Transcript

Sermon Transcript: Listen Up!

7/10/2016 Jeff Schwarzentraub 32 min read

Isn't it good to know that Jesus Christ is our rock and he's steady and unchanging and he won't move, and his word is powerful and strong. Amen. Amen. Let's pray and seek the Lord today. Lord Jesus, we just ask before we hear your word proclaimed that we would be ready and receptive to hear all that you have for us.

Lord Jesus, we just ask that, that your word that's sharper than any two edged sword would penetrate our hearts this day, that you would share with us the very things that we need to hear. And Lord, for any of us who are here, who are distracted, Lord, we just pray against any distraction. Lord, if there's sin in our life where we feel unworthy to hear from you, we confess that right now, knowing that your word tells us that you'll forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And, Lord, if we're just thinking about other things, we now focus because we want to hear you. So, Lord, have your way with us this morning.

We will give you all the glory and all the honor and all the praise in the mighty and the matchless name of Jesus. Amen. We are continuing our series of summer in the psalms. And I can tell you this, I've enjoyed studying the psalms. I'm enjoying proclaiming the psalms.

They're so rich and they're so good in some ways, I wish I could spend 150 Sundays in a row and walk through them one by one by one because they're so rich and there's so many different themes. And today's theme is a new one. It's really taking a look at how does God speak to us? Because as I talk to many Christians and many non Christians, they want to know how does God speak and how can I hear his voice and what does he sound like and what should I be listening for? And if that's something that you're curious about, psalm chapter 19 is going to answer that question for you.

If you'd open your bible up to psalm 19 today, I'd like to read through it. And then we'll take a look at three specific things that Psalm 19 says. Because in psalm 19, really what God is saying to us is, listen up. If you ever had a teacher, you ever had a coach, you ever had a parent kind of snap their fingers at you, say, hey, listen up. Look here.

That's really what psalm 19 is describing, as David tells us about the way in which God communicates with us. So let me read this psalm as you follow along in your Bible, and then we'll unpack it together. It says, the heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words whose voice is not heard.

Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tent for the sun, which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and like a strong man, runs its course with joy. Its rising is from the end of the heavens and its circuit to the end of them, and there is nothing hidden from its heat. The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.

The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The rules of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb.

Moreover, by them is your servant warned. In keeping them, there is great reward. Who can discern all his errors. Declare me innocent from hidden faults. Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins.

Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless and innocent of great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. Now, in this awesome psalm, we're going to see three different ways that the Lord communicates with us, and they're all magnificent. And the first way is this.

God's communication to us is seen throughout his creation. God's communication to us is seen throughout his creation. Notice how David pens the psalm. It says, the heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Really, what we're seeing here is a picture of Genesis one and two, that everything that we see, even the things that we don't see, but specifically the things that we see, declare the glory of God.

In other words, they continually proclaim and scream out to us, there's a creator behind everything that you see. And it's not just a one time thing. Notice verse two. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. It means whether you're in the early waking hours, whether you're in the middle of the day, or whether you're at night and you look at the creation of the world.

You know, there's a God. There's never a time where we could look in the world and see that there's not a God. Now, God doesn't use words as he speaks through his creation. Notice verse three. There is no speech, nor are there words whose voice is not heard.

Their voice goes out through all the earth and their words to the end of the world. In other words, while God doesn't use language, I mean, God doesn't speak through trees. Like, trees don't talk and fish don't talk. Animals don't talk. The sun doesn't talk.

So God doesn't use words through his creation, but he uses his creation as the words to demonstrate that everything we see is him. There has to be a creator behind all of this. I mean, in our heart of hearts, we know this. I mean, if I was to take just a bunch of random things and put them in a bag and shake it up for like six weeks and then say, voila, a watch, or look, a pair of shoes, I mean, that would never happen. There has to be a design.

There has to be a creation. So for us to look at everything in the world and say, oh, that just happened, is to deny what God is really speaking to us. As a matter of fact, in psalm, chapter 14, verse one, it says, the fool in his heart says, there is no God. As a matter of fact, in order to be an atheist, you have to train your heart to be hard. You have to train yourself to believe there really can't be a God.

You have to harden your heart to the fact there isn't someone you want to worship because creation itself cries out. There has to be someone behind all of this. That's what the Bible reveals, and that's what David's telling us about. God's big. I'm small, you know, I don't know where you see God, but God uses his creation for us to experience who he is.

Now, I joke with you many times that I'm an avid indoor enthusiast because I like watching sports on tv. But I can tell you there's times where I've seen God and experienced him in nature. Just a few months ago, I was down in the springs and I was on a hike with my family, and at one point I was walking with my three year old and we were walking through this canyon, and it wasn't like I was looking around proclaiming how God is so awesome or was having this incredible prayer time. It was nothing like that. I was just walking with my daughter.

But as I was walking kind of hemmed in between these two huge rocks going through. It was like the Lord was just speaking to me, saying, I'm awesome. I was overwhelmed with peace as I looked at these gigantic rocks. And I was walking through this crevice. And in this one little part of God's creation, I was seeing how vast and how awesome he is.

And isn't that true, no matter where we look, that we see the greatness and the glory of God? I mean, just a few months ago, when it was snowing, I got about 2ft of snow in my driveway. And as I was out there shoveling and plowing and snow blowing the snow, I didn't take the time to look at every individual snowflake. But I know this from experience and from what I've heard, there are no two snowflakes that are alike. Every single one is different.

Why? So that when we see it, we cry out, glory to God. Who's behind all of this. Every child that's born is a miracle. Every person has their own set of fingerprints.

No matter where you look and no matter where you see in creation, you're gonna notice there's a God behind all of it. It's not just happenstance. I mean, just think for a moment the fact that our bodies are designed to take in and breathe oxygen. And then what do we exhale? Carbon dioxide.

And then just so happens that plants take in carbon dioxide and breathe out oxygen so that we have enough air to breathe. That's not by happenstance. It's because of God's created order. And everywhere we look, we see God at work. And David's saying, you know what?

In them, he set a tent for the son. He starts talking about the son. You remember a couple weeks ago when I told you in my study, I realized there's 70 centillion sons? I don't even know what that means. It just means a lot, right?

They're all over the place and we're just talking about one son, which comes out like a bridegroom, leaving his chamber like a strong man, running its course with joy. It's rising from the end of the heavens and it's so to the end of them. And there's nothing hidden from its heath. Poetically talking about, every day there's a sunrise and every day there's a sunset. And God is consistently awesome because he never, ever misses a day with just the one sun that heats our planet.

Isn't that amazing? Now, I don't know about you, but when I moved to Denver, I learned there were 300 plus days of sunshine, and I love that. But I'm from the midwest. I think there's 300 plus days of gloom in the midwest. But there were several times in the midwest when I would take off on an airplane on a cloudy day.

And when I came out of that airplane and we started ascending, you get up above the clouds and you realize, wait, wait, wait, time out. It's a beautiful day. The clouds are just in the way. But from in an airplane, when you're looking down at the clouds, it's beautiful. Every day is beautiful.

Everything God creates is beautiful. And the psalmist David is writing how incredible God is and how powerful he is. A few years ago when I was out in Hawaii, I remember it was one of those days where I told people to stay out of the ocean because the waves were so strong. And, you know, some of the native surfers, they were out there and it's pretty awesome to watch them. But I'm like, if they can be out there, I can certainly kind of dip my toe in the water and started not only walking on the beach, but just kind of getting out there, bouncing around a little bit.

I wasn't probably five to 15ft out in the waves, just kind of hanging out and having fun when some wave came in and literally picked me up without having any control of my body, threw me down on my shoulder and I was kind of disoriented for a period of time. And you think about that one teeny little wave right by the shore of one of God's majestic oceans has more power than what I do. Everywhere we go and everywhere we look and everything we study in creation points to a creator behind all of it, and that he's awesome. I mean, whatever you study in creation, study insects, and you'll start seeing all the different varieties of insects that God has created and why he has created them and unique properties that they have and why they survive the way they do. Or study birds or study plants, study all these, study fish.

Everything you'll see is like, man, God is awesome. Maybe some things you don't understand, like I don't understand the mosquito. I think that's a fallen creature, but I'm not sure. Okay, I'll ask God when I get to heaven. But the point is, no matter what you study or where you study it, you see God is an incredible designer behind everything, and everything God creates is good.

God's always on the move, and he's communicating to us. Theologians would refer to this as general revelation, meaning everybody in the world, anywhere they are. Can see that there's a creator behind all of it. It's why God created the way he did. So that no matter where you woke up in the world today, you could look and see there has to be a God behind all of this.

Matthew, chapter five, verse 45, says God causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust. In other words, God. When it rains, it doesn't just rain on righteous people's yard. It's not like if you go to church and you love Jesus, your grass gets watered. But if you don't go to church and you don't love Jesus, it just dries up.

Rain falls on everybody. There's general grace for everybody to reveal that God is good and God is constantly doing this. I did a little study this week. Imagine this. If it cost a penny to travel a thousand miles, okay, from Denver, Colorado to LA is just a little over a thousand miles.

So say it cost a penny to travel from here to Los Angeles. It means to go to the moon would cost us $2.38. And to travel to the sun would cost us $930. Do you know how much it would cost to go to the nearest star? $260 million to travel to the nearest star.

And yet we can lay on our back in the summer and we look up at stars like they're little dots of light, like they're all so intricately connected and they're millions and millions of miles apart. Our God's awesome. David's saying God communicates to us through creation, so we'll know there's a God behind the story. But just knowing that there's a God's not enough, is there? Just knowing that there's a God out there is not enough.

God not only gives us general revelation, he gives us specific revelation. He reveals specific things to us. And this is where God has not only seen throughout his creation, but he's heard through his revealed word. God is heard through his revealed word. And in Psalm, chapter 19, verses seven through eleven, we're going to see six different ways that God's word is called.

We'll see God's word referred to as the law of the Lord, the testimony of the Lord, the precepts of the Lord, the commandment of the Lord, the fear of the Lord, and the rules of the Lord. All these are talking about God's revealed word. Now, here's what the word says. The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of our Lord stands forever. The Bible refers to itself as truth.

The Bible says that it's enduring forever. So let's see what God has to say about specific revelation. Notice the first thing it says. The law of the Lord is what? What does it say in your Bible?

The law of the Lord is it's perfect. Perfect. Reviving the soul. It means there's nothing wrong with God's word. God's word is perfect.

There will be people in every generation that will tell you, well, there's some errors in there. It's not really true historically. It's totally true historically. Everything the Bible reveals historically is true. Everything the Bible reveals scientifically is true.

Everything the Bible reveals from Genesis all the way through revelation is true. All 66 books are true. Why? Because it's perfect. There's nothing wrong with it.

And when people start saying, well, the Bible's not true, or there's parts of it that aren't true, it is people that don't believe the Bible because the law of the Lord cannot be perfect and at the same time be untrue. The law of the Lord is perfect because it is true. There's nothing wrong with God's word, and it revives the soul. How does it revive the soul? Because this revealed word tells us who God is.

This word reveals the person, the God man of Jesus Christ, who came and died on the cross for our sins and rose from the grave. This revealed word tells us when we place our faith and trust in him, that God the Father will save us through his son, that in the same way God the Father lived his life through Jesus. Now Jesus Christ wants to live his life through you. It revives the soul. The law of the Lord is perfect.

When I go to the Bible, I don't need to wonder, am I reading the section that's true or not true? Am I reading the area that might be true or might not be true? Am I reading the area that might help me or might not help me? It's perfect. There's nothing wrong with this book.

Everything, even the things that I don't understand on this side of heaven, I chalk up to the fact that's because I'm finite and he's infinite and he knows all things. And someday when I get to heaven, I can ask him about it. But the law of the Lord is perfect. It revives the soul. Notice what else it is.

It says, the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. And I love this. It's sure. It means it can be trusted. It means it's sure footing.

It means you can trust this testimony of what the Bible says, and it makes wise the simple. The simple are the naive. Now, some of you are thinking, well, that's my daughter, that's my son, that's my spouse, that's my friend. They're totally naive. They could really use this.

No. The Bible would refer to all of us as naive, that every single one of us needs the word of the Lord. It's how God speaks to us. The testimony of the Lord is sure. It's reviving the soul.

It means this. If Bible study is boring to you, let me make a suggestion. It may be because all you're doing is reading it for reading its sake. I know some people that try to read through the Bible in a year, and I'm all for that. That's fine.

But most people make it through Genesis, exodus, and they get halfway through Leviticus and they're done. I mean, I'm done with the Leviticus thing and numbers. Heaven forbid I even make it that far. Right? But here's what God wants us to do when we read his word.

He wants us to bring questions to the word that we're asking. Why? Because the testimony of the Lord is sure. His testimony about what? About everything pertaining to life and godliness.

You want to know how to live a godly life as a single man? The Bible will teach you how to do that. You want to know how to live a godly life as a single woman? The Bible will teach you how to do that. You want to know how to honor your parents?

The Bible will teach you how to do that. You want to know how to be a great husband? The Bible will teach you how to do that. You want to know how to be a great wife? The Bible will teach you how to do that.

You want to know how to steward your resources? You want to know how to tithe? You want to know how to give generously? Bible will teach you how to do that. If you go to the Bible with questions and say, God, here's what I'd really like to know.

What do you have to say about this? Hey, God, there's two different jobs I could take. I want to know what you say. Which job should I take? How do I know which one?

The Bible will reveal those things. You go to the Bible with questions, and the Bible starts reading your heart, and the Bible will start giving you answers to those things. Every way in which I've grown as a Christian has been by going to God's word and asking him questions about what it looks like. Here's the challenge. Listen up.

Listen to this. If you want to know what God has to say, God will always speak to you. He'll always speak to you. It's for many of us, we don't want to know what God has to say. I remember when I was first a youth pastor, I made $1,000 a month, okay?

And the more I thought about this, 200 of those dollars went to taxes. And I said, okay, another hundred dollars, I'm going to start tithing. Because I was convinced everywhere I went in the word that God wanted me to be generous with my money. And I remember laughing because I don't have any. I don't even have enough money to tithe.

But I'm like, lord, here's my prayer, lord, I will tithe, but if I run out of money, that is your communication to me, that I quit the ministry and go get a real job. You know, in 25 years, I've never run out of money. And, oh, how I wish I could tell you that I'm rich and I'm awesome. I mean, I'm awesome, but I wish I could tell you that I'm rich and that God's got all these things. But you know what?

God's always provided for my needs, and God sometimes has provided for my wants, and God sometimes has provided my wants through other people. And God has been generous to me over and over again, to the point that if you said, jeff, you shouldn't tithe anymore, I would be like, well, why would I not? I want to. I get such joy in doing it. Right.

How do you learn how to walk with God? You start asking questions, and then you put into practice the very things he shows you. The testimony of the Lord is sure. It's sure. The testimony of the Lord is sure.

It makes wise the simple. It makes naive people live skillfully. You want to know how to live the way God wants you. His word will tell you how to do that. Notice what else it says, the precepts of the Lord are right.

Precepts are statutes or instructions. How the Bible instructs us. They're right. It means there's nothing wrong with what God says. And it makes our heart rejoice.

It makes our heart rejoice. Why does our heart rejoice? Because for many of us, we think that God's standards are a killjoy, like God's trying to rob us of good. So, like, if you're single, God says, you know what? Stay pure and be sexually faithful in your marriage.

And some singles are like, oh, God's just robbing us, or all this kind of stuff. No, God's blessing you, God's showing you the way to live. God will teach you what to do, and your heart will rejoice when you do it in God's way. Maybe not initially, but if you'll do it his way, there's ultimate rejoicing in doing it the way God wants you to do. Here's the challenge.

Sometimes God's word reveals things to us, and we're like, oh, I totally needed to hear that. It was so awesome. Look what I'm learning in God's word. And sometimes we genuinely want to know what God says, and he shows us, and it hits our heart, and we think to ourselves, I didn't want to hear that. I don't want to do that.

They need to forgive me. I don't need to forgive them. And God said, no, you need to go forgive them. But they don't deserve it. Yeah, but you need to go do it anyway.

Do you know what I'm talking about? But if you'll do and follow through on what God shows you, your heart will rejoice because you're aligning yourself with the creator of the world who loves you. And when you do that, your heart rejoices. That's why the Bible says in proverbs three, five, six I used to know what proverbs three, five, six says. Help me out.

Help me out. Thanks. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him, and he will make your path straight. Same thing we read about in psalm 119.

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path path. Right. That when we go God's way, it encourages our heart, because God is the one that's giving us direction, and we don't always see the way he's taking us. And by the way, when I study the people of the Bible that go on an adventure with God, there's not one that does this really linear life that's like, here's how it works. You do this, you go to church, and then God shows.

I mean, it's always crazy stuff. And so while many of us would say, man, it'd be awesome to be like Moses and be able to raise my staff and see a sea part or be awesome to be like Joshua and be able to march around a city and see it fall, or it would be awesome, ladies, to be like Mary and, like, give birth to the savior of the world. We don't think about the consequences of those things. Moses spent 40 years by himself in a desert. Joshua spent 40 years at Moses side as his kind of water boy for a while.

And Mary, what was she? She was an unwed teenage mother trying to convince all of her friends and family to. Seriously, I've never been with a man. An angel. Put that there, right?

I mean, when you start studying the people of the Bible and the fruit that God bears through their life and what he does, we like seeing the end result, but we don't like seeing the character that gets built in order for God to do that. But if you go God's way, your heart will rejoice because you get to participate in what he does. Notice this. The commandment of the Lord is pure. It's enlightening the eyes.

It means that the word of God, there's nothing that's added to it. There's no extra ingredients, there's no extra mixture. Everything we see here is the word of God. It's pure and it enlightens the eyes. In Ephesians five, it says, once we walked in darkness, but now we are children of the light.

So walk in the light. God's word reveals light. It teaches us how to walk in a new way. All of us walked in darkness at one point in time. All of us can tell stories about the areas of darkness in which we walked.

But when Christ came into our life, the light of the world, he began to show us how to walk in new ways so that we could walk in ways that were consistent with him. Notice this. It says, the fear of the Lord. Talking about God's word is clean. Enduring forever.

We talked about a couple weeks ago not to fear man, not to be worried about circumstances, not to be worried about what could go wrong. But to fear the Lord is an honest, good thing because God is so good. And this is enduring forever. I mean, everything that God is asking us to do and be is because that's who we are going to be for all eternity. Let your kingdom come.

Let your will be done on earth in the same way that it's being done in heaven. God doesn't give us our word, so we just kind of clean up our acts so we can be good people and then we die someday so we can go to heaven. God is teaching us how to live as kingdom citizens, because ultimately, this is the way we're all going to live in the future. So God is preparing us, and these things endure forever. The Bible says not one jot or tittle of this book will change.

God's law will always stand the same. People on judgment day will be held accountable to this book. That's why romans 120, when it says that his eternal nature and divine power are clearly seen, that's why men will be without excuse on judgment day. For people who said, I didn't know there was a God, God would say, oh, yeah, you did. Yeah, you did.

Look at my creation. You knew there was, and you didn't come seek me with your whole heart. You didn't call out to me. Right? The Bible makes it clear that his word is enduring forever.

The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of our Lord stands forever. And then he finally says this. The rules of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. Now, I love this. Now, when I first became a Christian, somebody told me that the words Bible stand for basic instructions before leaving earth.

Right. I kind of like that. But as I've gone on, I realized that the Bible and this is not original to me, but you've heard me say it. It's not a book to be read and studied. It's a book to be believed and obeyed.

That God is giving us his word because he wants us to live it out. And his rules are true, and they're righteous altogether. And if we want to live the righteous life, the Bible will teach us what it looks like to live righteous. And the great thing about this word, the great thing about this revealed word, as we see in John's book, the word became what flesh and dwelt among us. That Jesus Christ is the embodiment of all of psalm 19 711.

Really? Of all of psalm 19. He's the creator, too, and he's all that's in here. This is who he is. You want to study what it's like to live like God wants you to live, study the life of Jesus Christ, because he lived out everything we're talking about today.

He was the revealed word of God. He is the revealed word of God, and he will always be the revealed word of God, Jesus Christ, the righteous one. He lived righteous in the middle of everybody that was a sinner. So it's possible for us to live like Christ wants us to live. That's why I love the word of God.

Now, Jesus said of the word of God, thy word is truth. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me. That's why God gives us his word. He says, heaven and earth may pass away, but guess what?

My word will never pass away. Can I just encourage you about something? Because it's pretty easy to read the Bible and see statements that God wants us to do like, hey, resist the devil, stand firm, flee from temptation, hate sin, avoid evil. You know, it's easy to read that, or it's easy to read that God wants us to have a life and have it more abundantly. But why is it that so many believers who genuinely know Jesus Christ don't experience his life giving power through the word?

And I would say it like this, because most don't want a journey with Christ. Everywhere you read about a journey with Christ, you see in the Bible, it's referred to as a walk. That's why people will ask you, how's your walk with Jesus Christ? It's assuming that you're going somewhere. Why?

Because Jesus is on the move. It's assuming you're walking with him. Now, most people, I mean, there's two different ways you can ride a bike. Did you know that? You can ride a bike and you can take it up in the mountains, you can take it on the street, or you can get one of those things called a stationary bike, which is really not riding a bike at all.

It's simply pedaling, right, and you can pedal it, but you're not really riding it. Okay. A lot of people come to church and they think they're riding a stationary bike with Jesus, where they're just pedaling, meaning they can learn scriptures, they can learn how to pray, they can learn what to do, but they're really on a stationary bike. In other words, they want to know what it says. Guys, we'll talk about guys here.

They want to know what the Bible says about being a godly husband. So they'll go to Ephesians five, and they'll start memorizing from verse 22, and they'll learn, hey, the Bible says to love my wife like Christ loves the church. And they're peddling, they got it. But they're not putting any of it into practice. They have no idea what it means to love their wives the way Christ loves the church.

They don't even know what it means to love Christ. They don't know what it means to love their wives, but they can quote that scripture really, really well. Right? There's a lot of people that talk about generosity. They can quote your scriptures from Malachi three and all throughout the New Testament, and being generous, they don't give anything.

But they can talk to you about it, and they can take you to scriptures that show it. There's a difference in the christian life between being on a stationary bike for Jesus versus journeying with Jesus. And the question becomes, do you want to take a journey with Christ? Do you want to walk with Christ? Because if you do your prayer, life will change.

And your way you approach the word will change. Because now all of a sudden, you're reading the word to get answers. Does anybody want answers to what's going on in Orlando over the last couple weeks? Or in Dallas? I mean, the Bible reveals that.

The Bible still talks about how our ways, God's ways are not our ways, and his thoughts are not our thoughts, and his are higher than ours. The Bible will reveal the fact that God is still in control over all the earth. The Bible will reveal that God is still working in the hearts of his people. The Bible will still reveal that his people will humble themselves and call upon his name and will turn from their wicked ways, that he'll come and heal their land. That's what the Bible reveals.

So I get great comfort from the word when I ask questions about troubling things in my life. What do you have questions about? We all have questions about things. I mean, we become a Christian. We're eternally secure in Christ, but we don't have the answers for every little life situation.

We have to journey with Christ and ask questions of Christ and grow with Christ. But I can tell you this, if you'll do that, God will show up in your life and answer your questions if you're willing to put them into practice. Because some people are like this when it comes to hearing God's voice. They see him in creation, but they're scared to pray the prayer of God. I want to know what you have to say about this because they're scared that God will indeed answer, and he will.

But here's how God will speak to you. I promise you, if you do these things, God will speak to you if you confess any known sin in your life. And I'm not asking you to like navel gaze and like, okay, over the last 30 years, what have I done? I'm not asking you to do that. I'm just saying, when you pray, are there any things that come to the surface that you need to confess?

If you'll confess that and you'll say, Lord, here's what I'm asking. And see, you genuinely want to do what he shows you to do, he will speak, I promise. But for most of us, that third thing is not something we want. Yeah, I want God to speak if I. But I want to know what he's going to say first, and then I want him to speak.

Because if it's something I don't want to hear. I really don't want to hear it. God's silent on that stuff. But if you really say, God, this relationship's not good. And, you know, I'm part of this relationship, and I want to know what I can do to make this relationship better.

Whatever you tell me, I'll do that. I promise you. The Bible will scream words to you as to what you need to do. God will always show you. For people that genuinely want what God wants, what to do.

Which leads to the third point of the psalm. It says, this is to be more desired than gold, even fine gold, and sweeter than honey and the drips of a honeycomb. Moreover, by them your servant is worn, and keeping them, there's great reward. Can I just tell you this by walking with God and keeping God's commandments, not only is there a blessing in the present, but there's great reward in the future. I mean, this is sweeter than honey, sugar, or any sweet snack you can have.

It's better than gold or billions of dollars. I mean, what God is giving to us through his word is incredible. It's not about what cover your bible has or even what version it is or how much dust it collects on the shelf. It's. Are you in here reading it?

One of the reasons today we share scripture as a church and celebrate is that God's word is living and active. He's speaking to us if we're really willing to listen to him and hear. But I want to tell you, God not only is seen in his creation and heard through his revealed word, but notice this. God communicates to us, and it's experienced through our prayers. It can be experienced through our prayers.

Notice what David writes. He says, who can discern his heirs? Declare me innocent from hidden faults. Don't you love that? In other words, when I first became a believer, I knew that God had forgiven all my sins.

But the more I journeyed with him, the more he began to point out things in my life that I realized were sinful. I didn't realize were sinful before. I mean, what David is saying is like, lord, I know there's got to be things in my life that are sinful. I know there's got to be things going on that I don't know. So, Lord, would you just forgive the things that I don't know?

Lord, would you just help me with that? And then he goes on to do this, and I love this one even more. Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over me, he said, what are presumptuous sins? They're flagrant ones.

Well, what's that mean? It means the things you know you shouldn't do, that you do anyway. Anybody do any of those? Anybody want to admit that on a Sunday morning? It's all of you, just in case you didn't know, okay?

It's those things we know that are wrong and we're going to do them anyway. He's like, lord, keep me from those because I know my heart. I know what your standard is. The more I read your word. But I want to do the wrong thing anyway, right?

That's who I am. And then he says this, then I shall be blameless and innocent of great transgression. See, the cool thing about the Lord is we get to experience him in prayer. We can talk to him. Why?

Because the word of God became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We can communicate with God through the person of Jesus Christ. Did you know that? We can talk to him. We can lay out our questions before him.

And when we do, we're not just talking to some distant being. We're not just talking to a hope that there's somebody out there. We are talking to a living and active God that hears us. And the more you communicate with God, the greater your love for his word will become and the greater desire for obedience you'll have. It's kind of like this.

You got to realize, I mean, God is always speaking through creation. God is always speaking through his word. It's just we don't always hear them. It's like radio waves. Do you know that in this room right now, there's radio waves?

We can't see them, but they're all over the place. But if we have a transmitter or we have a radio, we can tune into a specific frequency of those radio waves, and then we can clearly hear what's ever on those waves. And the same thing is true about God generally. God is speaking to all creation. Specifically, he's speaking through his word.

But even when he does, sometimes we can't hear him. But when we dial in through prayer and say, God, make your word known, help me understand what this means. I want to hear it. That God tunes in the frequency, and all of a sudden, all those waves are like, I get it. Finally, that's what it means.

And do you know, I love that God still does that with me. It's not like a one time thing. Like, even this week, as I'm studying God's word and learning about the life of Christ, in me and what he wants to do in me. And God's revealing things about who Christ is. I get all excited because I'm tuned into his frequency and know that he's talking to me.

It'll always align with God's word. He wants you to seek him. He wants you to know him. He wants you to get accustomed to his voice. Now, my wife's got a cell number.

When I call my wife and she answers, I know it's her right away, but it used to only be her that answered the phone. And now I have three kids, and sometimes now it's not her that answers the phone. And I can tell when it's not her. I just can't always tell which kid it is. It takes a little more discernment, it takes a couple follow up questions until I start hearing what they're talking about.

Like, if it's baseball, then I know it's TJ, you know, if it's Dolly's, then I know it's l. I mean, I can tell by what is important to him, really. If it's popsicles, it's l. So I know who it is because I'm tuned into that frequency. And God wants us to tune into his voice and know who he is.

So the psalmist is praying to God. David's praying, let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart, let me what I say and what I feel in my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer, my strength and the one who's redeemed me. Lord, I want to align my life with you. I want to align my life with who you are. You say, well, how do I do that?

You just start. You just start. Jeremiah 33 three says, call to me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things you do not know. Now, let me just tell you this as your pastor, because some people, when they hear a message like this, they're like, they'll say stuff like, so you only believe that God speaks through his word and doesn't use any other means? And I would say, no, I don't believe that.

I mean, all throughout the Bible, God uses angels and visions and dreams and subjective knowing and people and prophecy. He even spoke through a donkey one time. I mean, God can use whatever he wants to get his word across, and I'm fine with that. But let me tell you something. It will never contradict the word of God.

It just never does. Because if you hear. If you tell me today that you heard from an angel and you're married and that angel told you to divorce your spouse and marry somebody else. I'll tell you, you did not hear from an angel of the Lord. You may heard from a demon, but you didn't hear from an angel of the Lord because it doesn't align with what God's word says marriage is supposed to be.

Right. So God can speak in all sorts of different subjective ways. Right? I remember when I came out here to Denver, getting off the phone in 2009 with Kent Shaw, and I hung up the phone, I looked at my wife and I said, we're going to move to Denver and plant a church. And people ask me all the time, how did you know you were moving to Denver?

I don't know. I just knew. I knew right in here. I knew we were moving out. I knew that's exactly where we needed to go.

He said, how did you know? Because I'd pedaled with the Lord long enough to know what his inner voice felt like. And that's what I sensed he wanted me to do. God can do that. God can speak that way.

And there was nothing in his word that contradicted anything that I sensed I was hearing. And everything in his word continued to confirm the things that I thought. God's word will be a guide for you. It's a lamp unto your feet, it's a light unto your path. He'll give you just enough light to take the next step and know where you're going.

It's awesome. And if you really want to know God and you want a journey with him, live the adventure. God wants to take you on an adventure. God didn't give you the Bible only so that you get up at five in the morning and read your bible with your cup of coffee for an hour and then close it and say, I read my Bible today. Now I'm going to go do my life.

God gave you his revealed word so that he could live his life through you and take you on an adventure to be everything he created you to be. He shows you in creation. He's great. He specifically shows you through his word that the Lord Jesus Christ is God over all. And then he says, so come experience me in prayer so that my life and my heart align with God.

Isn't that awesome that the God that created all things, the creator of the universe, has revealed himself to me and he says, hey, let's come get to know each other. I'm 100% willing to talk to you. You. It means this. What questions do you come into church with today?

What questions are you leaving church with today? Why not lay them out before the Lord? Why not say, God? These are my questions. These are the things I want you to speak about.

These are the things I'd like to know. And if you're really willing to do what God says, I can tell you no matter where you are in God's word, as you start reading, he's going to reveal them over and over and over and over. If he wants you to forgive somebody, no matter what book in the Bible you're in, he's going to show you. If he wants you to start being more generous with your money, no matter what book in the Bible he's going to show you. Hey, if he wants you to be more kind, no matter what book you are in the Bible, he's going to show you.

Why? Because his word is living and active, and he wants to use his word to help you understand who he is, how glorious he is, and how much he loves you and wants to live his life through you. Amen. Isn't that good? It's his breath in your lungs.

That's why we pour out our praise. It's the living and active God that created the universe that gives us life so that we can celebrate him. Amen. Is that good news? This morning, let's stand and sing together.

Our God in heaven, we give you glory, honor and praise for who you are. Lord, you are glorious and victorious, and yet you reveal yourself to us personally and corporately. Lord, let us experience you. Lord, we sing to you about your greatness today. In Jesus Christ's name.

Amen.