Abide in the Word
Transcript
Good morning. My name is Spencer. I'm one of the pastors here. Just a quick note, a follow-up from last week. If you were here last week, it was Elisha. And if you were not here, glad you're here this morning.
We're going to be in Psalm 119, which is on page 294 in your Blue Bibles. Go ahead and flip there. We're going to be continuing to walk through this series, Abide. Today we're going to talk about abiding in the Bibles. So this morning I would encourage you, please open your Bible, grab a Bible.
The blue ones are near you in the rows. You can also pull it up on your phone. But we're going to be walking through, jumping around Psalm 119, so please go ahead and flip there. This is my first time back up here since Egypt. Since we got to go to Egypt, that was an amazing trip we've gotten to talk about. It was a blessing to be able to go and for three days teach and equip leaders who are leveraging their lives to see the gospel advance in a culture that is hostile to it.
As we were preparing to teach, each of us, we were giving our sermon material to Ben and Patricia. Ben, who's the president of 1040 Hope, a member of our church who is going with us. We gave it to them to kind of look at, to kind of help us think through, because we never taught in the Middle East. We never had really our work translated before. So I was reaching out to them and I was like, what do you think of this?
How do you think this is going to go? And Ben was like, man, this is going to be the best teaching that they have ever heard. And I was like, man, Ben, I love you. You are awesome. But Ben is a really, really encouraging person.
He's just, it exudes from him. And I needed a dose of realism. And that is his wife, Patricia. So I went to her and I said, Patricia, what do you think about this? And she said, honestly, a lot of the teaching, a lot of the teams that come in, it's really bad. Really bad teaching.
So yeah, by default, yours will probably be some of the best teaching they've ever heard. I was like, awesome. Got the full picture. But it was exciting to be able to go and be able to teach. And when I heard that, that this church and these ministries really don't have access to really quality, sound teaching, I had an assumption that because of that, they probably didn't know their Bibles. And man, was I wrong.
Because we were teaching, we had our translator. She would translate and we would read a Bible verse. And as she's reading the Bible verse, in the crowd, they are completing it. They knew their Bibles. And it makes sense. If you believe in Jesus so much that you would leverage your life and safety to see Jesus advance in a country that is hostile to it, you absolutely would believe Jesus at His Word when He says the Bible is important to abide in the Word.
And in our country, where we have an abundance of really sound teaching and a mix of some really bad stuff as well, it becomes apparent that we actually don't know our Bibles all that well. Because when you can hear a snippet of something on K-Love, which I know is family friendly, but at times it's really off base. When you can hear something online, on Facebook, when you can listen to a podcast, and it teaches something that is incorrect, it doesn't line up with the Bible, that gives a faulty view of Jesus, how often are American Christians so quick to accept it and believe it? It's because we lack the discernment because we don't know our Bibles.
Today we're going to be looking at the need to abide in Jesus as we abide in His Word. And we're going to be in Psalm 119 to see how this is fleshed out. Psalm 119 is a celebration of the Word of God. It's the longest chapter in the Bible. It's 176 verses. It's a Hebrew acrostic that goes to the Hebrew alphabet and celebrates how good the Bible is.
So as we jump around in Psalm 119, we're going to see four different things. We're going to see the revealing of Jesus and His Word. Second, we're going to see what happens when we meet Jesus and His Word. Third, we're going to see how we practically meet Him and His Word. And lastly, we're going to see the result, which is delighting in Jesus and His Word. So let me pray, and then we'll jump in.
Father, I'm so thankful that You have given us this amazing gift that we get to open up every Sunday. God, I pray that You would open our hearts to the reality that this is a beautiful, profoundly amazing gift that You've given us in the Bible. And that we would abide in You as we abide in Him. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, so real quick, I want to flesh out the revealing of Jesus and His Word.
Last week, Chet introduced this series, the series on abiding, and he walked us through John 15, that we might grow in these ancient practices that we've been given. And in John 15, we got to see the picture of how we abide in Jesus. And last week, he held up that branch that was broken off that was dead. And said, this is the picture of what it looks like to be outside of the abiding in Jesus. And I want to make something very clear. That if you believe in Jesus, if you've placed your faith in Him, you abide in Him.
You are already abiding in Him. In this series, we want to press deeper into a deeper abiding, that we might grow, that we might flourish, that we might bear the fruit that Jesus calls us to, that we might look very different in the picture of a broken off branch. So as we learn to abide in His Word, I want to go back to John 15, when He says, If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. That Jesus calls us, He calls us to abide in Him, and He qualifies us. He says, And your words abide in you. That Jesus and His words, they get equated.
That we get to see Jesus revealed in His Word. This goes all the way back to the Old Testament. If you look at 1 Samuel 3.21, it says, And the Lord appeared again at Shiloh, for the Lord revealed Himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the Word of the Lord. That He reveals Himself personally by His Word to the prophet Samuel. That means that God reveals Himself in His Word. His character, His goodness, His justice, His love.
We get to see the face of God displayed in His Word. Therefore, we should lean into that. We should get to know Him personally in His Word. We should be transformed and shaped by Him as we celebrate and walk through this gift of the Bible. So Jesus is revealed through His Word.
Now I want to look at what happens when we meet Jesus in His Word. There's a lot of things that happen when we get to know Jesus and we meet Him in His Word. I want to walk through four specific things that we see from Psalm 119. The first one is that we are blessed. When we meet Jesus in His Word, we are blessed. Verse 1 and 2 says, Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord.
Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, who seek Him with their whole heart. So He starts out by saying, If you walk in the Word, which means if you live your life by this, if you keep His Word, which means you follow His commandments, if you seek Him with your whole heart, which primarily comes through abiding in His Word, you are blessed. And I don't want to skip over that, because blessing here is deep. From the Old Testament to the New Testament, blessing is much bigger than how we use it in our own context. That blessing means profound, deep, abiding happiness. It means joyful happiness and flourishing as humans made in the image of God.
That we might be so joy-filled, that we might be so happy, that we might be so flourishing. That is the picture of those who abide in His Word. That we are blessed. Which is very different than how we use it. Because when we use it, you know, you have someone who's in their 50s, who has kids that are successful, that has a great business, has a great life, and they would say, I am blessed. And that's true.
They are blessed, but on such a temporary scale. On such a here and now. In the grand scheme of eternity, it's temporary blessings. And God is trying to lift up our head and say, no, no, no, no. Think bigger. Dream bigger.
This is eternal blessing. If you abide in My Word, there's a much bigger blessing that awaits you. So we are blessed when we meet Jesus and His Word. Second, we are enlightened. And flip over to verse 105. He says, Your Word is a lamp to My feet and a light to My path.
The psalmist says the Bible is like a lamp that lights up the darkness. It enlightens us. And those of us who, before meeting Jesus, the picture of us in the Bible is that we are in darkness. Another picture is that we are groping and feeling our way that we might find Him. Then Jesus, the light of the world, steps in and reveals Himself.
And then we get the gift that He's given us as a lamp. We get the Bible. But the picture when we're not using the Bible is that we're like a fool stumbling around in the darkness. This is a vivid picture for me because often when I wake up in the morning, you know how like a ninja is stealthy and inconspicuous? I'm conspicuous. In the morning, I just, I fumble around in the darkness because I wake up before my wife and she really hates it because I wake her up very often because I wake up groggy.
We have blackout curtains and it's dark and I'm crashing into things. I'm loud. She's like, why are you so loud? It's like, I just, I don't have it in me. I'm heavy-footed. I'm going to run into things and it's dark often when I wake up like a fool stumbling around in the darkness.
That is a picture of us. When we don't use the word as a lamp to our feet, that is what we look like. We need the Bible to be a lamp that guides us, that shows us, that's almost a corrective kind of light, that shows us the iniquity, the sin, the darkness that is within us and also the darkness that surrounds us and needs to correct what is in us. This past week, Anna, my wife and I, we had some stuff to talk about. We had a series of conversations that needed to have big conversations, some future stuff, thinking through things and we knew that when we were going to have this that it was not going to be fun.
So my theory was, it's like, listen, these three or four things we need to talk about, let's ruin one night. We'll ruin one night, we'll pick this night, we'll discuss it on this night and then we'll get it over with and then we'll be good after that and that was more of a field strategy. If your husband leads your home in the way that you think you should be led, there is some merit in getting it all done at once but after you've had the third or fourth different item that you've talked about and everyone's upset, I don't know how much you accomplished but we did it, we went for it and we talked about all of it and the next morning, it became clear as I was thinking about how I talked about things that I was actually not gentle and that I was harsh with her and passages like Colossians 3.19 lit up my way, it says, husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them. It corrected me.
I reached out to her and said, I'm sorry, I was not gentle, I was not loving, I was harsh, do you forgive me? We need this, we need the Bible to step in and to correct us, to show us what is within us that we might repent of sin and turn to Jesus. It lights up the darkness within us, it also lights up the darkness that is around us. I want you to hear this, the more that you read the Bible, the more it changes your views of the world. Especially, hear this, when culture and the world is actively attempting to shape your view of Jesus, your view of the Bible, your view of the world. Let me do something that hits both sides of the aisle.
Our culture actively is trying to shape our ethics on sexuality. I mean, it is, and it's consistently shifting at seemingly light speed pace. Culture is consistently trying to shape this and saying, no, your views are archaic, no, you are backwards, and it is tempting to listen to it. That we might be shaped by it and the Bible comes as a lamp and says, no, no, no, no, no. No, no, the Bible says this, that this is good for you, that you might not be shaped by culture. On the other side of it, over the past few years, I've seen and heard some very dehumanizing and hateful language thrown towards the foreigner.
Hearing it over and over and over again. And if you are not careful, culture is going to shape your view of the foreigner. when the Bible specifically teaches that every single person is made in the image of God. They have dignity and value and worth. That you can't read the Old Testament law without seeing that we care for the foreigner. That you can't look at the prophets and see how they correct us. That we should have a loving and generous view towards the sojourner or towards the foreigner.
Both sides of culture are trying to shape us and the Bible says, no, no, no, no. It is a lamp to our feet. It is a corrective light that lights up what is within us that needs to be lit up and also what is around us that we might walk and follow Jesus faithfully. The Bible enlightens us. It also calms our soul. That's the third thing that happens when we meet Jesus and His Word.
We are at peace. Flip over to 165. Verse 165. He says, Great peace have those who love your law. Nothing can make them stumble. What a picture of peace that we have for those who love His Word.
You see law and precepts and testimonies and His Word all interchanged to share the Bible. What a picture that no matter what the situation is in life, no matter what you are facing, that if you love God's Word, you can stand firm that you will not stumble and fall. And you might stagger a little bit. You might get wobbly. But the picture and the ideal that is being held up here is that we would love God's Word so much that when chaos comes we would stand firm, that we would not stumble, that we would not fall.
I feel like this so much is a picture of my life as of late. I kind of feel like that lately, like one of those UFC fighters that's been pinned on the mat and it's just getting punched in the face over and over and over again. Those last few months that's kind of how it's felt. And some of y'all you'll get that. Like there are seasons where it's just one thing after the other, one thing after the other. And in those seasons where it is chaotic, in those seasons where there is darkness hovering over you, you'll have a question.
Is the Bible the most important lifeline for you in those seasons? How many of us have a love for God's Word that is so deep that when chaos comes, that when trials come, we come to His Word? That's the hope. Is that we would have peace from His Word. That we would exist so much. Like when you are deeply anxious and that darkness is hovering over you, you could exist in a Philippians 4 mindset that says, do not be anxious in anything but through prayer and supplication.
Make your requests known to the Lord. That would be so vivid in your brain that you might stagger a little bit but your hope would be so firmly in Jesus because you are abiding in His Word that you would be at peace. That when suffering and trials come, you would exist in a Romans 8 reality that says, for I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing to the surpassing glory that is to be revealed. That's the goal. That's the hope. That we'd be so in love and abiding in God's Word that we would stand firm and our souls would be at peace.
When we meet Jesus in His Word that we would be at peace. the fourth thing that I'll say here is that when we meet Jesus in His Word we are counsel. That the Word of God counsels us. Flip over to verse 24. He says, Your testimonies are my delight. They are my counselors. The Bible gives us counsel for all of life's situations.
No matter what you are facing, the Bible has a word for you. That is why we talk about so much in our church, good news before good advice. Because you'll hear some good advice from friends, from family. And it's good, but oftentimes it is temporary and the Bible is trying to uphold. No, no, no. There is eternal wisdom here.
Give the good news. Give the wisdom that we need from His Word because this is where Jesus, our Chief Shepherd, gets to counsel you. He has revealed in His Word that our Chief Shepherd might counsel us with wisdom, counsel us with His testimonies, that He might give us a word that would encourage us, that would guide us, that would give us counsel. So often as I've walked with people that have been going through different difficult circumstances or just have big life choices, like choosing a job, choosing a career, moving forward, big life decisions, family, all the big stuff. As I've walked with people over the past few years who have had to make these kind of decisions, there's something that I've seen over and over and over again is that as they're making these decisions, as they're trying to figure out where they should go, what they should do, it is clear they haven't even thought to open up the Bible to see what our Chief Shepherd has to say.
How He might counsel us. That we're so quick to seek wisdom from family and friends that we will do pro and con lists, that we will chart it out, that we'll tally it up before we even think, what does my Shepherd have to say? How would He counsel me through this? What does His Word have to say to me? Trying to navigate through all of life's difficulties without the Bible is like navigating in the dark. It's like driving on a winding mountain road where you've got a cliff on one side and you've just decided, no, I don't think I need the headlines.
I think I'm just going to trust my gut. You might make it around one curve, but if you continue to do this, you will fall off the cliff and it will not be pretty. We need the Bible to counsel us. We need His testimonies, His wisdom to guide us through the curves of life. And we also need it for others. With wisdom, that we would help others be counseled by the Word.
That when someone is walking through something, it's not trite or cliche to give them a Bible verse. I know that's assumed sometimes, that if someone just gives you a Bible verse, that that's not helpful. How could that not be helpful? How could pointing you to our chief shepherd counseling you? How could that not be good for our souls? Yes, it can be done unwisely.
Some people come in like a home run hitter with a bat swinging on you. Just be more like a surgeon with a scalpel. That's the picture we should give. But we should grow in wanting to counsel one another from His Word. So those are four pictures that we get from Psalm 119 of what happens when we meet Jesus and His Word.
There are so many other ones that I don't have time to get into. That it's sweeter than honey. That it's richer than gold. There are pictures throughout the Bible of what the Word of God is. It's a sword that pierces in Hebrews 4. It's a mirror that reflects in James 1.
It's a seed that grows in the book of Matthew. It's milk that nourishes. It's a fire that consumes. It's a hammer that shatters. And on and on and on we see pictures of what the Bible is for us and what happens when we meet Jesus and His Word. Now, I know what you may be thinking.
That's great. Good. I wish I had the time for it. I wish I had the time to spend in His Word. I know you do because you preach because this is what you do but I am busy and it is hard. Now, I know that we are busy.
I know that none of us has had time to watch the new season of Stranger Things and to get to that final eighth episode in the mall which is so good. I know that we're not going to have time to watch football in the fall all weekend long. I know that we don't have time for the hobbies that we make time for all the time. Here's the deal. It's not that we don't make time for the Bible. It's that we won't make time for the Bible.
We don't make space for it because what you value you will absolutely make time for. I know this is true because if we got done with this sermon I said we have a challenge for our church family. We want to read the Bible over the next 365 days. All of the Bible and if you complete this challenge we will wire $100,000 into your checking account. If you weren't immediately confused and disturbed as to how we had this money who was bankrolling this what's the wisdom of this we would have a 100% success rate. All of us would be reading the Bible if it meant early payment we'd do it in 90 days because you make time for what you value.
That's just the reality. So the goal is that we would make time that we'd see the value of this and as we see the value in this that we would not be distracted. We wouldn't have our gaze be captured by other things. Verse 37 in Psalm 119 says Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things and give me life in your ways. Turn my eyes from worthless things. Over the coming weeks we're going to take shots of the things that are capturing our gaze that keep us from abiding in Christ the things that are worthless in the grand scheme of eternity and one of those things that I'm seeing really in my own life but I would assume isn't on in many of your lives is that our phones regularly capture our gaze.
I'm reading this book it's called 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You it's by Tony Reiki one of the ways that he lists that we are being changed by our phones is that we have become addicted to distraction that our phones have literally trained us to be distracted and that's true think about your day you wake up in the morning what is the thing that wakes you up? Most of us have alarm clocks on our phone and then how quickly do we pick it up do we scroll through some things? He polled some Christians for this book and he said how many of you spend time on your phone before you spend time in the Bible?