we just finished is on called surviving religion 101 letters to a christian student on keeping the faith in college by michael j kruger husband of melissa okay so he these are the 12 you know different chapters you don't need to read all those but what i want to highlight is like some of these are sound like pretty good lies you know like um the concept of hell seems barbaric and cruel wouldn't a loving god save everybody that seems like a it seems like a fair question but we can be thinking about that ahead of time so you're but i guess what i'm arguing is be thinking about the lies of the world and preparing and equipping yourself right now before you're confronted with that it will not only encourage and build your faith but it will also kind of give you some ammunition as you evangelize we talked about a lot in the group we we can't save anyone if someone's hard god we're not gonna be able to argue them to faith but we can ask them questions that kind of help god use it as an instrument of grace to break that person down to humble themselves uh for god to humble them also so this was kind of more uh the subtlety of lies in the world in the culture that are affronting like the christian faith but there are other lies that are more like personal so uh i'm gonna give an example of uh the last two weeks i was part of this really cool uh submarine design course it was great if anyone in navcy gets a chance to do it or eb it's open to both um but so i was able to sit side by side with this guy that i went to grad school with uh and we sat side by side for four days and uh so we talked quite a bit you know we've seen the lecture before so we can talk in the back um and when i went to grad school with him he was married and had two kids and then i heard about a year oh and we had a bible study on campus and so we got together every wednesday or wherever it was and he came like a half dozen times he did not come frequently so i don't know where he was at the time my hunch is he was not a christian but he professed to be christian okay that's where i'm going and so i found it about a year and a half ago or so that he was divorced but i didn't know why it really surprised me um his wife like also almost died like three years ago with some heart condition i'm probably giving too much but anyways that's hipaa but um hipaa but uh so i've been wanting to know for like a year and a half like what happened like this guy professed to be a christian and and now i hear he's divorced and talking to him this last two weeks i i do not believe he's a christian okay and so it kind of came up like i'm like hopefully this isn't too personal but what happened you know what happened man and so the first thing he told me i'm sure there's a lot to it you know but the first example that he gave of kind of where their marriage started to fall apart had to do with parenting and how
[41:51] him and his uh wife disagreed very differently on how they wanted to parent their children uh he wanted to she wanted to never say no never say no to the child ever there'd be things going on uh he would want to try and intervene and she would tell him in front of the children stop let them do that um he said you remember an example where his daughter was picking up apple off her apple apple and throw him at the wall and his wife wouldn't let him stop it um and then similarly he would want to then do discipline after the fact like take away screen time and she said no we're not doing that in front of the children so like this was like the uh the environment they were in terms of parenting so the lie that i felt was you could hear him talking about how he had nothing he could do in the situation so we as especially christian fathers men a responsibility to lead our family well and he did not believe that that was within his scope he he is a great leader at work he is uh on he is on track to make admiral okay he's a commander now no he's a captain select now uh he's gonna do great things but at the home he felt like the leadership style he was required to do is submit to his wife in these parenting examples and so it was pretty hard to hear like that was the first one was this like um you were believing this lie like the loving thing to do for your children if you think that this is a wrong way to parent them is to like we need to have you know sit down lead your your spouse and come do an agreement you you can um faithfully discipline your children grow them and now it just sounds really he's like it's great now he the next lie he believed was like the the divorce was like a very good thing um i mean i don't know all the situation he talks about how how much better his relationship with his kids is is because they go to his mom their mom's house 50 percent of time and then his house 50 percent of time and with him he disciplines them when they go there they aren't disciplined and like that just sounds this child it's not good for the child like knowing you know not having clarity what's gonna happen but anyways um so i just feel like the lie there the subtle lie of um not leading your family not um stepping up when there's something wrong that you see broken it's okay um there's a whole bunch others we could do as well um recently my sister was talking about her another family member of hers on extended and how she called emma not a good christian my sister not a good christian because she wouldn't take her kids like a gay pride parade like well that's that's that's it was she was told that was unloving thing to do to like to not participate in that that's like a another lie that the world is saying which is on one of these also in here uh four i gave friends who were kind wonderful and happy are we sure homosexuality is the wrong thing it was a lie that this other person is not um who professes to be a christian was believing okay oh crap i mean i'm running over time all right so last application last application spiritual habits so the main spiritual habit we see that david practice in this that i think is is all christians are called to is to have this daily habit of praying to god and so he in particular calls out the morning time uh in the morning i understand everyone's different schedules and kids and school and work it can't always be the morning but there's something special about the morning if that does work if you're able to do it
[45:53] uh this is from a book called when the scientific secret of perfect timing by daniel pink non-christian just like a uh habit guy that creates habit books okay but he noted the scientific study after scientific study shows that the time where you're most productive you're happiest you're least distracted is in the morning this you can't see it but this is from like this is like the 7 a.m.
[46:16] right here boom and then the rest of the day it's all downhill slide until finally you hit happy hour it's an uphill slide no i'm just kidding i'm just kidding okay but i mean the examples are crazy they talk about stockbrokers make a ton more money in the morning students taking standard tests do better in the morning so we think about giving our first fruits to the lord if it if it's possible which i think for many it is giving that time to god and this is not like oh that's just the way the science works out like i think there's something to like um this is the like the way that god created us to some degree so he says the closing line for every day in the genesis one account uh and there was evening and there was morning there's a beautiful truth here that we sorely need our mornings our evenings aren't accidental moments they're the god-given beats to our day the rhythm he gave us from the beginning of time this is from a book called building spiritual habits in the household uh they take a lot of the um you know atomic habit habits or all those all those books about how to make good habits and like he applies them to like this is how a christian could use them to be more productive for god's glory and so uh and also this particular psalm psalm psalm 5 was uh in the church of england still is in the common book of prayer this psalm is prayed the first morning of every month so it's like a morning psalm not not morning like sad morning like a.m time okay kind of sad as well but uh so i i think this is not a a new idea that uh we as christians have been called you probably heard or felt the call to do this before like pray daily to god in the morning or or maybe a time at night as well of like reflecting on the day uh but i'll give you some and so we see this in practice like this is good thing that david did but um it's hard to like jump right into that and so i'll from these same authors here they give some um advice on how to start a new spiritual habit spiritual discipline you know there's lots of different words but starting a new practice to like lean into god which is one of the things we saw in the middle uh so the sixth they give they say make it easy so don't try and sit down and pray to god for an hour every morning if you this is this is for starting a new habit a new spiritual discipline make it easy make a commitment to pray for 30 seconds or two sentences make it easier than you expect okay so then you think likely then once you get that you make that expectation then you can build on that next is make it tangible make it a specific place or thing you're going to hold while you do it so they give examples of you know lighting candles kneeling down by your bed like i'm going to pray every morning 30 seconds kneeling by my bedside i think it's something everyone could do uh and then this is how you start a habit that you build the habit you keep going and build on it you pick a place it's a very you make a specific place someplace you walk by it doesn't need to be somewhere grand it could be in your car when you first sit down in the morning as you drive to work uh it could be you know as you're brushing your teeth i i recommend not that one but like you know somewhere like it's always in the same place pick the timing as well it's always going to be right when i wake up it's going to be like my take my first sip of coffee like pick the time you're going to do it make it playful we talked about like the conversation you don't have to change your conversation style you know like as you now pray to god don't have to change the tone of your voice or fill with filler words with words like just pray to god and then uh find friends all i mean over again you see building good habits work best if you do that with others so either accountability or your like a regular habit of praying with others uh again not prescriptive these authors are i think were pretty helpful like don't you have to do don't pick all the spiritual habits at once like pick one
[50:20] you think is important and i argue daily morning if possible prayer to god 30 seconds a day kneeling by your bedside something like that is possible it'll be good and then you can build upon that and then then you'll have this posture up here so time i close here in the morning you hear my voice in the morning i prepare a sacrifice for you watch then you get this as you build upon this habit you get to experience the joy sing for joy as seeing god work and seeing him act and praising him and responding um see in the slideshow so uh i'll pray then i think uh jimmy one more song okay come on up you you