Book of Psalms - Psa. 17, Vs. 3-5

Park Meadows Church

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All right, well, let's get started Last week we started Psalm chapter 17.

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Remember we've backtracked from Psalm chapter 18 because Accidentally skip Psalm 17.

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I didn't skip it. I I read through it and did a study on it. Oh That's true, that's true.

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Well, I totally messed that up I was gonna not say that Ben can you cut that out of the recording that way?

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No one will ever know There is the date, oh well

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Well, so I've backtracked to Psalm 17, which is okay because in Psalm 18 we see

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David delivered from his enemies in Psalm 17, we see him praying for deliverance for God to Come to the rescue so to speak to pronounce judgment.

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He has asked God to send forth his judgment from his presence and And One of the things that we were looking at yesterday or the kind of the to sum it all up not yesterday last week

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Was just the proper way to go to God asking for deliverance and one of the first things that we noticed is that David is the right

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In other words he has Worked on being righteous and we too should work on being righteous if we're going to ask

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God to deliver us from something sometimes the things that we ask to be delivered from Could be the things that God is trying to use us to turn back to him or to head more towards righteousness

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He'll sometimes use situations To Get our attention and get us more focused on him because maybe we've pulled our attention off of him

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So he says here the right. Oh Lord attended my cry. So we see he has become righteous

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He is a righteous person. So we have a be do have here. His do is that he cries out to the

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Lord We discussed how crying out to the Lord Has kind of this double connotation.

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There's this almost sad desperate feeling that But there's also a joyous Praise type feeling to it.

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And so anytime we are feeling the the desperation of needing help from God We should work towards being righteous and towards actively praising him for his righteousness that he's given unto us and then

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After that be and do we have the opportunity? to request Having God's attention on the problem that is at hand and That's where it says give ear unto my prayer, right?

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So David is wanting to have God's ear. He wants to have his attention

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We we moved on down through verse 3 last week some other things we pulled from it just to remind you

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He said let my sentence come from forth from thy presence one there's the the idea that it's coming from the face of God and I mentioned kind of towards the end of the lesson yesterday that the having

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God's face towards you having God's face shine upon you is often

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Used as a way to show that you have God's favor So When you look up the word presence here, it's often or it's in this particular case

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It is being used as let it come forth from your face from the in front of so David is not only asking

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For God to give him his attention. He's also asking for him to give him his kind of his face his favor and He wants his sentence

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Like judgment on this case that David is brought as the plaintiff in the case to be pronounced from that place of favor and It's interesting they says let my sentence because the judge is going to not just say

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Oh, yeah, you're that servant that I love and favor. So the other guy is guilty. That's not how he works

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He looks at all the evidence which is why it's so important that David starts from a place of righteousness and He realizes he knows that in this judgment that he's asking from the

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Lord the Lord's gonna examine him as well and That's where David starts changing his terminology towards even though he's complaining about someone else

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He's like, but you've examined me and you you might even continue to examine me and you won't find anything

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Wrong with me here. So he says let thine eyes behold the things that are equal and Then burst or he says thou has tried me and shalt find nothing

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So in other words you're going to You're going to even if you keep

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Examining me you'll see that I am righteous and we kind of we ended On verse 3 that has proved mine heart that has visited me in the night

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That has tried me and shalt find nothing I didn't actually finish all of verse 3 pop pointed out that I didn't that I'd left off the end and I didn't really mean to but it kind of worked out for the best because I Wanted to spend a lot more time on the end there and we were out of time

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So this week we'll start off with the end of verse 3, but we'll just read through verse 3 one more time

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Thou has proved mine heart that has visited me in the night remember the

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Visiting him in the night is kind of like saying, you know me It's like if you went to spend the night at a friend's house you are in an environment then where their guard is let down and They They are in their natural habitat.

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So you tend to to get to know them on a more personal level when you go Just spend the night at a friend's house, you you know them in ways that you wouldn't have known them.

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Otherwise Because they tend to act a little bit more themselves when they're at home and at night

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David is saying that's how you know me like, you know We more like myself when the facades down when the outward appearances are not as well cared for you know me like that like you spent the night and And Spurgeon I shared a

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Spurgeon quote last week about if we are Righteous we look forward to that kind of stuff.

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Not only do we enjoy Knowing God and having him know us in that more intimate manner

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But we really look forward to him knowing us more and spending the night more often if you will

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And then he says that has tried me and shall find nothing So you're not gonna find anything wrong with me.

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He really hammers this idea of I'm the righteous one in this situation

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And that's because it's so important to be in that state if you're asking for the

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Lord to judge someone else, you know, it's the same idea as Remove the plank from your own eye before you go get the speck of dust out of your brother's eye

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So David is trying to really bring that out like I am righteous and The reason why that's important is that if you're not you might not receive the kind of favor that you're hoping for in The scenario that you that you're looking to absolve or to resolve

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So my question this morning to start us off Kind of has to do with the end of that verse which of course is

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I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress But it has even more to do with it than just that what kind of things would keep us

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From experiencing the favor That we hope to gain when asking the

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Lord for something There's the good the easy answer there right so sin it's kind of all -encompassing right but there are there any specific sins that we are given examples of that have that direct effect

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Or Okay, so it could maybe be a sin of pride maybe pride would be something that that would

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Kind of put a block Between us in the favor of God. What's interesting is that there there's some schools of thought that no

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No, you always have God's favor and in some respect. That's true. I mean you're his child even when my kids are

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Disobedient or when they do something bad, you know, or when they do something that's disappointing to me they still it's not it's like I had there's an element of my favor that they

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Cannot escape right and it's very true of God because we are his children

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That we we always have access to favor like it's always there, but there are certainly times when there's like a double portion of favor that I bestow upon my kids because They've just been so good, you know

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And they've done something that they showed me that they're obeying that they're doing The things that I've trained them to do that kind of stuff and I think the same is true for the

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Lord like there's definitely a A cause -and -effect type relationship

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What that we have with the Lord where if we are in right relationship with him? Things tend to go well with us, right?

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Not always. I mean, there's you can always have The exception to the rule which is like Job, right?

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He was in absolutely right standing with the Lord But God had a different plan for Job To show that it wasn't because of the favor that That he was bestowing upon Job that Job worshipped

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God Job worshipped God because that's what Job was created to do and Then he also got favor

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Maybe added favor as a byproduct of that worshiping and that's kind of what

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God was proving to Satan in In that little time of history there

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So pride could be one if you go to the Lord saying I'm the righteous one, but you're not really but we also have to keep in mind

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None of us are truly Experientially righteous our righteousness is as filthy rag.

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So we do have to lean on the grace that Jesus gives us. What else? Unforgiveness.

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Okay. Now you've hit on one that is actually listed as being something that It has a direct effect on our prayer life

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Any others that you can think of that? Unthankfulness, okay so We see in Romans chapter 1 the product of not

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Regarding God as God and neither were they thankful right for this reason God gave them over unto uncleanliness, right and so we see because of what they

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Were unthankful for because of their unthankfulness There is a cause and effect

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God gave them over To uncleanness and then there that cause and effect just snowballed got worse and worse and worse

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Until ultimately they were a reprobate mind Let me let me read a few of these off to you

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That that are in scripture. We'll start with the all -encompassing one sin. All right, so in Isaiah 59 1 through 2

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You have behold the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save Now imagine praying to the

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Lord save me from this oppression. Save me from this unrighteous person and You get a response

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What if your response was the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save neither his ear heavy that it cannot hear

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Remember David in the Psalms is asking God for his ear Here in Isaiah He can hear it's not that he has a heavy ear that he can't hear

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It's not that his hand is short that he can't help like he's absolutely capable but watch verse 2 but your iniquities that sin have

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Separated between you and your God and your sins have hid his face also often known as favor from you

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That he will not hear That's a scary situation right But what is that?

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It's the iniquity. It's the sin that has made it where okay Obviously God cares about if you're gonna come to me asking me for some help

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Why don't you work on you first work on righteousness? right

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And so we have an example of that here in Isaiah Notice the phrase your sins have hid his face from you.

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I Have often read this verse and thought God has hid his face because of sin

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That's not how it reads It doesn't read that God hid his face. It reads that your sins hid

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God's face from you So think about what that must be like if God's face is is there the favor is available

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You don't even have the ability to see it because you've got sin in front of you

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Your your focus is sin So imagine asking for for God's favor.

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Imagine asking for his hand in his help but You can't see where the favor is where the hand is

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I Imagine the the most practical example of how this would play out would be asking

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God to help you in a situation and The answers may already be right in front of your face

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But you don't have the ability to recognize the answers that God has already provided because of unrighteousness

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So That would hinder your ability To feel like you you're getting your prayers answered wouldn't it?

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Does that mean that the answers are not there though? Not necessarily.

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Yes Right Yeah Sure Hmm that's an interesting example

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Okay, so nephew Cooper three years old knew he'd done something wrong.

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It's something that my sister had been Working with him on for quite some time and He still did something wrong and he came asking for mercy but he still had to suffer the consequences of the action because he needed to learn the lesson and the

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Consequences helped him learn the lesson. So maybe that happens with us too, right? We still suffer the consequences

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And That may not always be the case, right? Like we can ask for mercy and maybe we just get it from the

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Lord I mean, that's what mercy really is, right? You're not suffering the consequences that you deserve

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We certainly got that when we got saved and here's an interesting side point

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Think of it. Think of it like this If our sins have the ability to hide

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The face of God from us, it's not that God hides his face. It's that our sins

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Hide our ability to see the face of God How then can anyone?

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choose God when they have yet to be saved They can't choose them.

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They can't even see him. It's impossible, right? So you you already have plenty of scripture and Lots of examples before our salvation experience how you can't see

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God. It's impossible You don't have the ability to choose him because you don't even know where he is.

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You don't know how to see him So unless God opens your eyes supernaturally Your sins have hid his face from from you now

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Once you are saved you have the Spirit of God and dwelling in you and because of that you now have

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A new type of access because the Father always sees you as perfect and that access gives you the ability to ask for forgiveness, right or to ask the

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Lord to wash you of all uncleanliness and it says that he's faithful and just give us our sins and Cleanse us from all unrighteousness, right if we will confess the sins, that's all it says

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It's not even asked is saying that we ask for forgiveness. It just is confess them So in other words once you're saved

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You have the ability to confess what you've done wrong and God is just to go and cleanse you of all unrighteousness.

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I imagine that Unrighteousness is very thick and muddy makes it hard to see God's face

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It makes it hard to see his favor. So we ask him to cleanse us of that so that we go Oh, yeah, that's the direction

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I'm supposed to be going and so praise the Lord. He gave us the ability to to do that right and Then commands us to do it.

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All right, so sin definitely hinders our prayer life It gets a little bit more

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Specific in Scripture about sins that can hinder your prayer life in Psalm chapter 66 Which we'll get to eventually because we're gonna go on right through the

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Psalms in verse 18 It says if I regard iniquity in my heart, the

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Lord will not hear me Now regard here is an interesting word

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Because it it's like it's almost like you're ignoring what you know to be good and true and right and Instead putting your love and attention on iniquity so You might would say that a specific sin

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That can hinder your prayer life. It's just ignoring Scripture, which makes sense

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Because we have God's Word so many people go on I'm waiting from a word from the

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Lord and they won't go and read his word, you know and so that right there can be a hindrance to their prayer life because they they want a personal interpretation they want

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God to speak to them and give them a new word Because somehow that makes them feel like they're more holy or whatever if they receive a quote -unquote new word.

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They better hope That they have the discernment to realize that's not really how God speaks right now

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He speaks through his son right and through his word And so if you're getting a new word, you better be careful about what that new word is

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So to know what to do and instead of loving God's Word I love the sin and pursue wickedness

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Nonetheless that makes it where the Lord's not going to listen to my prayers.

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So what again? What do we do? We work on? Righteousness when we come before the Lord Unforgiveness is one that pop brought up if you'll go to mark 11 verse 25,

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I believe is where it is Unforgiveness is specifically mentioned and when you stand praying

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Forgive if you have ought against any That your father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses

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Now we know we ultimately have Forgiveness from the Lord we have the ultimate sacrifice in Jesus and that we are forgiven for our sins and that this this is kind of It almost feels like a

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Transitionary thing although this is in the New Testament because there was very much the whole idea of Going to the temple

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Asking for forgiveness go there's other scripture that talks about if you're getting ready to sacrifice leave your

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Sacrifice at the altar and then go and be reconciled with your brother before you come to do the sacrifice

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And so there's this Transitionary thing going on here because with Jesus he is our sacrifice

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All right, we don't we don't have a sacrifice that we necessarily leave it necessarily leave at the altar but what's interesting here is that We have

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Jesus who gives us these two greatest Commandments love God love others

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How amazing is it that if we're going to the Lord asking for forgiveness to get right with him?

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He says why don't you go deal with the people part first like he even a he he

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Commands us in some scenarios go deal with that First Now that doesn't seem like it's in the right order.

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Does it wouldn't you think it should go God first? People second because when they asked what is the what are the two greatest

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Commandments or what they said? What is the greatest commandment? He said it's love the Lord your

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God with all your heart time soul mind and strength And the second one is like unto it love your neighbor as yourself

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So why then would Jesus have us go like put the sacrifice on hold

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Or in this particular scenario if you're going and asking for forgiveness from the Lord Why would you why would

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God tell you to put that on hold and go deal with the people first? It seems backwards

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Okay, but but is that putting the relationship with man before the relationship with God?

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Pop says no, okay Because he said go do it and if you go do it, okay

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Very close to the answer. I'm looking for yes, sir Right.

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Well with the sacrifice. Yes What we're reading here, which is in Mark chapter 11

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It's an example. It's not actually talking about a sacrifice. This one is for when you stand praying

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Forgive if you have ought against any that your father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses

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Okay Right, yes

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Yes It's kind of yes

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No, no, no, you you pretty much nailed it. So here's here's the the the correct way of looking at this and Right That's exactly right so Pastor David shows that Mark 11, even though it's in the

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New Testament This is still Jesus right and he's and he's giving The correct way to do things and this is prior to His death on the cross the

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Pentecost where we receive the Holy Spirit What he's showing is an Old Testament Methodology but there is a secondary application to us in the

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New Testament and that New Testament secondary application is that What was that picturing well, even when

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God in the Old Testament said go be joined with your brother first What he's actually doing is the moment you begin to go do that you're getting in right relationship with the

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Lord Through the obedience. So then when you come back to do the sacrifice or in this case ask for forgiveness

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What you're actually doing is you're saying? All right, I am aligning with you.

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It's a lot like when you do Discipline with your kids right maybe spankings when they're little

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You're the spanking is designed to get them to yield their will to you. Well if you're doing what

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God told You to do by going to your brother and dealing with that you are at that point yielding So it's not just words.

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God, please forgive me. It's not just I'm trying to systematize it like we talked about last week.

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You can't just say well I I sacrificed and so God has to forgive me. You have to have a yielding to his lordship right and say oh,

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I I am supposed to do what God told me to do and by doing so I'm showing him

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I'm in right relationship So then when I say Lord forgive me It's already a foregone conclusion.

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Of course, he's gonna forgive you. So it's not it's not like you can make him forgive you by By forgiving someone else that's not the thing.

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It's not like okay. I went and said I forgive it's that you yielded to his lordship And so there's true repentance is what that is, right?

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Yes So So so Mom brings out the idea that if you're going to do something hardly as unto the

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Lord it you're actually doing it as God's representative and what's happening at that point is you're you are a

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Picture right when you do something hardly and as unto the Lord you're doing a picture Of what

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God would have you do right like so this so the others go Oh, that's what God looks like soon as some some cool preacher once said

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You may be the closest thing to Jesus someone ever sees, you know Maybe I don't know but I'll tell you this

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There is something to that that warrants closer study think about Saul on the road to Damascus right

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Saul is on his way to kill Christians and God Jesus right shines on him

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Saul why do you persecute me? And what does Saul do? What's he say to the

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Lord? He says what would you have me do right first?

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It's who are you and he says I'm Jesus of Nazareth who you persecuted and he says Lord What would you have me do at that point?

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He's yielding that that's the yield right there and then comes the process of The whole justification and sanctification

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But what happens is it was done to him because he wasn't going to go and do it

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Right until the Lord opened his eyes and said oh, I'm the one right that's when he yielded

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So it's really a cool picture of the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man coming together at the same time

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We're seeing that again here in this methodology That Jesus gives right now

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This is post -salvation, right? Well in in reality in this in this particular scenario, this is pre -salvation

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This is like Old Testament stuff. But what we're seeing is a picture right yield and then

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Justification kind of come in at the same time if you will, right? In New Testament now that we have the

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Holy Spirit when we go to the Lord asking for help in a scenario There's yielding and then there's deliverance that come in together it's very much a contingent thing

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So there's unforgiveness Selfishness is another one in James chapter 4 verse 3 says he asked and received not

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Because he asked amiss That ye may consume it upon your lusts

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So you're asking God for help, but you're really doing it for completely selfish reasons so you're missing the point

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All right, so that could hinder our prayer life The way husbands treat their wives specifically is

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Called out as something that can hinder their prayer lives 1st Peter 3 7

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Likewise he husbands dwell with them according to knowledge giving honor unto the wife

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As unto the weaker vessel and As being heirs together of the grace of life that your prayers be not hindered so Even the even the way you teach your wife and the way you you treat your wife has the potential to hinder your prayer life 1st

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John 5 14 through 15 tells us and this is the confidence that we have in him that if we ask anything according to his will

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How can you ask according to his will if you are not submitted? to his will All right, so you've got to be in submission to his will in order to ask according to his will

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If we ask anything according to his will he heareth us And if we know that he hear us whatsoever we ask we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him

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What is it that david is asking of? hear me Right first. I am righteous.

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I am in alignment with your will Right now I'm crying out to you hear me

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Psalm 37 for delight thyself also in the lord and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart

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All right, so we're going to finish up verse 3 real quick in our psalm chapter 17

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Passage and we may get another verse or two down because we got a couple of minutes left. So um

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The end of this verse says I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress.

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So up until this point we have david's Showing I I have examined myself.

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I believe myself to be righteous in an alignment with your will i'm submitted I am

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Uh, not just submitted. I'm also committed All right, you're not going to find anything wrong with me

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And here he's saying I am purposed That my mouth shall not transgress.

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What does that seem to mean to you guys? Okay, his intent is

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My mouth shall not transgress. Why does he say that? what's Actively trying to follow god

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Okay Okay But with what what's he using sam? What's he using there?

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I am purposed that my mouth shall not be transgressed. What's he using? His mouth his words, right?

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And so what does it mean that my mouth shall not transgress Think of the context

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I am a plaintiff against this guy right And I am submitted i'm in alignment

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I'm praising you for the righteousness that you've given me And the righteousness that you have i'm crying out to you out of desperation.

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I'm not just submitted. I'm also committed that I that you will not Find anything wrong with me and my mouth will not transgress

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Let me just throw that in there What does he mean? There you go.

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He's bridling his tongue. Who's he bridling it against? Exactly the enemy so he has an enemy that he's a plaintiff for Is the enemy unrighteous?

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Yes Is he righteous? Yes, does that give him license to speak ill?

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and to Be careless with his words about his enemy. No In fact, that'd be very unwise

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And that's what that's a trap that so many christians fall into because I am experiencing righteous indignation

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I'm gonna let them have it I'm, right. You're wrong and you're gonna i'm gonna we even brag about it.

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You know what I told him I told that guy off I just told him off because I was right and he was wrong and you know what he said

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Can you believe he said that to me? So I told him off again And what are we actually doing?

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We're acting from a place of pride There's no wisdom in it and often what happens is your own words will end up being used against you so later if you find yourself in a situation where Maybe you're not the plaintiff.

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You're the defendant now. You've you've been careless with your words in the past And it's gonna come back to bite you

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David understands this and he says look i'm in the right But i'm going to be very careful about how

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I talk about this situation about the enemy So not even my mouth will transgress

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Purposed in this In this verse is in the perfect tense

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Which is like it's one and done like it's no I am that is I am purposed like this is

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What I am created to be like like it's not like i'm going to act like this for a time and and i'm going to in this particular scenario only

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Bridal my tongue because I got to be careful He says I am purposed that my tongue shall not transgress sometimes

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We might go. Okay. I'm in a bad situation And so i've got to be extra careful how

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I talk and some people do that they're like, okay now this is serious So I got to be extra careful how I talk Why would you be extra careful?

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You should always be extra careful With the way you use your words If you want to stay out of some of those situations be purposed that your tongue shall never transgress

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In this particular scenario david is talking about the scenario But it's interesting that he says

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I am purposed It's not like In this scenario My tongue shall not transgress.

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It's like I am just that way my tongue won't transgress So when you're spitefully abused

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When you're wronged by others when you're taken advantage of When your pleasantness is returned with unpleasantness

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When you're passive aggressively attacked by those who smile at you in public And stab you in the back in private

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You may indeed be the innocent party You may be found in the right you may readily invite the truth into the situation like david does hey i'm ready for the judgment

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To come forward from your presence You may decide the best thing that could happen would be for the oppressor to be found out and then

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You might just maybe a little bit revel in that thought Of justice being done to your enemy and perhaps even be tempted to rail against your enemy carelessly

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To call them out to speak ill of them In the presence of others It would be justified in the eyes of man

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Everybody would say oh, yeah, you you have the right Would not be wise in the sight of god

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So we have to learn to bridle our tongues even in these situations Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying that it may minister grace

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Unto the hearers everybody anybody ever notice? That grace is used there

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You don't let corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth Because it will administer grace to the hearers

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What is grace? Undeserved favor You don't deserve for me to bridle my tongue

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You don't deserve for me to be careful in the way that I interact verbally with you

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But i'm going to do that because it administers grace under the people who are our enemies even

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Why because Verse 30 there and grieve not the holy spirit of god

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Whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption so even how we communicate in the

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Situation where we are the oppressed How we talk to the enemy could hinder

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Our relationship with god Think about that david is It's amazing they say that he's a man after god's own heart because He really is very wise

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That's a level of wisdom that many of us probably Only hope to attain it's very hard to have

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A bridled tongue with when you know, you're in the right and the other guy's in the wrong. You just want to tell him off All right, so let's get to another verse before we're out of time verse 4 in chapter 17 concerning the works of men by the word of thy lips

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I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer now in light of what we've been discussing righteousness first crying out to the lord

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Asking for his ear You'll find nothing if you inspect me, right?

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You have found nothing. You know me you visited me in the night You won't find anything if you continue to inspect me my mouth will not transgress

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Now whose mouth has got is david talking about? in verse 4 concerning the works of men by the words of thy lips

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Now he's talking about god's mouth, all right, so my mouth i'm going to shut up I'm going to make sure that I don't say something that will transgress in the scenario, even though i'm the oppressed i'm gonna

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I'm gonna hold my tongue And by thy words by the word of thy lips

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I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer We have fallen victim to this idea of open and honest communication

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If it's true, it has to be said there There are times

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When Saying something true Will not make the the situation better.

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Oh, no, but dave true truth always Is is good to speak truth coupled with meekness, maybe truth coupled with gentleness

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But we don't do that we go oh i'm true i'm i'm speaking truth so I can just Spew it out because it's true and we're very

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We're very we're not very careful with the way we talk the only way we can defend against that is

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God's help like let god do the talking I have had to work really hard on this particularly with my sisters

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Like because I mean we we've always been We've known how to push each other's buttons right

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And when we were younger man, we just Our words would fly out and and it would just be like Who can who can get the better gotcha, you know i'm right and you're wrong and i'm i'm gonna spew it all out like I have tried and I have also failed at this with my sisters

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I can remember one phone call with barbara in particular

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That I have repented for because She she called there was

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I don't even remember what it was about I just remember that there was conflict between me and her

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And she called and I had purposed in my heart. I thought I am not going to let that happen between us and I was doing pretty good for about 30 minutes

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Like a record for me About 30 minutes I was not transgressing with my mouth, but man something happened and I was like I have

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I apologized to her later for it I remember that but it it still

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But it still bothers me that that happened because I tried I failed but I tried well So, what do you do you try again?

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You you try to do better next time But it's only by the words of god's lips let god do the talking well, how do you let god do the talking respond with scripture

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Kindly gently Or like what pop used to tell us when we were little if you got nothing nice to say say nothing at all

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Okay That's that could be applied here Just shut up and let god do the talking

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Don't talk for a while And just let the lord work on their heart pray for them

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Go to the lord. That's what david's doing here. Notice. He's not talking to the enemy. He's talking with god Go lord pray and ask god to work on their heart.

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Yes Yeah That's really good

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David has called uh god his rock or his defense. That's a good point because you don't need to defend yourself

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You don't need to do that. God's your defense. So just be quiet. Let him do the talking So let's consider what david is saying here based on his being purposed when it comes to Manish manly works right concerning the works of men.

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I have kept off the path of the destroyer But I have only done so Because of and by your word all right, so there's a complete dependence on i'm gonna let god do all the talking here because I mean think about what he must feel as a man

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If if this was written when saul was chasing him he's only ever done greatness for saul

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He's never done anything wrong to him and He's got to feel just so taken advantage of And and back stabbed and betrayed

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And so if he goes and tries to talk to saul He might just say all the wrong things he could end up being beheaded by the the king

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Like it's just not smart so instead he goes to the lord and lets god work on it

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Uh verse five, this will be the one we we end on I really was hoping i'd get to hear hold up my goings in thy paths that my footsteps

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Slip not I'm gonna read it one more time hold up my goings

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In thy paths That my footsteps slip not we have studied something in the psalms in the past that this reminds me of can anybody

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Think of what it is Wasn't that long ago, but it's it's been a minute

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Remember make my feet the hinds feet Remember the hind is the deer

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That when it runs its front feet are placed in its back feet It has the ability to put its back feet exactly where its front feet are so you only see two tracks

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And so when it's running the back feet end up right where the front feet are And when david asks make my feet the hinds feet, it's like let me step exactly where you step

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So here it's hold up my goings in thy paths It's a similar concept that my footsteps slip not you what's great about that deer that hind is that When When the front feet land it knows it's got sure footing

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So when the back feet land the back foot feet are guaranteed sure sure footing as well Because it's exactly where the front feet were

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If you don't want to slip up In a in a situation where you are going to be oppressed going to be the victim

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And you don't want to end up Ruining your innocence in that situation

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You have to ask god. Let me step through this path Let me step through this situation

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The way you would because god's not asking us to avoid the situations Right.

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There's just two different paths through conflict There's god's path

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Which will have sure footing? And then there's satan's path, which is the path of destroyer

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The path of the of the destroyer will always end up where the relationship is hurt more

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The relationship is destroyed But you were speaking truth so I was in the right so they just broke fellowship with me it's all their fault well

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It may be true that they want to break fellowship because They they do not want to be aligned with god

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But how many relationships have we sacrificed on the altar of truth? When in fact

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If we go to them in meekness Instructing those who oppose themselves that god for adventure would give unto them repentance

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And if in love and with gentleness We put our feet where god tells us to put them there may be a chance that The relationship over time can be restored

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Or we can just say nope, we can't walk together because we cannot be agreed So we'll fix it in heaven and we'll be pretty lonely if we do that here on earth so anyway, so that's that's uh, psalm chapter 17 verses we got through verse four and five today and Anybody else have any other thoughts before we pray and dismiss?

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All right. Let's work hard on being righteous and being aligned Our hearts aligned and our feet aligned with the lord so that our prayers are not hindered and our relationships are improved

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Huh Guard those tongues. Yep guard the tongue. All right, let's pray heavenly father.

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We thank you for your word We thank you that your words have the ability to become our words

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Help us to yield our words to yours Help us to bridle our tongues

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Which we can only do If we will hold on to your hand And that's a moment by moment thing.

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I experienced that like I said I tried and I got into the flesh in that one conversation

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I had and I let my tongue be unbridled and it didn't work

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So father help me to be better at it Help all of us here to be better at it and in doing so to step and put our feet where you would put yours

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So that we can walk through difficult situations through troubling times and through relationship problems

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And come out on the other side with stronger relationships uh better times

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And just improved lives or we love you. We thank you and it's in your name. We ask these things.