The Word of God is our Source

Introduction:

Pump up

Bridge: I believe the answer to our question is found in Psalm 119:25-32 . Go ahead and turn there now and while you’re turning there, I’ll catch you up on this Psalm. Intro to Text:

Literary Device: Wisdom Literature

Psalm: Hebrew: “Praises” (Book of Praises and Prayers unto Yahweh)

Style: Acrostic Poetry (Aleph-Tav): 22 stanzas, 8 lines per stanza

(Groups of 2 of 3) Developmental and Contrastive Parallelism

In today’s passage around 5 different terms for the Word of God (precepts, commandments, law, judgements, testimonies)

Canonical Context: Longest Book in the Bible and Longest Chapter within that book READ Scripture HERE:

May God add a blessing unto the reading of the Word of God. When you leave tonight if there’s one thing I’d like you to take away its the very truth that I believe the Psalmist makes clear in this passage: The Word of God is our source. REPEAT HERE Remember (LifeUnderstandingStrengthDirection) L.U.S.D Division Statement 1 The first way that the text reveals that the Word of God is our source is that it gives us life) Explanation: “My soul clings to the dust” He begins this portion of the passage by describing his current state of being. He states that His Soul clings to the very clay from which he came. This is a metaphorical statement that invokes the imagery of a man lying in the dirt, (lifeless, weak, distraught and destroyed) in other words the Psalmists opens this passage by communicating that he is spiritually dying

“Revive Me according to your word” The phrase revive me occurs 9 times throughout this chapter like a scarlet thread holding it together. Each time it is directed at Yahweh as the Law Giver who prescribes his law as medicine for life. The Psalmist asks God to give him life by the power of His word. Illustration Testimony: The beginning of my troubles started with the lifestyles of my father and mother: drug dealer and dancer What it consisted of:

the raids by the task force

the physical fighting

the drugs

the money

losing the home

Lost my grandmother: first time I felt like my soul was clinging to dust So I turned to football for comfort, it was the only thing that had been consistent, the only thing that hadn’t faded away, the only thing that I found comfort and joy within.

Got to high school: had a conversation with CC: knew it was the only way I could possibly get an education Prayed and worked hard, by a miracle got noticed after the season and got some football offers Accepted one and went to Linsborg, KS but 3 months into school I got in a fight and got kicked out of school

Came back home and got a job (second time I felt my soul clinging to dust) , and began making money and didn’t want to return to school. But I knew deep within my spirit that the love of football had not left me and that I needed to fix what I had broken. Got another opportunity to play ball and worked my way back unto the field and into a starting position.

In the climax of an opportunity to resist my past and change my future, I played in the first game and I broke my hip, an injury that most players don’t return from. I couldn’t sit up in bed, use the bathroom or even cough without being in excruciating pain I couldn’t put my clothes on by myself in the morning, I was totally dependent on others What had happened? This paired with a bad relationship breakup was the next time I had felt my soul clinging to the dust I was battling depression, suicidal thoughts, i was enduring an existential crisis and the culminating events of my life had left me spiritually dead. It was then when I recognize that God had allowed me to fall because I had consistently denied him in my heart and with my actions, but even though he let me fall, I realized as I lied on my back, and my soul clinged to the dust, and all the distractions of the world around me were no longer my focus, but I was broken and low enough to finally look up, It was then that I realized that God had reached his hand down from eternity to offer life to his adopted son. I remember accepting his offer, giving my life over to him, receiving his spirit and yet still struggling with the patterns of sin that I had formed in my life, and I remember that it wasn’t until I began to devotionally read and study the bible and apply it to my life and walk out its instruction that my spirit would come back to life. Argumentation Is there anybody that can testify that when they look back over their life and they remember the life they had former to Christ, and they can His Soul cleaves to the very clay from which he came.

The Word of God is the spiritual engine to our Box Chevy. Its the energy to our

Division Statement 2 The second way that the text reveals that the Word of God is our source is that it reinforces us (gives us strength)

Division Statement 3 (gives us understanding)

Matthew 11:29 Take up my yoke and learn of me: for I am meek and lowly in heart, then you will have rest in your souls

Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and Lean not to your own understanding

Division Statement 4

The third way that the text reveals that the Word of God is our source is that it (gives us direction)

Proverbs 3:6 In all thy ways acknowledge him and He will direct thy paths.

Your will becomes in subjection to his Word and you begin to lay his Word before you. He lifts us when we’re lying weak. Align our Path to His precepts

Somewhere the Psalmist realizes that his will won’t suffice and its the statutes of His Savior that will sustain Him.

The thing that I love about the structure of this stanza of Psalm 119 is that he poetically flips the script. In verse 25 He begins saying His soul clings to the dust By verse 31 He’s no longer clinging to the dust, but He’s clinging to God’s testimonies At the beginning of the stanza he says I have confessed the path I’ve been taking, by the end He says I shall run the way of your commandments. At the beginning he says his soul weeps because of grief but by the end he says the Lord will enlarge his heart. You see something happened within the Psalmist in between verses 25-32. I believe the Psalmist intentionally does this to show that something happened deep down on the inside of him. See when he encountered the word of God, it strong where he was weak, filled where he was empty, whole where he was fragmented.

Its something about the word of God if you’ll just Pull on its Power in your time of despair, you wont close your bible the same way you opened it, you wont leave the revival the same way you came in, you wont go to sleep the same way you woke up. The word of God will lift you up and establish you on solid rock. It will cause you to mount up like the wings of an eagle, you will run and not grow weary, you will walk and not faint. The World will tell you, you need drugs, sex, money and power. The world will attempt to convince you that you need the perverse prescriptions of the same to deal with your pain.

Notice towards the end

There is a total reversal of the psalmists previous state of being Where before he was clinging unto death, he’s now stuck on the Word of God Where before he was lost and wandering by his own will, He has deliberately chosen God’s Word and God’s way. Where before his soul was weak and immobile from his grief, He now is alive and running the way of the Lord’s Word.