Worship for Sunday, July 12, 2020

There is a popular computer game, widely available in practically every format and on every device, that teaches an important spiritual truth. This may come as a surprise to those who see no value in computer games. This may come as a surprise to those who play this particular game. It should not come as a surprise to either party. Our world, created and sustained by God, is governed by spiritual principles. Everything around us has a spiritual component. Books, movies, music reveal some aspect of the spiritual world. Sometimes it is overt and obvious. Sometimes it is subtle and only those with eyes to see and ears to hear catch it. This is an important and, I would say, foundational Christian principle. Pray that the Holy Spirit would give you eyes to see and ears to hear the spiritual in all of life. We are told that it is thee: Romans 1:19-20 - 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. Everything that is part of creation reveals something of the nature of God. As human beings, we have sometimes twisted and marred the things created in such a way that God's presence seems to be no longer evident. Even that has a spiritual lesson - There is nothing so beautiful that human beings cannot destroy it. The game to which I referred is called Minecraft. I will not take the time to fully explain it to you this morning. There is one feature of gameplay that I want to lift up in connection to the verses in Psalm 119. A couple of notes of explanation are necessary for you to understand the important spiritual truth this game teaches. Minecraft is a building block, life simulation game. Day progresses to night and night dissolves into day. At night, in the dark, the creepie-crawlies, called mobs, come out. They are bent on killing you and destroying all that you have built. Exploring the world at night is dangerous because of the creepie-crawlies and the chance of falling off a cliff or into a deep hole. A good defense is to craft a light source. Staying near a light source minimizes the number of creepie-crawlies that show up. It also allows you to identify the ones that are there. It also allows you to see the dangerous cliffs and holes. There is, however, a problem with light sources, and this is where the spiritual lesson comes in. You cannot carry a light source with you to light your way. Light sources are placed and remains in that fixed position. In addition, the light dims as you move further away from it. If you want to see what is going on, you need to remain near the light. This is what the Psalmist teaches us in Psalm 119:105 - Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. All of Psalm 119 is designed to teach us the value of God's Word. This section reminds us that it is our light. There are spiritual creepie-crawlies and spiritually dangerous terrain out there in the darkness. We can find ourselves stumbling around in that spiritual darkness if we do not stay near the fixed point of light which is the Word of God. James 1:13-15 - 13 Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am being tempted by God," for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. 14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. Notice the progression: 1) Temptation comes from desire 2) Desire leads to sin 3) Sin grows into spiritual death In one of our devotional readings this week, Dr. Tripp gave the progression this way: 1) Desire (I want...) leads to demand (I must...) 2) Demand (I must...) leads to need (I will...) 3) Need (I will...) leads to expectation (God should...) 4) Expectation (God should...) leads to disappointment (God didn't...) 5) Disappointment (God didn't...) leads to anger 6) Anger leads to abandonment If we do not stop and check our desires, our wants, against the fixed point of God's Word we begin to go down a path that leads us further from the light and deeper into the darkness. In that darkness we find the spiritual creepie-crawlies bent on our destruction and the dangerous terrain that can cause us to stumble and fall. Going back to the passage in James we see the place God would have us inhabit. James 1:16-18 - 16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. 17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. 18 Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. Do you see the connection? That which is good - useful, beneficial, fitting and perfect - complete, everything it is intended to be - comes from God. God is described here as the Father of lights. He is said to be unchanging - a fixed point. We are products of the word of truth. We are also told that Jesus, the embodied Word of God, was called the Light of the World. In fact, he identified himself that way in John 8:12 - Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." His coming into our world brought light to our world and when we are in Christ, we are in light. When we are not in Christ, we are in darkness. And our connection to His Word makes all the difference between walking in light and walking in darkness. How then are we to remain in the light as we journey through this life? I think the remainder of the verses in our passage from Psalm 119 give us a pretty good idea. I want to look briefly at each verse and see how they help us to anchor our lives on the word of God. Verse 106 - I have sworn an oath and confirmed it, to keep your righteous rules. The first key is to commit ourselves to God's Word. It may seem simple to say that to be a biblical Christian you need to commit yourself to God's Word, but it is amazing how many do not. It is easy to allow our traditions, our politics, our convenience to take the place of God's Word in guiding our lives and decisions. It is often easier to read about God's Word instead of reading God's Word. The commitment that is called for is to take in God's Word, allow it to shape us and live it out in our lives. Verse 107 - I am severely afflicted; give me life, O LORD, according to your word! The second key is to turn to God's Word in times of difficulty, so that it can give expression to the prayers of our hearts. The individuals who are at the center of so many of the stories of the Bible were certainly not immune from the afflictions of life. Job, Paul, David, and many others knew the struggles of life and give us both hope and challenge as we read about how they faced those struggles. In the midst of his suffering, Job could declare, (Job 19:25) "For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. While he was in prison in Rome, Paul could write, (Philippians 1:12-13) 12 I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, 13 so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. The largest single category of Psalms is lament. Very often, even as he struggled with the difficulties of life, David turned from lament to praise. Listen to one example from Psalm 13 - 1 How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? 2 How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? 3 Consider and answer me, O LORD my God; light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death, 4 lest my enemy say, "I have prevailed over him," lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken. 5 But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. 6 I will sing to the LORD, because he has dealt bountifully with me. When we turn to God in prayer during our struggles and ask Him to give us a life according to His Word our despair can turn to hope and our struggle can turn to praise. Verse 108 - Accept my freewill offerings of praise, O LORD, and teach me your rules. This leads us right into the third key to remaining in the light. When our perspective is changed from despair to praise, we once again recognize the value of God's Word. When that happens, we ask the God to teach us His Word. In the first step we committed ourselves to the Word. This has little value if we do not learn the Word. We pray that the Holy Spirit would enlighten the eyes of our hearts. Paul's prayer for the church at Ephesus can become our personal prayer Ephesians 1:15-19 - 15 For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, 16 I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, 18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might Verse 109 - I hold my life in my hand continually, but I do not forget your law. The fourth key is to remember how fragile life is. We don't like to talk about, or even think about, our own mortality. If we keep in mind that we are eternal beings, not temporal beings, it can change to focus of our lives. At the end of a teaching where Jesus talked about food and clothing, about birds and lilies, about God knowing everything we need, he gave us this verse: Matthew 6:33 - 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. It is when we cling closely to this world and the things of this world that we lose our way. We drift away from the light of God's Word. Our desires become needs. Our needs become entitlements. Our entitlements become disappointments. Our disappointments dissolve into the darkness of anger with God for not following us down the path we wanted to walk. When we recognize that this life is but a blink of an eye in relation to all of eternity, we can draw our focus back to the place where God has revealed what it means to live life in relationship with Him here and for eternity. Verse 110 - The wicked have laid a snare for me, but I do not stray from your precepts. The tricks and traps of the enemy are many and varied. They are often well-camouflaged. When Paul was warning the church at Corinth about false teachers, he said that they disguised themselves as apostles of Christ. He said that this should come as no surprise 1 Corinthians 11:14 - 14 And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. The fifth key, then, is to cling tightly to what we have learned from God's Word. Compare what you are being taught to what the Bible, all of the Bible has to say. Become Berean in your learning, examining the Scriptures to see if the teaching stands up to the precepts of God. Verse 111 - Your testimonies are my heritage forever, for they are the joy of my heart. The sixth key to remaining where the light shines most brightly is to make God's Word your treasure. I want people to say of me, the Bible was his heritage and the joy of his heart. John Wesley is often quoted as saying that he was a man of one book and a student of many. Remember what I said at the beginning of this message that everything around us has a spiritual component. When we make God's Word our heritage, we develop the eyes to see the spiritual in all of creation. Verse 112 - I incline my heart to perform your statutes forever, to the end The seventh and final key takes us back to the beginning. Remaining in the light is an act of the will. We incline, or bend, our hearts, the place where decisions take place to live in the light of God's Word. We commit ourselves to do so, not just for the moment, but forever. God's light is available for every area of our lives. However, it is a fixed point. His Word is unchanging. His truth is unwavering. If we want to keep away from the spiritual creepie-crawlies, we need to remain firmly attached to His Word. That requires: 1) An act of the will 2) A willingness to turn to it, no matter the circumstances of life 3) A hunger to learn from it 4) A desire to live it out. When we do these things, we discover that the Holy Spirit enlightens our hearts so that we gain understanding from God's Word. The eyes of our hearts are also opened so that we see the spiritual in all of life. We learn how to live this life in a way that prepares us for all of eternity. My prayer for you, as well as for me, is that God would put within you such a hunger for His Word, that you will not be satisfied with anything less or anything else. LIGHTING THE PATH PSALM 119:105-112 Page | 2