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[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 other. The other.

[21:33] Is like. It is. There's also. A component. Where bloodthirsty. Inmost self. This is who. That person is. This is what they want. Their bloodthirsty. There is.

[21:43] There's a person. Again. We'll see in. Paul. Like. We are also that person. It was seen Romans. That. We want to tell this lie.

[21:54] 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. So.

[22:07] So. Bloodthirsty. Deceitful man. Oh. Then the last thing. I want to point out here. This will be one of the application. Which. I thought this. You know.

[22:17] There's all this language. About bloodthirsty. Open grave. It then ends here. With a really subtle. Type of lie. Like flattery. And so. Which is in some ways.

[22:30] I think probably the more dangerous lie. Where it sounds good. Everybody likes the lie. And just kind of moves forward with it. But so. Just be.

[22:40] Be guarded. That is. In the same category. As the open grave. In the same sentence. As the throat is an open grave. Alright. Alright.

[22:51] No. It's closer. So. We see our pattern here. Pray. Answer. Pray. Pray or rejoice. The wicked won't dwell. So. Now.

[23:01] He's praying. He's praying. He takes this prayer. In the midst of all this. Wickedness. Boastfulness. And lying. So we see. We see that he prays here.

[23:13] 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 the what.

[23:27] So we'll go. Down here. Verses 7 and 8. The central part. This is what the author. David. Is really trying to communicate. Like. Everything else. Is kind of leading up to this.

[23:39] So. He says. 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.

[23:49] First. He approaches God. He. He says. He says here. But I through the abundance. Of your steadfast love.

[24:00] 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.

[24:11] Step one. Of what we're supposed to do. Is we approach. We lean into God. And so. Recognizing this is not always easy. But. We lean in. And trust in God.

[24:22] Next. He prays. And while he prays. He is remembering who God is. Through the abundance. Of your steadfast love. Recognizing it's his holy temple.

[24:34] In the fear of the creator God. He prays for him. To lead him. As the ultimate leader. And then. All because of. God's righteousness. On his own. So.

[24:46] 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. Admire. The thanksgiving. Confession.

[24:57] 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.

[25:09] He says. Lead me. Oh Lord. In your righteousness. Because of my enemies. Make your way straight. Before me. While there is. A plethora.

[25:19] Of wickedness. And transgressions. And lies. Going on around him. He prays to God. And says. Lead me. You're the. The great leader you are. And make your path. Straight before me. I need to know.

[25:30] I. I. On my own. Will be tempted. To go down. One of those other paths. So make it very clear to me. God. What is straight. What is not crooked. Like all the crookedness.

[25:41] Around me. What is straight. What is true. And. Okay. Oh wait. I think this is. I'm very grateful that.

[25:53] 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.

[26:03] So. In our. Chaistic structure. This is. The. Kind of the final product. So. Pray.

[26:15] And pray. This is. This right here. It's 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.

[26:27] 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.

[26:39] Approach God. Remember who God is. And then ask for God's help. To lead him. And make. Straight the path he's going down. So this is.

[26:52] I argue what the text. Text. What the. Psalm 5 says. So now. What does it mean? What are the implications of this? This. So first.

[27:04] I mentioned this a few times. But. If. Let's. If we. Turn our Bibles. To the New Testament. To Romans. In Romans 3. I know you can't read it.

[27:14] So I'll read it for you. So. 3. 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.

[27:25] Both Jews and Greek. Are under sin. As it is written. And I'm going to skip down here. Then he quotes a number of passages. From the Old Testament. He says. Their throat is an open grave. They use their tongues to deceive.

[27:37] It's like this is. Paul. Not plagiarizing. Because he quoted it. And like gave his sight. A sort of. Sight of source. But their tongue. He quotes.

[27:48] 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.

[27:58] In Romans 3. Now we know. That whatever the law says. It speaks to those who are under the law. So that every mouth may be stopped. And the whole world. May be held accountable to God.

[28:09] For by the works of the law. No human will be. Will being. No human being. Will be justified in his sight. Since through the law. Comes knowledge of sin. So.

[28:22] David was saying this prayer. The psalm. In response to the enemies around him. But Paul. And then. And Spurgeon here. Helps clarify as well.

[28:32] 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.

[28:44] 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.

[28:56] So as we read. Psalm 5. Don't just be thinking. Those people out there. Don't be thinking. That news outlet. Or that other news outlet.

[29:07] Or. Those people at work. Like. This is. It is true. They are also susceptible. Those non-Christians. To the wickedness. And boastfulness. And pride. But we also.

[29:19] Are in that camp. Especially. When we try and do life. Without Jesus. So we on our own. We on our own. Are. Speaking death. That's what our natural.

[29:30] Fleshy self will do. Is by God's grace. That he is. Reworking and changing us. Um. Okay. So. First. What does this mean? This means.

[29:40] It is true. There is sin out there. But there is also. A tendency. A sin. In myself. Second. What does it mean? Uh. Verse 8.

[29:51] I. I. Got ahead of myself. It says. Lead me O Lord. In your righteousness. Make your way straight. Before me. Um. And I. I said before. I. I. I argue that.

[30:02] 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 is our king.

[30:13] He. But he is also our example. Of how we are 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.

[30:24] 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.

[30:36] 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.

[30:46] 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.

[30:56] What it looks like. To live a life. In righteousness. Without the hindrance. Of sin. And I. I have this word. Pioneer here. I don't think I'd get like. Full preaching credit.

[31:06] If you don't know one foreign word. So. Uh. So what that means in Greek. So. Mark this down. Caleb. For my. Evaluation. Arch. J. And. And. Ago.

[31:17] So beginning. And lead. And I think. I mean. This is. Pioneer is a good word for it. But another word. When 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.

[31:27] 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.

[31:38] 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.

[31:51] 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. Alright.

[32:10] So final part. Application. What does it mean to me? So first. I think.

[32:24] This. Psalm 5 shows out. There is a different. Variety of. Of wickedness out there. And. We see three different categories here.

[32:35] We talked about the wicked. He talked about the boastful. The proud. And he talked about liars. And so. This could be way off base. But this is what came to mind.

[32:46] I ran it by one other person. But the wicked. Could be. We'll see. Believing lies. And acting in them. This is like. The followers. Of the rebellion to God. They're.

[32:56] They're believing lies. And they're just going along. You know. Living the. YOLO life. You know. This. I don't know if people still say that. I don't know if that's no cap or not. But. But. So.

[33:07] They're just the followers in the rebellion. So they're still rebelling to God. Okay. They're. They're. Forming wickedness. And transgression. And crooked. But they're just going along. Then there was this other category.

[33:18] 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.

[33:29] 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.

[33:40] The. The middle part. I chat the most graphic language. That my son likes. The open grave. And the. The bloodthirsty vampires. This could be like. Those that have.

[33:50] Are leading. The rebellion against God. They're. Developing. And. Making lies. Lies that they know aren't true. And sharing those. So. Why. I consider this.

[34:01] An application point. Is. One. If it is a. A non-Christian. That is struggling. In one of these three areas. It kind of gives you. An idea of like.

[34:11] 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. Like. It gives them more. Like a teaching type part.

[34:22] 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.

[34:34] 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.

[34:45] 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.

[34:57] Following a lie. Spreading a lie. Lie. Or starting a lie. I think. Very similar. Is how you would. Address that person. But I think. I go back to. Second Timothy 3.16.

[35:09] All scriptures. Breed that by God. Is profitable. For teaching. Reproof. For correction. For training. And righteousness. So that the man of God. May be complete. Equipped for every good works. This is a pastor of mine.

[35:21] 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. But then. We are going to mess things up.

[35:33] So maybe if you are believing. In some lie. You need to have some reproof. Some. A Christian brother or sister. Needs to help. In a loving way. Reprove you. Or me.

[35:44] If you are believing a lie. And then. Maybe it is. They need a correction. So they. Not just a reproof. But they need. Some. Correction. And they were taught something. But now they have twisted it.

[35:55] Or they didn't understand it fully. And then there is a training aspect. This is just like an ongoing thing. This is a reinforcing loop. Leading us to like this. Infinite. Grace.

[36:05] And what. The person God has seen. Defined us to be. But I think again. It knows. Like to see. Which. You know. If someone is actually believing a lie.

[36:17] Or someone is. Spreading that lie. Or that. That wickedness. And it might. Affect. You as a brother. A sister in Christ. And how you are going to approach. Is it a teaching?

[36:28] Basically. Does this person need teaching? Correction? Or a proof? Yes. Oh yeah.

[36:41] So the question was. Can you define the difference. Between correction and reproof? And so. The non. Spiritual answer I'll give to start with.

[36:51] Is. If you are teaching your child. How to shoot a basketball hoop. You'll get up there. And you'll say. Hey. You need to like. You need to like. Keep the ball. Dribble twice. And shoot the free throw. Okay. So that's the teaching part.

[37:03] 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.

[37:14] 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 them what they need to do to fix it. So reproof.

[37:25] Tell them the wrong. Correction. Tell 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. There's a bug.

[37:48] Okay. Bring on the questions. I love them. We should have more questions in church. I argue. I mean. For real. That's great. Oh. I meant to do it. Like a. A trigger warning.

[37:59] That there's going to 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. So the next part is. Is. The application for this.

[38:11] Is knowing. Kind of like. I talked about that one part. That was the flattery of the tongue. There's a lot of very subtle lies out there. But. Most of these lies. Or questions of the faith.

[38:24] Have been. Discussed in the Christian world. For two thousand years. So. While it might seem. Like. A really hard. Challenging lie. Because if. If you're confronted with this. There's a lot of resources to help.

[38:38] Okay. So one of them. That. A number of the men. In. In. Shoreline. There's a book club. Every Friday. Friday morning. Norm's. Big plug for Phil. Yeah. Phil leads that. So.

[38:48] If you have questions about. Highly encourage you. But one of the books. That we just. Finished. Is on. Called. Surviving Religion 101. Letters to a Christian student. On keeping the faith.

[38:59] In college. By. Michael J. Kruger. Husband of. Melissa. Kruger. Okay. So. These are. The 12. You know. Different chapters.

[39:10] We need to read all those. But. What I want to highlight. Is like. Some of these. Sound like. Pretty good lies. You know. Like. The concept of hell. Seems barbaric. And cruel. Wouldn't a loving God.

[39:20] 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.

[39:31] 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.

[39:41] As you evangelize. We talked about a lot in the group. We can't save anyone. If someone's hard. God. We're not going to be able to argue them. To faith. But we can ask them questions. That kind of help.

[39:51] God uses as an instrument of grace. To break that person down. To humble themselves. For God to humble them. Also. So this was. Kind of more.

[40:03] The subtle.ยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยย side by side for four days. And so we talked quite a bit. We've seen the lecture before, so we can talk in the back. 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.

[40:55] 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 about a year and a half ago or so that he was divorced, but I didn't know why. It really surprised me. 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.

[41:14] But 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 now I hear he's divorced. And talking to him those last two weeks, I do not believe he's a Christian. Okay. And so it kind of came up like, I was 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 him and his wife disagreed very differently on how they wanted to parent their children.

[42:00] He wanted to, she wanted to never say no, never say no to the child ever. There'd be things going on. He would want to try and intervene and she would tell him in front of the children, stop, let them do that. He said, you remember an example where his daughter was just picking up apple after apple and throwing him at the wall and his wife wouldn't let him stop it.

[42:23] 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 environment they were in 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 this 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 is a great leader at work. He is on track to make admiral.

[43:02] He's a commander now. No, he's a captain select now. He's going to 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, 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 spouse and come do an agreement. You can faithfully discipline your children and grow them. And now it just sounds really, he's like, it's great now. He, the next lie he believed was like the divorce was like a very good thing. I mean, I don't know all the situation. He talks about how, how much better his relationship with his kids is because they go to his mom, their mom's house 50% of the time and then his house 50% of the 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.

[44:03] Like knowing, you know, not having clarity what's going to happen to them. But anyways, so I just feel like the lie there, the subtle lie of not leading your family, not stepping up when there is something wrong that you see broken. It's okay. There's a whole bunch of others we could do as well. Recently, my sister was talking about her, another family member of hers, extended, and how she called Emma not a good Christian, my sister, not a good Christian, because she wouldn't take her kids to like a gay pride parade. Like, well, that's, that's, it was, she was told that was an 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. Four, I had gay friends who were kind, wonderful, and happy.

[45:06] I was sure homosexuality is the wrong thing. It was a lie that this other person is not, who professes to be a Christian was believing. Okay. Oh, crap. I mean, I'm running over time.

[45:17] All right. So last application, last application, spiritual habits. So the main spiritual habit, we see the 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. And 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. This is from a book called When the Scientific Secret of Perfect Timing by Daniel Pink, non-Christian, just like a 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. right here.

[46:17] 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 the examples are crazy. They talk about stockbrokers make a ton more money in the morning. Students taking standardized tests do better in the morning. So we think about giving our first fruits to the Lord if it's possible, which I think 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, this is like the way that God created us to some degree.

[46:53] So he says, the closing line for every day in the Genesis 1 account, and there was evening and there was morning. There's a beautiful truth here that we sorely need. Our mornings or 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. They take a lot of the, you know, atomic habits or 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, and also this particular psalm, Psalm 5, was 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 morning like sad, morning like a.m. time, okay? Kind of sad as well. But so I think this is not a new idea that we as Christians have been called. You've probably heard or felt the call to do this before, like pray daily to God in the morning or maybe a time at night as well of like reflecting on the day. But I'll give you some, and so we see this in practice, like this is a good thing that David did. But it's hard to like jump right into that. And so from these same authors here, they give some advice on how to start a new spiritual habit, spiritual discipline. You know, there's lots of different word sources, but starting a new practice to like lean into God, which is one of the things we saw in the middle. So the sixth they give. They say, make it easy. So don't try and sit down and pray to

[48:41] 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.

[49:16] I think it's something everyone could do. And then this is how you start a habit, that you build a habit, you keep going and you 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. It could be, you know, as you're brushing your teeth. I recommend not that one, but like, you know, somewhere like it's always in the same place.

[49:38] Pick the timing as well. It's always going to be right when I wake up. It's going to be, 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, you don't have to change the tone of your voice or fill your words with words. Like just pray to God. And then find friends.

[50:01] I mean, over again, you see building good habits work best if you do that with others. So either accountability or you're like a regular habit of praying with others. 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 you think is important.

[50:21] And I argue daily morning, if possible, prayer to God, 30 seconds a day, kneeling by your bedside, something like that, it's possible. It'll be good. And then you can build upon that. And then, then you'll have this posture up here. It's kind of close here.

[50:37] 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.

[50:51] See on the slideshow. So I'll pray. Then I think, Jim, you got one more song? Okay, come on up. Thank you.