Book of Psalms - Psa. 17, Vs. 6-8

Good morning, we will be in Psalm chapter 17.

Again just a not a full recap from last week, but

essentially the the driving theme in Psalm chapter

17 is The prayer life of David

and the state of his being during his prayer life.

We have him calling out to the Lord for deliverance but before he

does that He ensures that he is in a righteous state then he

cries out to the Lord and he gains the ear or.

When you read further down in the chapter even the face of God he requests

God to pronounce his sentence and that that come forth from his face.

In other words He's wanting the favor of God

and he wants God's judgment to come from a place of favor.

He's asking the Lord to examine him and

Says that you won't find anything wrong with me.

Even if you continue to examine me because I've purposed that my mouth will not.

My mouth will not even Transgress so we're gonna be

starting in verse 6 again.

The last the last thought I had on verse 5 last week was about

a hold up my goings in my paths that my footsteps slip not and I reminded

us of the Study we did from a few chapters back talked about make my

feet the hinds feet.

So the idea there is that make me step where you step because a hind

Is a type of deer that can actually put its back feet exactly where its front feet land.

So when we see David

Here say hold up my goings in thy paths.

It's like let me step where you would step.

Because if we do that if we ask the Lord to have us go through a situation the way he

would go through it.

Then.

We know that we'll have sure footing so today what we're gonna do is we're gonna

expound a little bit on that concept on the idea of.

Looking more like Jesus when we are oppressed when we are

Wanting deliverance the importance of the righteousness that we should be striving for.

And how that's going to affect the prayer life.

Remember last week.

We also talked about things that can they can hinder your prayer life that can actually

cause you to.

Have your prayers hindered.

Ignoring scripture was one of those just sin in general.

Having unforgiveness for others.

Being selfish like asking that you may consume it upon your own lusts.

Husbands treating their wives poorly.

These were all specific examples that we brought out in scripture last week that can hinder your prayer

life.

And we talked about the importance of just being in a state of righteousness today, we're gonna expound on that just a

little bit.

And so we're gonna start with verse 6.

It says I have called upon thee.

For thou wilt hear me.

Oh God incline thine ear unto me and hear my speech.

Now the purpose of pursuing righteousness praising the God of

righteousness and then petitioning for his royal judgment is that

if we are in if we go about it that way and we start from a place of

righteousness and And recognize that that righteousness is not our own because

our righteousness is as filthy rags if we start from that place when going to

the father for Deliverance of any kind or for provision or for

protection, whatever it is.

We ask him for.

There are two things That are direct results of going it about it going about it

that way.

One.

You're most likely to gain favor when you are in right relationship with the Lord and

Doesn't stand to reason isn't it logical that if you Gain favor from

right relationship with the Lord, obviously, they're just having a relationship with the Lord.

Gives you favor.

It's just when we think of having favor we think of it as everything going right for us.

If you imagine that the Lord Or remember that the Lord chastises those whom he

loves right he chastens.

I should say those who he loves.

That is a favor in and of itself even when things aren't going well for us and our Relationship

isn't in right relationship when we're not walking in experiential righteousness.

We are experiencing the favor of God if he is trying to correct us.

Trying if he is correcting us.

That's favor, it's just not the way we think of favor, right?

We think of favor as things are going well for us.

And if we want things to go well for us Then there is this conditional

promise where if we are Abiding in him his words are abiding in us

then whatever we ask shall be done unto us and so

There's this idea of we gain favor Through a right relationship with the Lord, but there's another

thing that happens By having a right relationship with the Lord and that is that it gives us

confidence.

When we ask like the petitioner the person in in David's case here.

Remember he's the plaintiff in the court case.

He's saying I have a problem with these people over here.

So I'm the plaintiff pronounced judgment on this case.

Expecting that the Lord will look at all of the evidence, right and

Confidently saying you're gonna find nothing wrong with me.

He's got confidence in his petition to the Lord and so There

there's other scripture that directly references that confidence.

If you look at first John go to first John chapter 3 with me real quick.

And we'll just look at verses 19 through 22 and what you're gonna see is This idea of

confidence come into play.

But you're also gonna see a few other things that will be brought up in today's study so It

says in verse 19 and hereby we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our

hearts before him verse 24 if our heart condemn us God

is greater than our heart and knoweth all things.

Okay, so there's the favor of the Lord even when we're not in

You we're not in a perfect Relationship with him right like when things aren't going well and our

hearts condemning us because we're feeling a little bit guilty God's greater than that.

He can fix that right there.

We still have favor.

Look what it says that next though.

It says then It says a beloved Verse 21 beloved

if our heart condemn us not then have we confidence toward God and

Whatsoever we ask we receive of him because we keep his commandments notice how it's

like Cause and effect right like it's giving us the effect first and that is

Whatsoever ask whatsoever.

We ask we receive of him, but then it gives us the cost because We keep his commandments

and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.

So it's pretty clear.

Wouldn't you say that like There is an advantage that we gain If we keep God's

commandments if we do what he would he?

Commands us to do One we are more likely to get

what we ask for.

There's what we would consider favor.

But two we have confidence when we ask.

You all see that any thoughts on that so far?

No, all right.

Go to verse 7 in our Psalm chapter 17 now

verse 7.

I.

Actually before we go to verse 7 I have one more thing I want to To share with you all in verse 6.

I have called upon thee for thou wilt hear me.

All right, notice the confidence, right?

You will hear me.

I've David has already done his his little be do have thing that we talked about a couple of weeks ago

where He says hear the right right and he asks the Lord to listen to him

In three different ways, but he basically states that he is righteous that he's calling out to the Lord and

That he requests to have God's ear.

Here in verse 6. He's referencing what he's just done.

I have called upon thee.

All right.

So now I made my call out to you Notice that he says for thou wilt

hear me notice the way that's written

Like I Called on you and you will hear me.

Now, is that a you're gonna hear me right now immediately?

You are hearing me.

It may it may sound almost a little bit pretentious like not, you know, you're

gonna hear me maybe there's a little bit of that type of boldness, but I

think it's more of a feeling of trust like I Know you're gonna hear what I'm

asking.

But there's an element of patience there because I've called on you.

You're gonna hear me.

And so there's confidence, but it's also coupled with patience.

And I think that's an important thing for us to recognize is that if we are living righteously We

can go to the Lord boldly.

Confidently.

But part of that righteous living is we've got to have the part of the fruit of the Spirit which is long

-suffering patience.

Right.

So when we go to him boldly saying we know that you're gonna hear us.

We know that you're gonna see it our way because we're in right relationship with you.

We know that you're going to give us our petition.

But we're gonna wait on it.

And we know it'll come in your time might come in your way.

It might be a little bit different than we expect.

And here's what's interesting about verse 6, it's my favorite part of verse 6 is this last part

says incline thine ear unto me and Hear my speech.

Seems pretty redundant, right?

Seems like it's a Just saying the same thing over and over again.

Listen to me and listen to me.

But.

If you go and Look up.

In verse 6 if you go and look up the word for My speech

Here's what it means utterance speech word but this word Imrah is

often used to describe Word of God.

The Torah.

Okay, so When you read this incline thine ear unto me so

listen to me and hear my speech.

What kind of speech is coming out of his mouth.

These are words that will line up with God's words.

This is he's claiming it as his own speech.

But this word that he uses is very much in alignment with

the Word of God.

Which is so important like you have righteousness and It's reflected in the way.

He talks.

Remember He said that he he has purpose that his mouth shall not transgress.

It can't transgress if you are saying things that come from the Lord.

All right.

So whenever you are in right relationship with God the words that come out of your mouth are going to be

God's words.

It's gonna be words that he put there and they're not new words.

Necessarily, it's not like oh the Lord has given me a new word, you know.

Like the words that come out of your mouth will be in alignment with the written Word of

God.

In this case the Torah.

Any thoughts on that?

Why this morning?

All right, we still waking up.

Let's go to verse 7.

Show thy marvelous loving -kindness.

Oh thou that savest by thy right hand.

Them which put their trust in thee from those that rise up against them.

David here is simply asking God to be.

Who he is?

To do what he does and To have what he already has.

You see it's it's surprising to me that that teaching we learned about the whole be do have thing is

Really everywhere in Scripture, it's surprising and not surprising at the same time.

It's surprising because you just never really notice it until you start.

Until you start having it in your mind, you know, like what as you study through it's something That's just kind of back there and you go Oh, wait a

minute if it's here too and it fits there and it fits over here like that makes sense because God's Word

kind of all fits together as a whole and You're not gonna find an isolated doctrine anywhere.

It's gonna be throughout.

This is really cool to me because It's it's the whole be do have

concept, but it's not from man's perspective.

It's not like man should be this do that and have this this is from God's perspective.

Like David is asking God to be who he is to do what he does and to

have what he already has.

Don't you think that's probably the easiest request to say yes to?

Means it's super easy to be who you are.

Do what you do and have what you have like that.

Of course God is gonna say yes to that kind of stuff.

He is marvelous he's loving he's kind he does show this by

saving with his right hand the those who put their trust in him and

What does he have he has a people and he has an enemy?

Those are things he already has and The David's enemies are God's enemies

anyone who is against God David is against him.

He says I hate those who hate you.

Right.

There is another example of God's be do have found in Psalm 119.

If you'll turn there with me real quick.

Psalm 119 starting in

verse.

122.

It's a very long Psalm in 119 the longest chapter.

It's the middle of the book, yeah.

It's the longest chapter and It's actually there's a lot of good stuff in here, but we're

just gonna read three verses in Psalm 119.

It's another time when David's talking to the Lord and he he formulates his prayer in

this be do have Methodology in this be do have

formula here.

He starts off talking to the Lord saying be surety for thy servant for good.

Now as.

I get into this.

I.

I'm starting to see this.

I've been talking with brother Myron who first brought my attention to this idea of be do have and

He and I have nerded out over it a little bit like I've called him a couple times he's called me a couple of times where we're finding

it in other places and

What's really interesting to me is that this concept I don't want it to feel like I'm just

taking a rabbit trail because what we're seeing here in Psalm 17 is the importance

of righteousness in your prayer life.

Right like righteousness proceeding your prayers and your prayers being right in a right alignment

with God's Word so that when you ask you can have confidence and favor

in your prayer life, right.

So the concept of be do have is intricately connected to how to do that

all right, and what you're gonna see is that the concept of be do have from our

perspective is Intimately connected to the concept of be do have from God's

perspective.

And so what we're gonna do is we're gonna take Both perspectives here and show you how they kind of fit together.

Because when they when you've got them fit together and you recognize that concept from both

perspectives it helps you to understand How to be righteous proceeding the prayer.

Does that make sense?

All right, so Psalm 119.

Verse.

122 David is talking to the Lord again.

We just saw an example in Psalm 17.

Where he's there's kind of an implied be do have right here.

We'll see it again.

Psalm 119 verse 122.

He says be surety.

For thy servant for good surety is kind of like me be the protection be almost like the insurance plan.

Right, like you are you are the protection be the one who who

vouches for me the one who covers for me.

Like when I mess up you are the one that fixes it right be surety for

thy servant for good.

So there's a be he's telling God be this.

Then he says let not the proud oppress me.

There's a do right.

Like protect don't let the proud oppress me.

Mine eyes fail for thy salvation.

It's one of my favorite verses in the whole Scripture because it's like saying God's salvation is a

sight for sore eyes.

Like like this is the best thing I could possibly be looking at is God's salvation.

Like boy, do I need that right now, right?

And for the word of thy Righteousness.

All right.

So there's the concept of righteousness here again.

Here's another do Deal with thy servant.

According unto thy mercy.

So make sure that whatever you're doing Lord.

It's coming from the place of mercy and Teach me there's another do teach me

thy statutes.

It's interesting that when we first see this concept in Genesis, it's God

Telling man be fruitful.

Then he tells him three do's.

Multiply replenish the earth subdue it.

Those are three things to do and then have dominion over it here.

We see David speaking to God and he says be sure it e.

Basically protect let not the proud oppress me a deal with thy servant accordingly.

There's two dues and then thirdly teach me thy statutes.

So we see God's be and then three dues for God and then God has a half what's

the have according to verse 125 in Psalm 119.

Okay, there it is.

I am thy servant.

All right, so God has a servant.

He has a servant and he said and and then there it goes right back in to do because this Concept of be do have is actually

a cycle be do have do be do have so he says give me.

Understanding that I may know thy testimonies.

All right, so you go wait a minute, but that doesn't say God has something you're kind of you're kind of.

Just implying God has something because it says I am thy servant makes sense from a logical standpoint but

that's kind of the point that I'm trying to get at see the way the the

Concept of be do have from God's perspective and from man's perspective fit together

is exactly that David says I am thy

servant.

God has a servant but David is The servant and what

you learn from this is that God's have is our be.

Right, so God has a people that speaks directly to our identity who

we are and so if you're going to come to the

Come to the father and ask him for something you got to know who you're asking

and you got to know what you're asking and You got to know if you are qualified to ask what you're asking.

Like.

Would you have a peasant or a slave of some sort come to the

king and Ask the king Please behead One of

the one of the Dukes for me.

Like that's not gonna happen.

You don't have you are not.

As a peasant you would not be Qualified to ask for such a thing,

right.

And So in order to get the prayers answered

You've got to be in right relationship you got to have the authority structure proper, right.

And You got to recognize who it is.

You're asking what it is.

You're asking and Who you are doing the asking so it's very

important to understand the whole Who are you in Christ?

God has a people and Specifically he calls us his children, right?

He has children.

So there's God's have we are the children.

So we our identity our being is rooted in God's having.

There's more to this.

God's doing is our having.

All right.

Notice in this verse it says let not the proud oppress.

So that's something God would do he would protect.

What would we have?

Protection.

Because of what Jesus did on the cross first what he did leading up to the cross lived a perfect

life.

Then he died on the cross.

Died a sinner's death.

Because of what he did we now have Salvation.

So God's being.

I'm sorry.

God's having is our being.

God's doing is our having.

What do you think?

God's being is.

What is it directly connected to.

If God's Having is directly connected to our identity our being.

If God's doing is directly connected to our Having what is God's being

directly connected to.

Could it be our doing?

Let's take a look.

Apart from me you can do but.

All right, that's.

Away from my presence, right?

I can do all things through who?

Christ who strengthens me.

So God's being is Directly connected to our doing.

We can't do anything without him being with us and.

So when we recognize that God's be do have is intricately

connected to our be do have We begin to understand how?

Important it is to have that right relationship with the Lord and that's why it's so incredibly

Cool to me that when David says hear my speech his speech is

actually God's speech.

Right.

So like it is God Who works in us.

I've got another verse here, let's see if I can find it

might have it a little bit later.

If God be here's another one.

If God be for us.

If God be for us Who can be against us?

All right.

So think about what God's being actually does for you in your doing.

You know how the scripture tells us that we are more than conquerors.

Right.

We are more than conquerors.

What does that even mean?

Have you ever wondered like what is more than a conqueror?

Because.

Maybe like a king but it doesn't a king become king by conquering.

So even a king would be considered a conqueror a conquering king.

So what then would be more than conquerors?

I?

Was pondering this the other day because it was actually last night.

I was like, that's a weird way to phrase something.

What does it sound like to you when you say more than conquerors?

Maybe creator, but what does it mean for you?

To be like I'll tell you what it means to me when I just read it.

I go.

Okay.

It means better than a conqueror.

It's better.

I don't know what better than conqueror is when it comes to my own personal walk with Jesus.

I want to conquer, you know, like I want to have a victorious Christian life.

There's Matt's answer right there.

That's it nailed it.

Here's why.

I.

Got a fly that's gonna bug me now, right?

Yeah.

Okay, okay good.

So Matt in case you didn't hear online Matt said could it be that we are above the whole experience of

conquering I Mean if it's better than conquerors.

Do we even have to conquer see a conqueror?

Has to outdo his enemies.

That's how he conquers.

Hmm.

Yes.

So Ben just expounded on the same thought as what Matt said.

Matt is you are above the concept of conquering.

You're above that experience.

And Ben says, well, think about it like we already own everything because we are joint heirs with Christ, right?

And because we are joint heirs with Christ, he owns it all.

Therefore, we own it all.

And there's nothing to conquer.

If there's nothing to conquer, that's better than having to be the conqueror who has to go and get something he doesn't

currently own.

Because that's what conquerors do.

They go and obtain what they don't already own.

And that's exactly what we're experiencing here because a conqueror has

to make his own doing overcome the doing of others.

Right?

Like you think of someone like Alexander the Great who went out and just conquered.

He would overcome people who were trying not to be overcome

or he would overcome people who were trying to overcome him.

And he would win the battles, right?

But his doing was greater than their doing.

So he gained this status of being a great conqueror.

But we're not conquerors.

We are, if you will, connectors with the Holy Spirit.

We're connected with the Holy Spirit.

And when we do that, when we hold on to the Holy Spirit's hand and we are in right

relationship with God, then we are acting within the identity of

God's children.

Right?

And he's done it all already.

The Holy Spirit trumps the being of others.

Right?

When we are connected to God's being, that trumps the being of other people.

So when the scripture says, if God be for us, who can be against us?

It's implying no one even has the ability to start with identity

from which their activity and their property stems from.

Right?

So like the enemy can't even be.

And if the enemy can't even be, he certainly can't do.

So there's nothing to conquer because you got nothing to overcome.

That's pretty incredible when you think about it.

Like it's already been done.

It's when we forget about that identity that we have in Christ and we begin to strive

with our own power that suddenly we try to overcome.

And because we try to overcome, we try to conquer, we are actually

stepping down from being more than conquerors.

And so when we step down, that's when we start to mess up and we go, I

don't even feel like I can conquer this.

You ever had something where it's like, ah, I thought I had this beat and now I don't.

And it got me.

Well, it's because you're not acting as a more than conqueror.

You're acting as a conqueror.

You're trying to go and conquer it.

And you can't do it in your own power.

So if the enemy can't be, then they can't do.

And if they can't do, then they can't have victory over you and me.

The conqueror must strive, but we are more than that.

We are all called, instead of to strive, we are called to abide.

What does it mean to abide?

To live in, right?

And get it, Ashton, you got this.

It's on Matt's head.

It's on Matt's head.

Get it.

That fly, it is going down.

So I want to talk a little bit about this concept of abiding, because

to abide means to live in.

So when we have this scripture verse that says, if you abide in me, what

does that mean?

Live in the being of Christ, right?

Live in his presence.

Live, like, within his proximity.

Get real close to Christ.

And if my words abide in you, that means

my words should have life in your proximity.

They should have life in your presence.

And this is really important because Jesus looked at the Pharisees and said, you search the scripture, for in them

you think you have eternal life, but they are they which speak of me.

What does that mean?

It means, like, you can't even go and just read the Bible and memorize verses, and

you can memorize the whole scripture, and it can be absolutely, utterly useless to you if the

words that you've memorized have no life in your personal daily walk.

Like, they should come alive.

They should be active.

They should be working.

They should be transforming your actions.

They should be transforming your thoughts.

They should be transforming your speech.

Like, every part of your being should be transformed

by God's word.

I might need a bug.

Sorry, I got him, but it's kind of gross.

Victory.

I'm listening to Matt here.

I didn't have to do anything.

I'm just more than conquering this fly right now.

Okay, just a wet paper towel or something.

I'm going to

respond the

way the Word of the

Lord.

I'm guilty of that, and I'll go in and out of doing that, but the times where I really stay on top of it,

it really does transform everything around me.

Yes.

So Matt's talking about, like, for those of you online, just allowing the Word to

have life, to him means just subjecting himself to the Word.

Like, when I say to myself, I am going to

respond the way the Word tells me to respond.

I'm going to think the way it tells me to think.

And putting effort towards making your words God's words, making your thoughts God's

thoughts, making your actions God's actions.

Remember the whole Heinz feet thing.

That's the same concept.

Like, let me step where you would step, right?

Where you already step.

Yeah, where you already, that's good.

Where you already step, because you've already been through this.

Yeah.

That's really good, Matt.

In fact, I think I have a note on that, but that's good.

Okay, so if we're supposed to abide in

Christ, let's get back to our Psalm chapter 17, and let's

see just what that actually looks like.

This next verse in Psalm chapter 17 describes that in a

unique way.

David in verse eight says,.

Now this is a phrase that we still use today, right?

The apple of my eye or the apple of your eye, that kind of thing.

What does it mean?

What does it mean to you guys?

Now, some of y 'all, I did a Devo on this for Tradeway a couple of days ago, so you might know where I'm going

with this, but if you haven't heard that Devo, I'd like for you to try to answer

this.

What does it mean, the apple of the eye?

Yeah.

Which is, it's very much that, right?

It's not improper to use it as the center of attention.

Something that you enjoy.

So an apple being something pleasing, right?

So when David says the apple of the eye, then you would think

what he's saying is keep me the center of your attention right now, please God.

Keep me the thing that brings you joy, like find pleasure in me.

And to some degree, that's exactly what it means, but it's even cooler than that because when you look up,

did you have another thought there, mom?

Right.

So some have actually used this phrase to mean the

pupil of the eye, like the center of the eye that you use to focus.

It comes from an old Hebrew idiom that means the little

man in the eye or the little man in the reflection.

And what it denotes is, have you ever been standing really close to someone and really focusing

on their face and you're talking with them, maybe a spouse, and then you really hone in

on the eyes and you actually see yourself in their eyes?

Like you can kind of almost see your reflection.

That's what this phrase actually means, seeing yourself in their eyes,

which requires you being extremely close, being extremely

focused on their gaze, and it usually only works best

when they are looking directly at you.

Yeah.

Now think about what that means when David says, keep me the apple of the eye.

We tend to think David is meaning, oh God, I want to be your favorite.

God, I want to be your focus.

But what it's actually meaning is David would have to be close enough to the Lord

and near enough to his face and so focused on what God's looking at and hopefully in this moment, it's

God looking at him that David sees himself in God's eyes.

Yes.

Yeah.

Well, yeah.

You can't really see that reflection when you're moving, can you?

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

So mom brings out the idea that you got to be still to really see that

reflection in somebody's eyes.

Like if you're moving around, you can't really make it out.

But when you get real close, real still, and real focused, that's when you see it.

And so it reminded her of the scripture that says, be still and know that I am God.

David here is talking about the little man of the eye, the reflection that I see in you,

in your eyes.

So when he says, keep me as the reflection in you, that's literally what he's

saying.

Keep me as the apple of the eye, he's saying, keep me as the reflection in you.

So there's God's presence, right?

We have to be close enough to see ourselves in that presence.

And if we have received the Holy Spirit, he already sees

us in him.

So that's what's another interesting part about the way David phrases this, keep me

as the apple of the eye, right?

You would almost think with the way we read it, that it should say, help me keep you as the apple of

my eye, right?

Like, help me be so focused on you that you can see your reflection in me.

But he already sees that if you belong to him.

Like that's the positional righteousness piece there.

How do we know?

Go to, I've got a verse here.

Is it 2 Timothy, I believe?

No, I'm gonna have to minimize something so I can pull it up.

It is, yeah, 2 Timothy 2 .13.

This will show you that because you have salvation, you

have already asked the Lord to be your Lord, right?

He has already regenerated you.

He's caused your desire to change that you would want to call on the name of the Lord.

And so now you are belonging to him.

You're one of his children.

When you are, even when you are in wrong relationship with him, when you are in a sin and you have

not yet repented from that sin, he still sees himself in you.

How do we know?

2 Timothy 2 .13.

Somebody read that to me.

Okay.

If we believe not, yet he abideth

faithful for he cannot deny himself.

In other words, when you are not walking in right relationship with him, he stays

faithful to you.

And the reason he stays faithful to you is he can't deny his spirit, which he has put inside you.

He already sees his reflection in you.

That's the positional righteousness, right?

So in a sense, he is already the apple of our eye, but our experiential

righteousness comes when we see ourself in him, right?

When we begin to walk closely with him, so close that we can see in God's

word and in God's presence ourselves.

And that requires being still.

It requires us being disciplined.

It requires us being close, right?

And so we have the positional righteousness.

That's taken care of.

God did that.

Right?

Matty Grace wrote a paper for school the other day and it was great.

It was something having to do with the will of man and the sovereignty of God.

And she literally ended it with a sentence.

That just said, God did it.

And I was like, yeah.

But it was really cool because throughout her paper, she's talking about how the two work together.

They're not diametrically opposed.

Like the world, the flesh and Satan would have you believe.

I mean, churches are destroyed over this concept that these two are diametrically opposed.

And it has to either be that man has a will or God is sovereign.

And both are wrong.

It's not just God is sovereign, so man doesn't have a will.

And it's not just man has a will, so God isn't sovereign.

It's that they both work perfectly together.

Man has a will, is responsible for every one of his choices.

And God is sovereign and has control over man's desire to

exercise his will.

And so when God changes our want to, as Pastor David says all the time,

that's when we find ourselves drawing close to him and have experiential

righteousness is what comes into play when we do that.

So we don't draw near enough to

examine ourselves.

Remember, David talked about how, God, if you examine me, you will find nothing.

He also said that, or we talked about how when he said that,

he had confidence in that because that means he would have had to self

-examine, right?

So David has a self -examination going on, and that's why he's confident that God will find nothing in him

because he's examined himself.

Here is when he talks about keeping the apple of his eye, right?

Keep me the apple of the eye.

He's drawing close enough to examine his own reflection in the Lord.

We don't do that.

We don't look for our reflection in his eyes.

We tend to focus more on the other side, and that is, does God see us in him?

The answer is already yes.

If you belong to him, he already sees himself in you.

That's not the thing that's gonna help you with your experiential righteousness.

I mean, it certainly can help to know that.

It can help you feel washed.

It can help you realize, oh, I can get back in right relationship with him.

So it can help in that sense.

But the thing that we're supposed to be striving for is seeing our reflection in him, being

in an examination state of ourselves.

So what's ironic is we don't do this because we can't do this unless we have God's help.

We need God's help to do it, which is why it is important that we ask for that help, that we

seek his face, which, by the way, is how we get to repentance.

That is the way you get to repentance.

Chronicles.

If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves, pray,

turn from their wicked ways, and seek my face, then while I hear their call from heaven,

will come and heal their lands.

Humbling yourself is recognition of a higher being.

It is putting yourself in proper lineup of that authority.

Like Matt said earlier this morning, praying is what we do to communicate

our understanding of that higher authority and the authority structure.

So first, we subject ourselves to the higher authority, we communicate our understanding of

that higher authority, and seeking God's face is seeking the favor of

God by examining ourselves and looking for areas in our own lives that don't

look like a reflection in God.

Seeking his face is drawing near enough to him to examine ourselves through his viewpoint.

This is what delights the Lord.

There's the verse I was looking for earlier.

God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good

pleasure.

You see that?

If it's his good pleasure, don't you think you're going to get favor from him, but it's also still a work he does in you.

During salvation, he gives unto them repentance.

That's what happens, right?

We meekly instruct those who oppose themselves that God, per adventure, would give unto them repentance.

Once we receive it, we are also imbued by his Holy Spirit.

His being is then with us, and we are then given a spirit of power,.

Of love,.

And of sound mind.

We have the ability and love for God's word to begin to control

ourselves and walk in repentance where before we did not.

We didn't have that ability.

So what makes it all work?

The presence of God.

Presence of God and us connecting with that presence is what makes us get to the point where

now we can have confidence that our prayers will be answered.

So ask him to keep you the apple of the eye because that's his

doing, too.

His doing is our having.

We can have favor because of what he's done.

Any other thoughts before we close it up?

Because we're out of time.

Yes, ma 'am.

Oh, I love

that.

Yeah, the pupil...

The eyes are actually the fastest healing part of the body, too.

Yeah, a lot of people think it's the mouth.

It's actually the eyes.

I have a doctor friend who told me that.

And he's actually an eye doctor.

And so the fastest healing part of your body is your eye.

Well, think about what that implies when it comes to being close enough that

you can see your reflection in the eye of God.

Like, in the eyes of God.

Like, you will experience much faster healing of whatever areas you're trying to conquer

because you then get to the plane of no longer needing to conquer.

It's already been conquered.

He conquered it.

You just run to him and ask him to take care of it for you because it's done.

It's pretty cool.

All right, any other thoughts?

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word.

We thank you that it's truth.

We thank you for just how many levels deep we can go with it.

Like, there's just always something new to learn from it.

And, Lord, we ask that you help us to align ourselves and subject ourselves to your word.

You say that you exalt your word above your very name.

So it is so very vitally important.

Lord, help us to be kept the apple of the eye.

Help us to examine ourselves and draw close enough to you to see if we are in alignment with you.

Lord, we ask also that you give us reminders every single day of who we are and whose we are

so that we can begin to live as more than conquerors.

We love you, and it's in your name we ask these things.

Amen.