Running in his ways

Ask if students had fun?

What we talked about last week

Yes, delighting in God’s word

Do we have any runners in the room?

have students engage

I started running again two weeks ago

takes discipline and focus

Walking is alot easyer

In the same way, we are called to run in the ways of Christ, guided by his word.

Let’s read Psalm 119: 25-40

Psalm 119:25–40 ESV

My soul clings to the dust; give me life according to your word! When I told of my ways, you answered me; teach me your statutes! Make me understand the way of your precepts, and I will meditate on your wondrous works. My soul melts away for sorrow; strengthen me according to your word! Put false ways far from me and graciously teach me your law! I have chosen the way of faithfulness; I set your rules before me. I cling to your testimonies, O Lord; let me not be put to shame! I will run in the way of your commandments when you enlarge my heart! Teach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes; and I will keep it to the end. Give me understanding, that I may keep your law and observe it with my whole heart. Lead me in the path of your commandments, for I delight in it. Incline my heart to your testimonies, and not to selfish gain! Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways. Confirm to your servant your promise, that you may be feared. Turn away the reproach that I dread, for your rules are good. Behold, I long for your precepts; Inn your righteousnes,s give me life!

Run in his ways until we obtain the promise

We are called to run! until we are assured of the promise

lets break that down

Our ways his ways 26-27

First, this stanza is dalet

We are all going in a direction in life

Towards Christ or away

Psalm 119:26–27 ESV

When I told of my ways, you answered me; teach me your statutes! Make me understand the way of your precepts, And I will meditate on your wondrous works.

(v.26) what our ways

Our ways are when we rule our lives and not God

What does this look like

chasing after money, influence, power, comfort

What is it that you seek first?

A vital part of the Christian life is being honest about where we are at

If you are dealing with pride, you have to be honest with yourself, with God, and with others

Guys, for example, I truly deal with the fear of others

We need to do what the psalmist confesses where we are at to God

But guess what he will answer us

and he wil teach us, which takes time

we are running a marathon not a sprint

So lets look at his ways in v27

we should want to apporach God to teach us his way,

The Bible is the cheif way we do this

I want this

I don’t know everything.

And when we read scripture we see his wonder

Have student Isaiah 55:9

Isaiah 55:9 ESV

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Think about the stars in a night sky

I think they are more beutiful than anything that man has made

When we read the scripture and see the ways of God,

how we are to live

they are more beutiful than anything else

we should deesire to seek the ways

they are better

the fact that the gospel brings people from way diffrent backrounds is beutiiful

In my own life every time i surrender to God’s ways its better

I did not wan’t to go to school at first,

I Wanted to flip houses

But the joy I have recived in God’s plan is so much better than i could have imagined

Do you want this

Are you ready to say good by to your ways, and into the adventure of following God

Then, let us run in his ways

Run with your eyes on him 32

Once you know the way to go, in a race, you don’t stop and think well that’s cool

no! you give it all you got, you run

towards Chirst is our aim as chirstian’s

psalm 119:32

Psalm 119:32 ESV

I will run in the way of your commandments when you enlarge my heart!

I really like the use of Run here

its the hebrew word אָר֑וּץ

And most of the time its used in the context of war

Used a ton in 1 samuel 2 chorcials

Ok, so in war times if someone was chasing you, would you walk?

No, you would run!

When your life is in danger you run, you don’t walk

But the truth is at some point we all run out of breath

We all have limits,

When I’m running what stops me is i have bad cardio

My heart can only beat so fast

what the psalmist says here in the seconed line here is that we can only run when we have an enlarged heart

God must give us this

But guess what he does

Ezekiel 36:26 ESV

And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

This is what the gospel is, it is giving us a new heart new desires towards God.

When we do this wee can actually run in his commands

If you want to run in God’s commandments you need to understand the gospel

And you must know the command mentd

A vital aspect to our running, is diving deep into the word of God

This is literslly God’s word that is given for you

God, the reason for everthing, gave you this as a guide

why would you not want to run

And when we do we, (next slide

Confirming his promise 38

Have you ever doubted your faith

We need in our heart the confirmation of the promis of salvation

so we turn to the next stanza, the letter he

Psalm 119:38 ESV

Confirm to your servant your promise, that you may be feared.

We often fear the wrong things

I have in my own life and seen in the life of others

a fear of wondering if they are trurly saved

They are fearing the flames of hell

In the most simple way we can know if a person is saved if they have an affection for Chirst as his gospel

But living in this im not sure state is not great

If you are there tonight, if you love Chirst rest assured, you are in his hands, nothing you can do can seperate you

But that feeling of unsteadness, is hard to live with even if you are in CHirst hands

So run, don’t walk

Dive deep into his arms

I used to have doubts but when i daily read scripture, I am contunally more assured year by year, day by day

So what does it mean to fear God

What that sounds odd

GIve wave illstration

The same thing is the most epic anbd most dangerous thing, it all depends how you apporach

we must apporach God with a aw and glory, and eximent, but also a revrence a respect

Proverbs 1:7 “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.”

When we do this, and then read his word, the criptures become alive to us

We want that runners high you supossed get at mile 5

i wouldn’t know i never have ran that far

so let as run, so we don’t doubt,

and the first thing we can do, is to have a proper understand and fear of God, which we get when we read scripture

One last thing, let’s see what Paul says about running the race of faith

1 Corinthians 9:24–27 ESV

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

Run the race, i think alot of us know what we need to do

Most of us, know we should read our Bible’s

I like the song by Josiah Queen

We got dust on our Bibles, brand-new iPhones No wonder why we feel this way

Guys some of us are hear tonight, living as people who know Chirst, but rarly talk to him, prayer, but even more rarely hear from him, reading scipture

IF you are a chirstian and you feel anxious, scared, angrey, what ever

if you are not reading scipture, it is porablly why you feel that way

Don’t walk

Run

don’t let that bible get dusty

open the blessing within

Take aways

Turn to Christ and repent from your ways

Read scripture daily, to know his ways

Find an application each time you read scripture

Don’t live in your ways, i promise the ways of Chirst are better, i find way more joy know reading scripture, than i ever did looking at youtube

Read the Bible daily, i will hit this over and over again, i have never met a truly joyfull mature Christian who does not love and read the bible daily

Try to find on application from when you read scipture and apply it to your day

I will some times write a 24 hour goal right after i read scripture

Run the Race!

We are called to run this race, if you call Christ your Lord and savior, don’t live as someone who is walking, enter into the joy of being a runner

Your life will be changed, your desires will be changes, you will find joy in the places you never thought you could

TO know where to run we need to read the sciptures,

we should long to hear from God daily

So run the race!

Open the BIble on your own

lets pray