WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.179 It's good to see everyone this morning, and as Fiona's just prayed, it is our prayer and 00:00:08.179 --> 00:00:14.160 ! it's my prayer that God speaks to us this morning. And you'll see here that we're still in Psalm 119, 00:00:14.160 --> 00:00:20.559 so if you haven't been here, well not last week, we had a little parenthesis last week, but the 00:00:20.559 --> 00:00:25.519 previous three weeks we were in Psalm 119 and we came up to verse 80, and this morning we're going 00:00:25.519 --> 00:00:32.019 to look at verse 8 to 1 to 112. So even if I speak less than 60 seconds in every verse, we're still 00:00:32.019 --> 00:00:37.219 over half an hour, so hopefully we won't be much more than that, but you can see that we've got 00:00:37.219 --> 00:00:43.420 quite a bit to get through today. Our little series that we have titled over Psalm 119 is called A Word 00:00:43.420 --> 00:00:50.780 Like No Other, A Word Like No Other. And over our little section today, I want you just to maybe just 00:00:50.780 --> 00:00:58.660 embellish that slightly and say it's a certain word in an uncertain world. And a certain word 00:00:58.660 --> 00:01:08.359 in an uncertain world. In an uncertain world. You know, when we come to Psalm 119, there are so many, 00:01:08.400 --> 00:01:13.780 I think there's maybe 10, some people might count 8, but there's 10, and it talks about laws, and your 00:01:13.780 --> 00:01:19.659 word, and your statutes, and your precepts, and most of us can get our head around what is being referred 00:01:19.659 --> 00:01:26.599 to there, but mostly is referring to God's Word. And for the psalmist, that would be the Pentateuch, 00:01:26.679 --> 00:01:33.179 the first five books of our Old Testament. That is what he is referring to there. But when we refer 00:01:33.179 --> 00:01:37.659 to God's Word, we are talking about this Bible that we have in front of us. And if you have a Bible in 00:01:37.659 --> 00:01:44.199 front of you, then I would suggest keep it open. What I would like to do this morning is go word by 00:01:44.200 --> 00:01:50.079 word, verse by verse. But as you can probably guess, that would take us way past lunchtime, 00:01:50.140 --> 00:01:53.120 and I'm sure Pete and Hannah wouldn't be best pleased. So we're not going to do that this 00:01:53.120 --> 00:01:57.200 morning, but there are a few words that we might look at, because I find that when you start to 00:01:57.200 --> 00:02:02.120 pull these threads in Scripture, they run all different places to different parts of Scripture, 00:02:02.480 --> 00:02:06.920 and you start to build them together. You know, I was watching Caleb yesterday, and we've got some 00:02:06.920 --> 00:02:12.539 new Lego, and he was putting the pieces together, and he probably didn't know what he was building. 00:02:13.280 --> 00:02:18.960 And even if he was to read the instruction book, on the first page, you place one or two Lego blocks 00:02:18.960 --> 00:02:23.680 together, and you don't really see the full picture until you get to that last page, and it's the, 00:02:23.879 --> 00:02:28.879 you know, it's a fire engine or whatever it is that we are building for Caleb. But I saw him there, 00:02:28.939 --> 00:02:34.319 and he was just taking one piece at a time, and he was building. And I did, when I was thinking 00:02:34.319 --> 00:02:38.359 about the sermon this morning, I was just pondering that, you know, when we come to God's Word, 00:02:39.199 --> 00:02:44.439 it's not like it's a puzzle that we need to put it together, but it is something that as we take 00:02:44.439 --> 00:02:50.239 one piece at a time, and we build on it, and we understand it, and we pull that little thread, 00:02:50.340 --> 00:02:53.799 you know, I was just looking at the word precepts, for example, in the Psalms, God's commandments 00:02:53.799 --> 00:03:00.680 and instructions that guide behavior and moral conduct. And all of a sudden, your mind goes to other 00:03:00.680 --> 00:03:08.420 verses that would reaffirm and emphasize these different elements of statutes and laws and 00:03:08.420 --> 00:03:13.599 precepts and all the other bits and pieces that we might come across in our section this morning. 00:03:13.939 --> 00:03:21.300 And it's like that. As we build on what we read and we experience and we obey, then we see a fuller 00:03:21.300 --> 00:03:28.280 and a bigger picture. And that is what the Psalmist is doing for us as he writes this wonderful poem or 00:03:28.280 --> 00:03:35.920 prayer. Now, I think JT mentioned this two weeks ago, and probably Graham did and Ian, but Psalm 119 00:03:35.920 --> 00:03:42.319 is one of the best known Psalms, not because we actually know word for word, but we just know it's the 00:03:42.319 --> 00:03:48.699 longest book in the Bible, the longest chapter in the Bible. And as JT said, you know, even longer than a lot 00:03:48.699 --> 00:03:55.439 of our books in our New Testament that we know even better. It's made up of 22 stanzas or verses, 00:03:55.439 --> 00:04:03.699 these stanzas. And each of the stanzas correlates with the 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet. And 00:04:03.699 --> 00:04:11.439 as Ian, I think, maybe mentioned, each of the lines, the eight lines in each stanza starts with the, 00:04:11.579 --> 00:04:15.900 the first letter starts with the corresponding letter for that stanza, if that makes sense. 00:04:15.900 --> 00:04:23.019 So the ones that we're going to look at today are 11, 12, 13, 14. So that's Cath, Lamed, 00:04:24.160 --> 00:04:31.579 Mem, and Nun. Don't ask me about the other 18 because I've not got a clue. But those are the ones that we 00:04:31.579 --> 00:04:36.639 are going to go through this morning. But what I want to think about is this, God's word brings comfort, 00:04:36.639 --> 00:04:44.959 revival. And it helps us to understand and gives wisdom and guidance in every season of life. And 00:04:44.959 --> 00:04:51.560 that is why I want to focus our attention on this this morning, a certain word in an uncertain world. 00:04:52.399 --> 00:04:56.219 And as we've been, as Fiona read, you know, you just, you just skimmed through one of these, 00:04:56.300 --> 00:05:00.699 but one of these best known, one of the best known verses in our passage this morning is this verse 00:05:00.699 --> 00:05:08.279 here. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. And I'm sure for many of us, we learned 00:05:08.279 --> 00:05:14.439 that in Sunday school or kids' church or whatever version you had when you were growing up. And you 00:05:14.439 --> 00:05:19.219 probably learned the words, but you probably didn't really fully understand it. It's only as you mature 00:05:19.219 --> 00:05:25.180 as a Christian that you really understand what we are, what has been talked about here, about the word 00:05:25.180 --> 00:05:32.579 being a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. But there's so many other cracking verses in this little 00:05:32.579 --> 00:05:42.019 section, these 32 verses. How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth. And so many 00:05:42.019 --> 00:05:48.180 others, if your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction. And there's so many others 00:05:48.180 --> 00:05:55.079 that we would have learned or that people can recite and they drawn them in times of 00:05:55.079 --> 00:06:04.779 need, in times of uncertainty. And we live in uncertain times. You know, each day we just read the 00:06:04.779 --> 00:06:13.899 headlines and we are reminded of how fragile our world is. Wars continue. Economies fail or fluctuate. 00:06:14.060 --> 00:06:20.539 Families experience loss. And as we have been thinking about already this morning, we pray for the Hutt 00:06:20.540 --> 00:06:29.760 family as they experience loss at this time and they grieve. But relationships fracture. Our health can 00:06:29.760 --> 00:06:36.080 change in a moment and you don't need to be young to be immune from that. So many of us experience just 00:06:36.080 --> 00:06:42.600 how uncertain this world can be. And even the things that we once thought were permanent can seem 00:06:42.600 --> 00:06:52.980 increasingly unstable. Yet uncertainty is not unique to us in the 21st century. The writer of Psalm 119, 00:06:53.240 --> 00:06:58.860 and I notice that nobody who has preached yet has dared to offer a suggestion as to who may have 00:06:58.860 --> 00:07:05.900 written Psalm 119, but a lot of people may suggest it's David or Hezekiah or others. But we don't know 00:07:05.899 --> 00:07:12.819 who wrote Psalm 119. And so therefore when I refer to the writer today, I'll just be the psalmist or the 00:07:12.819 --> 00:07:19.659 writer rather than trying to guess who this is. But whoever it was and whenever they lived, we can be 00:07:19.659 --> 00:07:26.479 sure that they lived in an uncertain time as well. And they probably understood uncertainty more than most. 00:07:27.739 --> 00:07:31.639 You just need to read through this and you realize that he has experienced persecution. 00:07:31.639 --> 00:07:41.159 He's known about disappointment, what it means to wait. He experienced loneliness. And for many people, 00:07:41.360 --> 00:07:47.939 we experience these things too. But more than that, he experiences this intense spiritual struggle. 00:07:48.979 --> 00:07:54.959 He experiences times of exhaustion. He experiences times where he's misunderstood. 00:07:54.959 --> 00:08:05.279 And he experiences times where he is attacked. But remarkably, his response is not to despair. 00:08:05.899 --> 00:08:13.419 Instead, he continually turned to one unchanging reality, the Word of God. And that's what I want to 00:08:13.419 --> 00:08:19.639 focus our minds on this morning. And as G.T. reminded us two weeks ago, it is the one, 00:08:19.639 --> 00:08:27.500 it's not just the Word of God, but it is the one to whom the Word of God points. As I've said, Psalm 119 is the 00:08:27.500 --> 00:08:35.559 longest chapter in Scripture. And every section celebrates the beauty and the authority and the 00:08:35.559 --> 00:08:43.340 sufficiency of the Word of God. The four stanzas, as I say, before us reveal how Scripture meets us in 00:08:43.340 --> 00:08:50.100 four of life's greatest needs. And I don't know if this is going to come up, but I'll just leave it for a 00:08:50.100 --> 00:08:56.240 wee second. But first of all, we need comfort. We're going to see that in the first stanza. If you've 00:08:56.240 --> 00:09:01.100 got your Bible open, you'll see there from verse 8 to 1 to 8 to 8, it says calf. And we are going to 00:09:01.100 --> 00:09:08.280 think about comfort. We need comfort. Then in the second section, from 8 to 9 to 96, that Lamed, 00:09:08.279 --> 00:09:14.059 as you see at the top there, we are going to think about the need for revival, personal revival. 00:09:15.819 --> 00:09:21.579 And then from verse 97, and you'll see the head and it says Mem, 97 to 104, we're going to think about 00:09:21.579 --> 00:09:29.899 understanding, our need for understanding or wisdom. And then in our last section, which is Nun, from 00:09:29.899 --> 00:09:36.199 verse 105 to 112, we're going to think about our need for guidance. You know, these are not just 00:09:36.200 --> 00:09:43.900 ancient words like those of Shakespeare when we come to read these words, this poem, this prayer. 00:09:44.920 --> 00:09:50.940 But they are God's invitation for us today. You know, you can recite the words of Shakespeare, 00:09:51.100 --> 00:09:56.080 but it means nothing to you. Whereas when we recite these words, they will speak to every one of us. 00:09:56.080 --> 00:10:00.900 And we will find, every one of us in the room today and online, will find ourselves in one of these 00:10:00.899 --> 00:10:09.399 sections. So first up, we're going to look at God's word is it comforts the weary in verses 8 to 1 to 8 to 8. 00:10:09.899 --> 00:10:15.759 You know, the psalmist, I think, is quite honest in his opening. My soul faints with longing for your 00:10:15.759 --> 00:10:22.120 salvation. This is not someone who's pretending that everything's all right. Like many of us do, 00:10:22.199 --> 00:10:26.679 it's the British way, you know, stiff upper lip, albeit that's maybe less of a thing nowadays as our 00:10:26.679 --> 00:10:33.239 culture changes. But the psalmist is not pretending that everything is fine. He is spiritually exhausted. 00:10:33.759 --> 00:10:41.939 He feels dry. He is waiting. He asks, when will you comfort me? And many of us know exactly what that 00:10:41.939 --> 00:10:51.539 feels like. You know, some of the greatest acts of faith is to simply continue to wait. My soul longs 00:10:51.539 --> 00:11:00.259 for your salvation. My eyes long for your promise. I ask, when will you comfort me? You know, this is 00:11:00.259 --> 00:11:04.419 not the word that we're going to look at there, salvation. It's not the salvation of having our 00:11:04.419 --> 00:11:10.699 sins forgiven, of becoming a Christian, of being reconciled to God in that sense. He is thinking 00:11:10.699 --> 00:11:19.519 about being rescued by God. Now, our section this morning doesn't necessarily name the name of the 00:11:19.519 --> 00:11:24.740 Lord Jesus, but everything that we will read points towards him. And he is the ultimate salvation. He is 00:11:24.740 --> 00:11:32.000 the ultimate rescue. And even though we have been saved today, we aren't, we haven't, that is a process. 00:11:32.139 --> 00:11:36.980 In fact, some people say, have you been saved? They'll say, well, I have been saved. I am being saved. And I 00:11:36.980 --> 00:11:43.100 will be saved. But when the psalmist is talking about the salvation here, it is about God rescuing him 00:11:43.100 --> 00:11:51.279 from his situation. You know, perhaps we have prayed for healing. Perhaps we've prayed for a child. 00:11:52.639 --> 00:11:59.259 Perhaps we've prayed for restoration in our relationship. And perhaps we've buried someone 00:11:59.259 --> 00:12:06.960 that we deeply love. And yet the pain continues. And the psalmist asks, how long? 00:12:06.960 --> 00:12:16.740 That is maybe the hardest question. Quite often we ask why, but really in our heart of hearts, often we know 00:12:16.740 --> 00:12:22.680 why things have happened. Occasionally we don't, but often we know why things have happened or how they've 00:12:22.680 --> 00:12:30.360 come about in our circumstances. But maybe the harder question is how long? How long is God going to ask us to 00:12:30.360 --> 00:12:36.940 endure our situation? You know, the psalmist teaches us something important here. He doesn't run away from God. 00:12:36.940 --> 00:12:45.520 Instead, he runs towards God. He doesn't try to suppress or cover up his pain. Instead, as I've said, 00:12:45.580 --> 00:12:52.040 I think this is a prayer more than a poem if you just read, if you just listen to the words of the writer. 00:12:53.360 --> 00:12:59.500 But too often, I think we imagine that spiritual maturity is, in our faith, means that we never 00:12:59.500 --> 00:13:06.720 struggle. We've got past that. We have a reliance on God. But that is not, I don't think there's a 00:13:06.720 --> 00:13:16.259 single believer who has ever figured it all out. We come to this four stanzas this morning, and I think 00:13:16.259 --> 00:13:22.100 it tells us something different. I think it tells us this, that Christian faith, biblical faith, relying on 00:13:22.100 --> 00:13:30.940 God is honest enough to lament, but not despair. That word lament just means a passionate expression of 00:13:30.940 --> 00:13:39.380 sorrow or of grief or of regret. And even though that can be the case, and it is the case that many 00:13:39.380 --> 00:13:45.960 people lament in that sense, for us as Christians who have our hope on Christ, we remain confident 00:13:45.960 --> 00:13:57.000 enough to hope and to trust in him. And as you can see, for every issue and situation that the psalmist 00:13:57.000 --> 00:14:03.379 faces himself, not only does he just recognise the situation that he is in, but he comes back to 00:14:03.379 --> 00:14:09.659 having that confidence in the word of God. And as I've said, the word of God is important because of 00:14:09.659 --> 00:14:17.000 the person who it points to. So where is our hope found? What are we hoping in? It's not, we don't hope 00:14:17.000 --> 00:14:22.700 as Christians, and you know, we don't, it's not about positive thinking. It's not about even changing our 00:14:22.700 --> 00:14:26.820 circumstance or our situation as much as we would like that. You know, often we think, well, have we had a 00:14:26.820 --> 00:14:32.940 better, if we have a different job, if we moved house, if maybe you're in a different relationship, 00:14:33.680 --> 00:14:38.340 maybe even you think, I could go to another church, and we think if we change the circumstance or the 00:14:38.340 --> 00:14:45.520 situation, then that would provide us some kind of hope of relief from our circumstances. But yet, 00:14:45.520 --> 00:14:50.960 that is not what the psalmist says. It's not about changing our circumstances. It's not even about 00:14:50.960 --> 00:14:56.160 thinking, it's not even about hoping in ourselves. Our hope is found in God's word because of 00:14:56.159 --> 00:15:02.759 the, that is where we meet God himself. A couple of weeks ago, I was preaching in Helmsborough, 00:15:02.919 --> 00:15:07.439 and the section was in Romans chapter 8. And in Romans chapter 8 and 18, it says this, 00:15:07.480 --> 00:15:13.159 for I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing to the glory that is to 00:15:13.159 --> 00:15:19.679 be revealed in us. That is the hope of every Christian this morning, isn't it? The hope is that we don't 00:15:19.679 --> 00:15:24.919 last in our situation. And even though our situation and our circumstances might change, 00:15:24.919 --> 00:15:32.459 really, our hope is that there is a future, that there is an eternal future where we will be with 00:15:32.459 --> 00:15:39.539 our Saviour. And Paul writes, he says, I consider that the present sufferings, and the present 00:15:39.539 --> 00:15:43.839 sufferings that he was talking about was being persecuted for being a Christian, although the 00:15:43.839 --> 00:15:50.579 same principle applies for all of our sufferings. We endure them for a time. But our eyes should be on 00:15:50.580 --> 00:15:55.800 the future. Our eyes should be on the glory that will be revealed in us through Christ Jesus. And I 00:15:55.800 --> 00:16:00.520 think we often take our eye off the ball. We forget about that. We get consumed by our circumstances. 00:16:00.920 --> 00:16:08.500 We get consumed by our situation. And we lose hope. And so many Christians do that. But when you come to 00:16:08.500 --> 00:16:12.100 this little section here, you see this, that the psalmist doesn't, even though he's stuck in these 00:16:12.100 --> 00:16:19.740 situations, and he's asking God how long he comes back to this, I hope in your word. 00:16:22.560 --> 00:16:29.399 When will you judge those that persecute me? All your commandments are sure. I have not forsaken 00:16:29.399 --> 00:16:34.460 your precepts. In your steadfast love, guide my life, that I might keep the testimonies off 00:16:34.460 --> 00:16:41.340 your mouth. He comes back to the word of God, because in the word of God, he finds God himself. 00:16:42.460 --> 00:16:47.700 Now, I want to say this this morning. We get to know God through his word. What he wants us to know 00:16:47.700 --> 00:16:55.540 about him is found in this book. I won't be bold and say this, there is no fresh revelation of God. 00:16:56.240 --> 00:17:00.320 Somebody comes to you, and I would say this carefully, but if somebody comes to you and says that God has 00:17:00.320 --> 00:17:06.360 told them something specifically that doesn't agree with scripture, then you should probably reject it. 00:17:06.359 --> 00:17:13.759 Now, Fiona and I have had this conversation a couple of years ago. We do experience God. We encounter God 00:17:13.759 --> 00:17:18.759 through our experiences. We take what we know about God from his word, and as we live day by day, and as we 00:17:18.759 --> 00:17:24.159 obey him, we experience God in our lives. We do experience God in our lives, and each one of us will 00:17:24.159 --> 00:17:30.399 experience God in different ways. He will give us comfort. He will give us revival. He will give us guidance, and 00:17:30.400 --> 00:17:36.960 understanding, and wisdom. He will give us different hope in different circumstances that we face, and each 00:17:36.960 --> 00:17:42.759 one of us face different circumstances. But God will never reveal himself in a way that does not agree with 00:17:42.759 --> 00:17:47.980 what we read in scripture, and I think we should be, I think we should take comfort in that today. I think 00:17:47.980 --> 00:17:52.940 we should affirm it in our beliefs today. I think we should be very careful if somebody comes and says, 00:17:52.940 --> 00:17:59.039 God has told me something that doesn't accord with his word. I kind of pondered this when I was thinking about 00:17:59.039 --> 00:18:06.480 the psalmist writing this. I wondered if the traps that they had set, as if they were catching a wild animal, was to 00:18:06.480 --> 00:18:15.039 attack. You think of Eve in the Garden of Eden. The serpent comes in and says, did God really say? That is what people 00:18:15.039 --> 00:18:22.700 say today. Did God really say? Things about morality, sexuality, the way that we live in our families, the way that we behave, 00:18:22.940 --> 00:18:30.400 our integrity, and that is all under attack. The word of God is under attack. And maybe some of the things 00:18:30.400 --> 00:18:36.400 that the psalmist experiences is the same, that people are coming and they're attacking him because 00:18:36.400 --> 00:18:42.279 he wants to live for God. He wants to obey God. He wants to keep his statutes and his precepts, and he 00:18:42.279 --> 00:18:47.299 wants to delight in his word. He's meditating on night and day, and yet the attack is there. Maybe that's, 00:18:47.299 --> 00:18:53.500 maybe that is something. But the psalmist is asking, how long will this last? How long until God 00:18:53.500 --> 00:19:01.319 rescues him from the situation? You know, waiting is never a waste of time with God. 00:19:02.000 --> 00:19:07.700 There's a lot of people who are impatient. You don't even need to ask Rachel. You probably know 00:19:07.700 --> 00:19:14.879 that I'm one of them. But there are a lot of people who are impatient. And we want things to happen. 00:19:14.880 --> 00:19:19.660 We want them to happen instantly. We want relief from our circumstances. We want comfort, etc. But 00:19:19.660 --> 00:19:27.320 it may be this, that God does his deepest work in our lives in the waiting. When we are waiting for 00:19:27.320 --> 00:19:33.320 an answer, when we're enduring, when we are looking for that relief, maybe God is doing something, 00:19:33.480 --> 00:19:42.740 teaching us, humbling us, allowing us to depend on him in the waiting. Waiting teaches us to depend 00:19:42.740 --> 00:19:49.120 on God. It deepens our trust. And waiting should remind us that God's salvation, God's salvation, 00:19:49.200 --> 00:19:55.400 his rescuing of us from our situation. And our situation is this, this morning, that we have all 00:19:55.400 --> 00:20:01.519 like sheep gone astray. We've turned everyone to our own way. We've fallen short of the glory of God 00:20:01.519 --> 00:20:07.740 in the biggest sense. And that is what we are. That is what we are. That's what we need to be 00:20:07.740 --> 00:20:13.339 rescued from. But in the different situations of life, when we're looking for God to rescue us, 00:20:13.920 --> 00:20:19.579 it always comes from outside of ourselves. When we meet here and we listen to God's word and you read 00:20:19.579 --> 00:20:24.480 it in your own time and space, you realise that it is not a self-help book. It's not about you 00:20:24.480 --> 00:20:30.640 coming up with ideas and, you know, being a better person. We realise that we must depend on God, 00:20:30.640 --> 00:20:37.380 God's way and in God's time. You know, the Samus describes himself as this, as a wineskin in the 00:20:37.380 --> 00:20:43.560 smoke. And unlike today where we've got glass bottles and cans, etc., all the water and the 00:20:43.560 --> 00:20:48.620 wine that would have been held in that day was held in wineskins, the skins of an animal. And as you 00:20:48.620 --> 00:20:56.600 can imagine, as long as they are moist, they keep their supplicity and their flexibility. But when 00:20:56.600 --> 00:21:00.060 they're finished and they've been hung up in the tent and they've got a fire in the tent and the smoke 00:21:00.059 --> 00:21:05.799 goes up and dries out the skins and they're not being looked after, you can see how they've become 00:21:05.799 --> 00:21:15.079 dry and cracked and brittle. Well, maybe there's people today here and elsewhere that know what 00:21:15.079 --> 00:21:23.279 that spiritual dryness feels like. And I think maybe some of us or all of us at some point in our 00:21:23.279 --> 00:21:29.859 life have all experienced some kind of brittleness or dryness in our life. You know, serving can 00:21:29.859 --> 00:21:37.759 become exhausting. Family pressures do drain us and life's disappointments can be hard at times. 00:21:37.919 --> 00:21:44.939 They can harden our hearts. But yet the Samus says this, I will not forget your statutes. What an 00:21:44.939 --> 00:21:52.579 incredible faith. Regardless of the situation, regardless, and you come to the first few verses in 00:21:52.579 --> 00:22:02.679 81, my soul faints, my eyes fail. He's feeling this dryness in his life. And yet, and yet, God's truth 00:22:02.679 --> 00:22:11.279 remained. When his strength disappeared, God's promises endured. And I think we should take comfort 00:22:11.279 --> 00:22:15.139 in that this morning. Whatever we're going through, and there'll be people in here and you are, 00:22:15.140 --> 00:22:22.920 your life is good in that sense. You've got fewer worries than others. Your exams are over. You've 00:22:22.920 --> 00:22:27.880 got a free summer. You don't really have the responsibility of mortgage and family or whatever 00:22:27.880 --> 00:22:32.840 situation you may be in. There may be people that are not in this situation that the Samus is in today. 00:22:33.220 --> 00:22:39.860 But regardless of that, what we'd like to say this morning is that God's word comforts the weary. 00:22:39.859 --> 00:22:44.219 And we can stand on every promise. I think you sang that two weeks ago. We can stand on every 00:22:44.219 --> 00:22:53.500 promise of his word. Now that leads us to the second stanza, Lamed. And this is this, 00:22:53.899 --> 00:22:59.500 that God's word revives the discouraged. So it may be that you're not necessarily down, 00:22:59.619 --> 00:23:05.559 you're not weary, you're not being worn out or feeling dry and brittle, but you are just 00:23:05.559 --> 00:23:12.259 discouraged. It says this, forever, O Lord, your word is firmly fixed in heaven. You know, 00:23:12.319 --> 00:23:18.480 the Samus does something here. He lifts his eyes. His circumstances haven't changed. His enemies remain 00:23:18.480 --> 00:23:24.700 the same. His suffering continues, but his perspective changes. He moves from looking inward 00:23:24.700 --> 00:23:32.539 to looking upward. And I think that is a needed reminder for us today. I think so often we just 00:23:32.539 --> 00:23:40.319 take our eye off, off God, off his word, off his promises, off the hope that it should be within 00:23:40.319 --> 00:23:46.019 us. And a small picture, as many of you will just, if your mind goes quickly, Peter in the boat, 00:23:46.599 --> 00:23:52.059 takes his eye off the Lord Jesus, and he is in a situation. But the Samus, he does the opposite 00:23:52.059 --> 00:23:59.359 thing here. He lifts his eyes up and everything in his world changes. Sorry, everything in his 00:23:59.359 --> 00:24:07.119 perspective changes. And he doesn't focus on his situation. You know, that is the same for us. 00:24:07.200 --> 00:24:13.879 You know, everything in our world changes. Technology changes, politics change, cultures change, opinions 00:24:13.880 --> 00:24:25.280 change, and even our emotions fluctuate daily. But God's word does not change. His promises 00:24:25.280 --> 00:24:29.980 don't expire. His character never shifts. If you're quick with it, you know the verse that 00:24:29.980 --> 00:24:37.580 I'm thinking about. But there is no shadow of turning with him. His purposes never fail. 00:24:37.579 --> 00:24:46.599 You know, in our little section here, in our little section here, in the first three verses, 00:24:46.779 --> 00:24:46.980 it says, 00:24:47.039 --> 00:24:51.500 Forever, O Lord, your word is firmly fixed in the heavens. Your faithfulness endures to all 00:24:51.500 --> 00:24:57.059 generations. You have established the earth, and it stands fast. By your appointment, they 00:24:57.059 --> 00:25:06.259 stand to this day, for all things are your servants. So because God's word is firmly fixed in the 00:25:06.259 --> 00:25:16.000 heavens, because it is fixed forever, our faith has a firm foundation. Notice another wonderful 00:25:16.000 --> 00:25:20.900 truth here that the psalmist says. It says, your faithfulness continues through all generations. 00:25:21.379 --> 00:25:29.079 You know, God has never failed his people. Generation after generation, I've discovered the same thing, 00:25:29.140 --> 00:25:34.500 that God is faithful. I wonder if we really appreciate that this morning. You know, he was faithful to 00:25:34.500 --> 00:25:39.819 Abraham, he was faithful to Moses, he was faithful to the prophets, he was faithful to the apostles, 00:25:40.220 --> 00:25:47.240 he's been faithful through church history, and he will be faithful to us. The psalmist goes on, 00:25:47.279 --> 00:25:52.039 and he says this, if your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction. 00:25:52.900 --> 00:25:58.339 You know, interestingly, that he uses that word delight, not duty. You know, many Christians read 00:25:58.339 --> 00:26:04.939 scripture out of duty. And I would say this, that reading out of duty is not necessarily a bad thing. 00:26:06.599 --> 00:26:10.659 I'm not going to ask you to put your hands up if you go to the gym. But if you did go to the gym, 00:26:11.119 --> 00:26:16.819 many people will have a little card that they have, or if you're a fancy gym, you might have an app. 00:26:17.179 --> 00:26:23.119 And I think Marion might have an app. But so you have an app, and when you log in, you 00:26:23.119 --> 00:26:28.339 tick what you've done, you know, the different weights and different machines, and you can see 00:26:28.339 --> 00:26:33.199 I've never been to a gym. But that's what you do. That's what I've told you to do. And you tick it off, 00:26:33.239 --> 00:26:40.159 right? And you build, you build on day by day, knowing that at the end of the week, at the end 00:26:40.159 --> 00:26:47.059 of the month, at the six months, you will be, I think the word is jacked. As I hide the rules, 00:26:47.059 --> 00:26:52.299 I'm assured. But that's what happens. You do it out of sense of duty. When you're motivated, 00:26:52.299 --> 00:26:58.700 when you're not. When you feel like going to the gym, when you don't, you go because it's your 00:26:58.700 --> 00:27:05.599 habit. And it is a good thing for us to get into the habit of reading God's word. You know, I read 00:27:05.599 --> 00:27:10.799 a blog at the beginning of the year, and I was kind of disappointed in it. A good friend of ours, 00:27:11.220 --> 00:27:16.839 and I'd written something on Facebook, and he said, you know, don't worry about doing reading plans. 00:27:16.839 --> 00:27:23.519 It's just a guilt trip into reading God's word. And I'm going to do a little bit of disservice to 00:27:23.519 --> 00:27:29.419 the article, but it left me really discouraged because reading plans are good. If you think you're 00:27:29.419 --> 00:27:35.379 going to read God's word, and you're just going to take a verse or two here or there, and somehow 00:27:35.379 --> 00:27:41.179 you're going to end up with that Lego fire engine all built up, I think you're sadly mistaken. 00:27:41.180 --> 00:27:48.080 I think we need to get into God's word. I think we need to read it. I think we need to recite it. I 00:27:48.080 --> 00:27:51.900 think we need to memorize it. I think we need to meditate on it. I think we need to hide it in our 00:27:51.900 --> 00:27:57.779 hearts that we might not sin against God, as the psalmist would say. A quick flick through scripture 00:27:57.779 --> 00:28:03.740 once a week when you come to church is not going to feed you. It's not going to be the basis of which 00:28:03.740 --> 00:28:08.779 you can stand on every promise of the word. It's not going to be your comfort. It's not going to 00:28:08.779 --> 00:28:15.339 provide revival or wisdom or understanding or guidance. It's not going to provide any of those 00:28:15.339 --> 00:28:23.799 things. The psalmist says that he meditates night and day. He mulls them over. So be careful about 00:28:23.799 --> 00:28:29.440 what we read and how we read, and be diligent to read God's word. You know, it may be that we, 00:28:29.899 --> 00:28:34.440 in fact, I would, if we were doing a day, I would ask you to bring your mobile phone out 00:28:34.440 --> 00:28:40.400 and go into the settings and look at your screen time and just see how much time we've spent on 00:28:40.400 --> 00:28:46.340 Facebook or TikTok or Instagram or any of these other ones. And I would be ashamed of that compared 00:28:46.340 --> 00:28:50.539 to the time that I might have read God's word, where I find these promises, where I find comfort 00:28:50.539 --> 00:28:56.400 and guidance and encouragement and wisdom. And yet I can doom scroll, and I'm sure that there's many 00:28:56.400 --> 00:29:02.820 others find in that. So reading God's word is not just a duty, and it shouldn't just be a habit. 00:29:03.040 --> 00:29:09.200 Even if those things are true, the psalmist goes on to say, but he reads because he delights in 00:29:09.200 --> 00:29:13.900 hearing God's voice. You know, these duty, the duty that I'm talking about might establish the 00:29:13.900 --> 00:29:18.140 habits. It might be that tick in a, and he's read some of the books like James Clear's Atomic Habits, 00:29:18.640 --> 00:29:25.759 you know, tick it off every day. It gives you some kind of, kind of boost, and you start to build 00:29:25.759 --> 00:29:32.500 habits, and then things become easier when they become a habit. That might be true, but delight 00:29:32.500 --> 00:29:39.279 transforms the heart. So duties might drive some of the habits, but delight transforms the heart. 00:29:39.720 --> 00:29:44.579 You know, we're encouraged in the New Testament to be transformed with the renewing of our minds. 00:29:44.920 --> 00:29:49.039 If you want to just read a verse a day on your Bible app, the little one comes up, and I'm not, 00:29:49.039 --> 00:29:54.140 I'm not putting it down, but it's probably not going to transform you by the renewing of your mind, 00:29:54.140 --> 00:30:01.520 is it? And neither is knowledge, right? Neither is just reading God's word for information or 00:30:01.520 --> 00:30:07.320 knowledge, even though by reading it, it leads to life. And I'll be careful when I say that, because 00:30:07.320 --> 00:30:11.120 the Lord Jesus has said to them, you know, you search the scripture because in the scripture you 00:30:11.120 --> 00:30:18.480 think you have life. And he says, but these are that which testify of me. So yes, we read the scripture, 00:30:18.480 --> 00:30:24.060 but we find Christ in the scripture, and it's Christ who is our life. It's Christ who came to give us 00:30:24.140 --> 00:30:31.280 life and to give us it more abundantly. But not only does it give us life, it revives our weary 00:30:31.280 --> 00:30:39.620 souls, it strengthens discouragement, and it provides us hope. You know, when scripture 00:30:39.620 --> 00:30:47.759 fills our minds, it shapes the way and it begins to reshape the way that we think. Instead of fear 00:30:47.759 --> 00:30:53.000 controlling us, I think there's so many people that I talk to out and about, at work, etc., and they are 00:30:53.000 --> 00:31:00.059 gripped by fear. And it's because they consume the news. And if you just flick the news on, and probably 00:31:00.059 --> 00:31:04.680 some of you have done that this morning, you will just see how uncertain our world is, and the chaos 00:31:04.680 --> 00:31:12.980 that ensues, and people really fear for the future. Namely, mostly because they have no hope. But yet, 00:31:13.019 --> 00:31:18.680 when we come to the word of God, and we fill our minds with it, it reshapes how we think. Instead of 00:31:18.680 --> 00:31:25.519 this fear controlling us, it is truth that controls us. Instead of anxiety dominating us, God's promises 00:31:25.519 --> 00:31:32.440 take root in our lives. And the more God's word shapes the mind, the more that Christ shapes our 00:31:32.440 --> 00:31:39.039 lives. The desire of us should be that Christ would be reflected in our lives, that he would be 00:31:39.039 --> 00:31:45.000 demonstrated in our lives, that Christ would become our life. And that starts with this transform, 00:31:45.220 --> 00:31:50.799 being transformed with the renewing of our minds. Either the word of God is going to shape us, 00:31:51.159 --> 00:31:58.740 and encourage us, or the culture, and the news, and the fear out there is going to shape us. I know 00:31:58.740 --> 00:32:04.440 which one I would choose. So just think about how much time we spend reading God's word, as opposed to 00:32:04.440 --> 00:32:10.960 other things. And then we come on to this section, Mem. So it's from 97 to 104. And this is about God's 00:32:10.960 --> 00:32:18.220 word giving us wisdom. You know, it starts with this beautiful declaration, Oh, how I love your law. 00:32:19.059 --> 00:32:23.600 Again, just look at the words that he chooses. Thankfully, he didn't say, I tolerate your law, 00:32:23.740 --> 00:32:33.019 or I occasionally read your law. But he says, I love your law. And they say that love, it changes 00:32:33.019 --> 00:32:37.440 everything. I don't know if that's true, but it certainly changes some things when you're in love. 00:32:37.960 --> 00:32:44.660 But loving God's word would certainly change how we treat it. And by default, it would change the way 00:32:44.660 --> 00:32:49.119 that we see ourselves. It would change the way that we see the world around us. And it would change the 00:32:49.119 --> 00:32:56.079 way that we treat each other. It would just change so much about us. The psalmist says here that he 00:32:56.079 --> 00:33:03.279 meditates it all the day. Meditation, I think Ian maybe said this on the first week, meditation is not 00:33:03.279 --> 00:33:08.500 us, as sometimes we think of meditation about emptying our minds. No, when we're meditating on 00:33:08.500 --> 00:33:15.500 scripture, it is about filling our minds with God's truth. It's about reading it. It's about 00:33:15.500 --> 00:33:22.619 reciting it. It's about memorizing it. It's about meditating on it. You know, I am a slightly proud 00:33:22.619 --> 00:33:28.059 dad. I haven't counted them up. I should have done it before I got on the platform. But Caleb has been 00:33:28.059 --> 00:33:32.919 learning a number of memory verses. And he's only two. And he probably could say five or six memory 00:33:32.919 --> 00:33:38.599 verses. And it's quite cool to see, you know, and sometimes they're not all laid out in the right 00:33:38.599 --> 00:33:44.019 order. And sometimes we blend from one to the other. But he is there and he's memorizing. And then when he 00:33:44.019 --> 00:33:48.899 sings a song, and I am the way, the truth and the life, for example, when he sings these songs, he gets 00:33:48.900 --> 00:33:53.860 really excited. Well, you and I, if you've been to Sunday school, and you've come through church, 00:33:53.920 --> 00:33:57.840 and I know that there'll be people in our audience that haven't, you know, you've been saved as a 00:33:57.840 --> 00:34:03.040 university student, or maybe as an older adult, and you've come to know the Lord at a different point. 00:34:03.180 --> 00:34:09.099 And this is not your experience. But for a lot of people, maybe even you've learned these at school, 00:34:09.180 --> 00:34:16.099 you don't necessarily need to have learned these in church. But we learned verses, and we can recite 00:34:16.099 --> 00:34:19.239 them when we're older. The older you get, the harder it is to learn and remember and recite. 00:34:19.679 --> 00:34:25.960 So my encouragement would be, when you're young, learn as many verses as you can. And that's one 00:34:25.960 --> 00:34:30.679 of the reasons it's good for us as a church to get our young folks and our children that are up in the 00:34:30.679 --> 00:34:39.259 kids' church to learn memory verses, to hide them in their heart, and so that they can draw on them in 00:34:39.260 --> 00:34:45.860 times of need. And the result of this, the result is this, it is wisdom. Three times the psalmist says 00:34:45.860 --> 00:34:53.940 that he has become wiser, wiser than his enemies, wiser than his teachers, greater understanding than 00:34:53.940 --> 00:34:57.960 the aged. And how can this be? He's not being boastful here. He's not saying I'm smarter than 00:34:57.960 --> 00:35:03.580 these guys that went in the past. But what he is doing is he's coming back to the Word of God. That is 00:35:03.579 --> 00:35:11.059 where wisdom comes from. It doesn't come from experience and age necessarily. You know, the 00:35:11.059 --> 00:35:15.279 number of years that you've lived on this earth doesn't automatically give us spiritual wisdom. 00:35:16.500 --> 00:35:22.480 Wisdom comes through obedience. You see, knowledge fills our head, but obedience transforms our hearts 00:35:22.480 --> 00:35:29.400 and our lives. And many, there's many educated people that remain spiritually foolish. They could 00:35:29.400 --> 00:35:36.460 maybe recite the words of Scripture, but they don't know them. The understanding that is given by the 00:35:36.460 --> 00:35:42.880 Spirit of God, and the Spirit of God witnesses with our spirit and provides understanding for us as 00:35:42.880 --> 00:35:53.260 Christians. That is where true wisdom comes from. And similarly, in the same vein, there's many ordinary 00:35:53.260 --> 00:35:58.700 believers, and they've got, they possess this remarkable wisdom. And it's because they have walked 00:35:58.699 --> 00:36:04.639 faithfully with God. They have obeyed him. They have taken one step after the other in obedience. And we're 00:36:04.639 --> 00:36:10.659 just going to see that in a second. The psalmist also says that your words are sweeter than honey. And that 00:36:10.659 --> 00:36:20.639 is a challenge for us today. Do we hunger after God's Word? Or do we hunger after entertainment and social 00:36:20.639 --> 00:36:30.599 media? Do we crave God's voice more than we crave the news or TV or film? Do we spend more time listening 00:36:30.599 --> 00:36:38.619 to that than we do God's Word? You know, what we feed our souls will shape our lives. God's truth should 00:36:38.619 --> 00:36:47.659 not only inform us, it should transform us. And as we learn to love truth, we also learn to reject 00:36:47.659 --> 00:36:55.619 falsehood. Verse 104, through your precepts, I get understanding. Therefore, I hate every false way. 00:36:56.719 --> 00:37:03.139 This here, love for the truth naturally produces discernment. I got a book for my birthday. I 00:37:03.139 --> 00:37:07.639 haven't read it yet because I've been on holiday, but I'm about to dive into it in July. It's a book 00:37:07.639 --> 00:37:14.980 that's called Reckless Faith, and it's when the church loses its will to discern. And mainly because 00:37:14.980 --> 00:37:19.059 we've taken an eye of Scripture, we've taken an eye of the Lord, we're looking more to the culture 00:37:19.059 --> 00:37:27.119 outside, and we want to implement it in here, and it is just a recipe for ruin. Love for the truth 00:37:27.119 --> 00:37:36.820 naturally produces discernment. And as we understand, as we contemplate, as we meditate on God's Word, 00:37:36.820 --> 00:37:44.920 and as we obey it, then we will be given wisdom. And that just brings us lastly to this, a guide for 00:37:44.920 --> 00:37:51.600 our path. Perhaps it's the best known verse in Psalm 119, your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to 00:37:51.600 --> 00:37:58.460 my path. And as I've said, many of us learned it as a, maybe as a child, and yet we maybe fully didn't 00:37:58.460 --> 00:38:03.820 understand it until we were more established in our walk with God. You know, God rarely shines a big 00:38:03.820 --> 00:38:08.920 floodlight ahead of us, you know, several miles along the road. Instead, he gives us enough light 00:38:08.920 --> 00:38:13.620 for the next step. Many of us, as I've said, are impatient. We want this roadmap. We want to know 00:38:13.620 --> 00:38:20.100 what happens to us in five years' time. And yet God actually only promises us direction for today. 00:38:20.760 --> 00:38:29.960 So it requires faith for us, faith from us, to come to God's Word and to see it as a lamp to our feet 00:38:29.960 --> 00:38:37.599 and a light to our path. Walking with God requires us to trust him, that he knows the way ahead, that he 00:38:37.599 --> 00:38:44.720 knows what the future holds. And as he reveals it to us bit by bit, we see a greater plan. We see God 00:38:44.720 --> 00:38:50.340 at work more in our lives. And as I say, just reflecting on that little Lego that Caleb was 00:38:50.340 --> 00:38:56.380 building yesterday, you see it starting to take place the longer that we spend walking with God and 00:38:56.380 --> 00:39:01.260 in his Word. You know, Abraham didn't know where he was going. Moses didn't really understand where, 00:39:01.660 --> 00:39:07.700 how God would deliver Israel. And even the disciples, when we come to the New Testament, didn't really 00:39:07.700 --> 00:39:15.780 appreciate what awaited them after the Lord's resurrection. But they knew the one who led them. 00:39:16.500 --> 00:39:22.440 You know, sometimes we are frustrated because we can't see five years ahead. But what God asks us to do 00:39:22.440 --> 00:39:30.380 is to simply obey him. And in that trusting and obey him, character is built. You know, deep roots are 00:39:30.380 --> 00:39:40.000 formed and we are given confidence in the hope that we have in God. And this produces faithfulness. 00:39:40.000 --> 00:39:46.219 And it is this, this is, this is, this is the, the choice of the words that the psalmist is using when he 00:39:46.219 --> 00:39:53.480 says it's a lamp to my feet. It is one step after another. It is, it is trusting and obeying and 00:39:53.480 --> 00:40:00.340 building character and, and deepening our roots and relying and building our dependence on God. And we do 00:40:00.340 --> 00:40:07.920 that through understanding and reading and meditating and memorizing his Word. You know, faithfulness and doing 00:40:07.920 --> 00:40:13.920 that, it produces faithfulness. Faithfulness today prepares us for what may come tomorrow. And as I've 00:40:13.920 --> 00:40:20.300 said, it is an uncertain world that we live in. The psalmist also, as you can see in our last section 00:40:20.300 --> 00:40:27.780 here, understands that obedience involves commitment. He says, as I have sworn and confirmed that I will keep 00:40:27.780 --> 00:40:36.780 your righteous rules. You know, in our day and age, our culture prizes having options. When you don't like 00:40:36.780 --> 00:40:41.500 it, you just move on. It's why there's so many broken relationships. It's why, you know, we just like 00:40:41.500 --> 00:40:46.780 to keep our options open. We never like to be committed and loyal and faithful and obedient in 00:40:46.780 --> 00:40:53.920 that sense. But God values faithfulness. God values obedience. Let me just say this, obedience is not 00:40:53.920 --> 00:41:02.620 legalism. No, obedience is this, it is love expressed through faithful living. And while we are surrounded, 00:41:02.619 --> 00:41:12.099 indeed, as the psalmist was by dangers and traps and suffering, the psalmist continues to follow God's path. 00:41:12.500 --> 00:41:19.219 And that is what we are encouraging ourselves to do this morning. His confidence rests not in easy circumstances 00:41:19.219 --> 00:41:23.000 and comfort. That's one of the things that we like to do. We like to make ourselves comfortable. 00:41:23.000 --> 00:41:33.280 Well, is that not true? And yet, that is not what the psalmist has here. His confidence in God, in God's faithful 00:41:33.280 --> 00:41:41.539 guidance, one step at a time. So there are real challenges that face us today. We live in a culture where biblical 00:41:41.539 --> 00:41:50.000 truth is increasingly questioned. Moral standards are lowered every day. People disagree about what is good and true and 00:41:50.000 --> 00:41:57.960 beautiful. And yet, the psalmist writes here that, and he reminds us that God's truth remains unchanged. 00:41:59.139 --> 00:42:07.639 And thankfully, our confidence doesn't rest on cultural acceptance. We should be very careful of wanting to fit in. 00:42:07.900 --> 00:42:13.619 I'm not saying that we should go around and be odd. You can be odd for odd's sake and it doesn't really produce 00:42:13.619 --> 00:42:20.400 anything. But if we live by God's word, if we obey it, if we meditate on it and it transforms us and changes 00:42:20.400 --> 00:42:25.259 our life and changes the way we behave and the way that we think, then we might be slightly different to 00:42:25.259 --> 00:42:33.119 those that live round about us. Try not to fit into the culture just for fitting in's sake, because you will 00:42:33.119 --> 00:42:40.019 compromise on God's word. You know, the church doesn't need to imitate the culture either. The church needs to 00:42:40.019 --> 00:42:44.539 remain faithful to Christ. And to do that, we need three things. Firstly, we need a biblical 00:42:44.539 --> 00:42:51.400 understanding of reality. Scripture tells us who God is. Not the culture, not the world, not what people 00:42:51.400 --> 00:42:58.199 think. Scripture. It tells us who we are. It tells us why our world is broken. And it tells us where history 00:42:58.199 --> 00:43:05.380 is heading. Secondly, we need a living relationship with God. You know, Christianity is more than just 00:43:05.380 --> 00:43:14.740 attending a church. It is walking daily with our risen saviour. And then thirdly, it is about faithful 00:43:14.740 --> 00:43:22.079 discipleship. God has placed us here for his purposes and his mission. Just like everything else in verse 00:43:22.079 --> 00:43:27.260 91, by your appointment, they stand this day for all things are your servants. Everything in this world 00:43:27.260 --> 00:43:32.960 serves God's purpose and we should too. Every conversation, every workplace, every home, 00:43:32.960 --> 00:43:40.579 every friendship becomes an opportunity for us to reflect Christ in our lives. But let me just finish 00:43:40.579 --> 00:43:47.480 over the next two minutes with this. Psalm 119 ultimately points us beyond the written words to 00:43:47.480 --> 00:43:55.760 the living word. Jesus Christ perfectly fulfilled everything that this psalm celebrates. He is the word 00:43:55.760 --> 00:44:03.280 made flesh. When we need comfort, he says, come to me all who labor and are heavy laden. I will give 00:44:03.280 --> 00:44:08.040 you rest. When we need revival, he declares, I have come that they might have life and that they might 00:44:08.040 --> 00:44:14.500 have it more abundantly. When we need wisdom, Paul tells us that Christ has become our wisdom. In 1 00:44:14.500 --> 00:44:20.360 Corinthians 1 30, it says this, and because of him, you are in Christ Jesus who became to us wisdom from 00:44:20.360 --> 00:44:29.440 God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption. And when we need guidance, the Lord Jesus says, 00:44:29.640 --> 00:44:36.079 I am the way. Everything the psalmist longed for finds its fulfillment in Christ. The written word 00:44:36.079 --> 00:44:43.579 continually leads us to the living word. So as I said when I opened, every single one of us 00:44:43.579 --> 00:44:51.380 we'll find ourselves in one of these four stanzas this morning. Some need comfort because we are 00:44:51.380 --> 00:44:59.039 grieving. Some need revival because our spiritual passion is worn out. Some need wisdom because 00:44:59.039 --> 00:45:05.559 there is difficult decisions that lie ahead. Or we need guidance because the path is unclear. 00:45:05.559 --> 00:45:13.559 But what I want to leave you with is this. God's answer remains the same. We should come to his word. 00:45:14.079 --> 00:45:20.880 We should listen to his voice. We should trust his promises and we should walk in his ways. The same 00:45:20.880 --> 00:45:26.719 God who governs the universe also sustains our people. I'm glad that Sam prayed that this morning. 00:45:27.219 --> 00:45:33.460 It is God who sustains us. It might not remove the suffering. It might not remove us from the suffering. 00:45:33.460 --> 00:45:42.240 We might have to endure that, but he will always sustain us within it. His word is certain in an 00:45:42.240 --> 00:45:48.360 uncertain world. So let us build our lives upon it. Let us delight in it. Let us meditate on it. 00:45:48.720 --> 00:45:55.800 Let us obey it. And above all, let us follow the one to whom it continually points, Jesus Christ, 00:45:56.519 --> 00:46:01.159 our Lord and Savior. Shall we pray? Heavenly Father, we come before you this morning. 00:46:01.159 --> 00:46:09.739 We thank you for your word. Father, we thank you that you speak to us in all of our situations and 00:46:09.739 --> 00:46:19.179 experiences in life through your word. Our Father, we thank you that you sustain us, that you provide 00:46:19.179 --> 00:46:23.639 for us. Our Father, we thank you for the great provision that we find in your son, the Lord Jesus 00:46:23.639 --> 00:46:31.480 Christ. Our Father, help us to come to your word and to hear your voice and to meditate upon it and to 00:46:31.480 --> 00:46:38.179 allow it to comfort us, to provide revival in our lives, to give us wisdom and understanding and 00:46:38.179 --> 00:46:45.319 guidance when it is needed. Our Father, help us to obey your word, to submit to it and to make it a big 00:46:45.320 --> 00:46:50.019 part of our lives. We pray this in Jesus' precious name. Amen.