Hold My Life in My Hand

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Am I supposed to do something here? Okay, good evening again.
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I have a little more time tonight, so I want to ask you to go back into the 119th Psalm, and tonight we'll try to look at two verses, and because we have a little bit more time, I want to try to open it up a little bit further and just think about some things that I think are important to think about as anything else in God's word.
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But we'll look at verses 109 and 110 as we've been working through Psalm 119.
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Let me just read it to you.
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In verse 109, the psalmist says, my life is continually in my hand, yet I do not forget your law.
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The wicked have laid a snare for me, yet I have not strayed from your precepts.
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My life is continually in my hand, yet I do not forget your law.
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And the wicked have laid a snare for me, yet I have not strayed from your precepts.
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And I think it is good to look at these two verses together because they do have a connection.
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And so let's try to enter into the heart and the mind of the psalmist.
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It's not just his words.
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But again, as I remind us over and over again that when we read the Psalms, and in particular as we continue to go through Psalm 119, that we realize that these are the experiences of a man of God, of a man who has multiple issues.
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And that he's not just some professor sitting in a tower somewhere and just kind of setting out doctrine.
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But these are the utterances inspired by the Spirit of God, yes.
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But these are the utterances of a man with real life experiences.
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And so you and I should be able to enter into his thoughts because to him it's personal.
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And I want to say that as we look at this and as we continue to think about it, unless we take the word of God and make it personal, I really don't believe it will have the effect on it that it ought to.
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In other words, if we just read the word of God as if we're just reading an encyclopedia or a book or even, if you will, a dissertation, it's really not going to help us.
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We really need to take the word of God and make it personal and use that personal experience to make the applications in our life.
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And so I do think that as we read this, hopefully we will see more and more that the psalmist is a man and he's expressing his heart.
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I'm going to tell you, I had this.
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I was going to say this next week because we were going to look at it.
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And I know you might think I'm strange, and I probably am.
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But so are you.
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So we all are.
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But I went and I counted how many times in Psalm 119 that the psalmist says, I.
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I went through the whole psalm and I counted how many times the psalmist says, I.
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And the reason why I did that is because I wanted to see for myself and prove to myself that what I'm thinking of, that to him it's very personal, is true.
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And so given my eyes are fairly accurate, although I do struggle with it a little bit, I counted 137 times in Psalm 119 that the psalmist says, I.
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That's not including how many times he says, me, or my, or other things that would denote that he's speaking in reference to himself.
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But 137 times in this psalm, he uses the word, I, both in his expressions about the word of God and his experiences that are connected with it.
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So he says, my life is continually in my hand.
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And I want to point out and ask us to think about a couple of things in that thought of certain things that the psalmist realizes when he makes this statement, my life is continually in my hand.
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The first one is this, that David, who is the psalmist at this point, that David realizes the brevity or the shortness of his life.
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When he says, my life is continually in my hand, that he realizes how short, how brief his life really is.
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That he knows that his life, if you will, could end within the blink of an eye.
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Now, I ask us to think about this because it's important for us to think in a right way because it's simply the truth.
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Whether we're a believer or an unbeliever, our lives are one breath away from eternity.
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Remember even in James, where James corrects them for thinking that tomorrow we'll go to such and such a place and we'll do such and such a thing.
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And he says, man, how do you even know you're going to be here tomorrow? That's a loose translation of what he says, but I think that's the heart of what he says.
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So when you and I, when we see, when the psalmist says, my life is continually in my hands, that you and I would realize that he has some understanding of the brevity of life and that he knows, in a sense, that he's like the grass to the field because that's the analogy that the scriptures use, right? It's kind of neat this time of year.
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I don't know about you, but I cut my own grass.
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And I'm really happy that the grass is starting to die.
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And I'm not having to cut it every three days.
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Now I can get six days out of it or seven days out of it before I feel compelled that I got to cut it.
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But you know, that analogy is so true of the brevity of life.
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You think about it as far as the grass and how you plant the seed and it begins to grow.
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And then before you know it, it pops up out of the ground.
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And then it's green.
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And then it fills in.
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And then it seems like it's strong.
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Yeah, St.
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Augustine grass, it could be a blessing and a curse, by the way.
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But it seems so strong.
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And then by and by, what happens? It starts to fade.
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It starts to wither.
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And then as time goes on, it's gone, right? And that's really, friends, that's just God's testimony how our lives are continually in our hands.
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I was thinking about, I was wrestling with my grandson not too long ago.
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And now he's, this one's 13.
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He's 185 pounds, and he's a rock.
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He takes after my son, the firefighter.
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It's his son.
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So I was wrestling with him.
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Because, you know, I mean, I'm the poppy.
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I should be able to handle them all, right? So I'm wrestling with him.
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And we're going around.
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And I could still take care of him.
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But it's becoming more and more of a struggle.
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So and as we finished, he looked at me.
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And he's such a sweet kid.
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He looked at me with a smile, a nice gentle smile.
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He says, poppy? I said, yeah, Noah? He says, you're starting to go downhill.
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Oh, man.
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And he was right.
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Because that's really, think about it.
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When David says my life's getting, that you and I would realize that is really the truth, isn't it? We really are, in many ways, you think about even as children grow and as their growth plates allow them to grow to a certain point, right? That's how they recruit college football players.
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They go to high schools, honestly.
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That's how they do it.
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And they measure growth plates in wrists and in knees and in legs, in certain joints.
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And they can tell how big, or they can estimate how big someone is going to grow to.
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I remember a couple of kids that got recruited out of high school because of that fact, because they determined that when their growth plates finished, they would be 6' 6", 6' 7", 6' 8", whatever it was.
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My whole point is that there is, if you think about it, there's a growth that we all experience.
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And that, if you will, there's that point where we, he'll be back.
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He'll be back.
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OK.
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But listen, think about it.
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My life's continually in my hand.
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We all have to face that, that we really are here.
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But for a blink of the eye, and I think that that's one of the realizations that he has.
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To many, I think that would be a pretty morbid thought.
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To a lot of people, that whole idea of living, getting old, and passing on, to them, they'll say, well, why do you talk about things like that? That's morbid.
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That's sad.
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But friends, that's the truth, right? And really, if you think about it, how could it be said for the child of God who knows that in that day, whenever that day would be, as his breath leaves him from this life, he's ushered into an eternal state, right? So when someone tells me that's a morbid thought, then that tells me where they're at.
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That they're really not looking far past this world.
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And you've really got to be a fool, in that sense, not to consider that.
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In other words, you can't live forever.
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And people say, well, no one lives forever.
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But do people really ever consider it, that their life could end in the twinkling of an eye? And they're fools for not considering that.
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Let them go ask Jesus.
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Because Jesus, he said, I was dead.
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I'm alive.
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I will live forevermore.
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So that's one realization from when he says, my life is continually in my hand.
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And then the second thing I wanted to ask you to think about was this.
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Not only when he says that, does he mean the brevity of life.
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But he also, he's considering the fact that he'll never really find a resting place.
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My life is continually in my hand.
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And then you'll see it in verse 110, where the wicked have laid a snare for him.
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But David realizes, to a certain extent, that he's never really going to find rest here.
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And I think that's important, again, for us to realize.
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That he knows his life is going to go forward.
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He knows his roots will not last forever.
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And if you think about it, just think about it.
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How many people that we know that are spending all their energy, all their time, and all their effort to try to build for themselves a resting place? And it comes in a whole lot of costumes, whether it be a retirement fund, or whether it be the house they always wanted, whether it be this or that.
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But that there is this desire for people to secure for themselves, if they could, a resting place in this world.
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And again, I don't want to be misunderstood.
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I'm not saying that we shouldn't think about those things.
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But for us, because our life is continually in our hands, because we realize that in that day, we will enter into eternal bliss and eternal glory, that you and I would be just like the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Because you remember what he said.
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He said that the foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have their nests.
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But what? But the Son of God has no place to lay his head.
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Because he came to complete, to fulfill, to do the will of his Father who sent them.
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And in that sense, you and I are here for that very same purpose.
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What is the chief end of man? The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.
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And that you and I would realize that not only is our life physically continually in our hands, but that we will never really find that place of true rest until we ultimately find rest, not just in Christ, but in that day when things are finally, completely, eternally set in order.
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Again, people seek to find rest in this world because this world is their only hope.
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Remember what Paul says? If we only have hope in this world, we are of the most miserable of all people.
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Right.
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Brother.
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I think it might be a crude example, but you don't have to watch TV too long to find a commercial for some surgery to make you look younger, or some cream, or all different kinds of things that people put out to last longer, to live longer, to look more youthful, or whatever.
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People are always trying to look, and feel, and live longer.
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Yeah.
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And in that sense, thank God that we are allowed, even by God's grace, and mercy, and medically, scientifically, a lot of things, our lives get extended.
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And again, I'm not against that.
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What I'm saying is that we need to realize that ultimately, this is not our resting place.
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That we are, sooner or later, I don't care how much Botox we shoot in ourselves, or how many pills, and I don't do Botox.
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No matter how many pills we do, or no matter what we do, that sooner or later, by and by, because of the curse, because of God's judgment, the wages of sin, physically, is death.
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I think we should be able to grow gracefully.
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Well, sure.
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Grow old gracefully.
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In the Lord, of course.
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All right.
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And even in the Psalms, it talks about the old people, and it says that they will even bear fruit in their old age.
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And the whole idea that the hoary head brings glory.
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But at the same time, you could have a hoary head and be a fool, too.
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Right? Bro? So yeah, so I think I have the opposite problem.
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Because one of the things I've been struggling with lately is I'm not doing enough.
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And I'm like, man, I'm wasting my time.
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My yardstick's getting shorter.
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I'm wasting my time.
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I'm not doing enough.
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And I'm always concerned about that.
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I feel lazy.
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And I don't want to be lazy.
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You got the right woman to keep you from being lazy, brother.
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Yeah.
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She'd probably keep us all going.
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Brother Lee? The way 109 is worded, it sounds like there could be a conflict with in you, we live and move, we have our being.
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He's not saying that he's the master of his soul and the captain of his fate.
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But the way it's worded, is there a different translation? I read, my life is continually in my hand is the new King James.
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I read it, but I forgot.
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What does the ESV read? ESV says, I hold my life in my hand continually.
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Yeah, I think what he's saying is he realizes that there are those things that are against him, in a sense.
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Not that he's self-sufficient.
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I don't believe he's saying he's self-sufficient.
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But there are things in his life that are holding him.
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And he realizes that they're holding him, to the point that he realizes that basically his life is in his, it's a breath away from being gone.
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So I think there is a combination of different thoughts.
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One, that he realizes the brevity of life in general, as we talked about.
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Two, that he realizes he's never really going to find a resting place.
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And then let me suggest a third way that he realizes.
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He realizes that he's continually under attack from enemies.
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My life is continually in my hand.
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And we know that about David.
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David spent a lot of time on the run, didn't he? He was constantly warding off this one and fighting off that one.
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Certainly, as Saul pursued him.
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But he realizes, when he says this, that he is continually under attack from his enemies.
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And I don't want to interrupt it, but I think that might be the reason for the ESV's translation there.
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It might be trying to give a modern expression.
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Because if you say to somebody, you're holding your life in your hands, what you mean is you're going into danger.
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You're saying, you're taking your life in your own hands.
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And that's sort of the vision you have here.
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He's in that situation of always being surrounded by enemies.
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So it might not be so much of a sovereignty of God issue as just in the situation that he's in.
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Yeah, and I think verse 110 will bear it out, where he says, the wicked have laid a snare for me.
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Right? And again, knowing the experience of David, that he was, if you will, he was a mocked man, right? He was one.
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I mean, even as a young man, even his brothers, in their treatment of him, they were somewhat enemies to him, if you remember.
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But what I think David realizes, and what I think is important for us to realize, along with the other points, is that we would realize that we really have to redeem our time.
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And you just brought it up, brother.
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In other words, remember what we're told.
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Paul says that we are to redeem the days and redeem the time.
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Why? Because the days are evil.
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He says we are to walk circumspectfully.
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If Jesus said, don't be anxious for tomorrow, for tomorrow be anxious for itself, then what does he say? Sufficient unto this day is its own evil thereof.
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That's probably a King James memory version of it.
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But the point is, what I think is important for us to realize is that we're here but a short time, like the grass of the field, that we would realize that this is not really our resting place, and that we would realize that we are surrounded by enemies, that we are continually, if you will, we're continually on the run, that we really need to redeem our time.
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And there's lots of ways to do that.
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Don't get me wrong.
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I don't necessarily think just sitting with an open Bible means you're redeeming your time, right? There's many ways to redeem your time before God.
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But that you and I would realize there really is no time to waste.
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Our time is but short.
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David says this, and this is in 1 Samuel.
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You can look it up, 1 Samuel 20.
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David says that there is but a step between me and death.
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And that was true in David's life very vividly.
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Basically, there were times when he was just a step away.
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You can remember the encounter with Saul when David cuts his skirt.
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And there were other times where David is, you would think that he's about to be dispatched by the enemies that surround him.
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1 Samuel 20, verse 3.
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There's but a step between me and death.
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So let's think about that.
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Again, a lot to be thought of when you look at the psalm and you try to make those applications.
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To me, that's all I want to do when I read the psalms in particular, is I want to make application to myself.
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I want to make it personal.
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I want to put the I in there.
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And I want to think about the shortness of my life and how I really don't need to dig too many roots in this world because it's just not my resting place.
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And I also want to realize that there are those that if they could, they would get rid of me.
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And I'll bring that up a little bit further.
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You were gonna say something? Well, you just.
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Well, I think we always have choice.
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Do I do this right now? Do I do that right now? And you know, the Lord gives us leeway.
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I mean, it's not like.
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Sure.
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He tells me I have to do it.
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Right.
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So continually, I have it in my hands whether to walk the path of light or the path of dark.
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Right.
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And down to a certain point, because you're about redeeming the time that's true.
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Then after a while, there gets to a point where you start, you know, well, if I take that one, I know not because it's an outright sin, but because in yourself, you know the world about in your life.
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That's taking you away from that.
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Sure.
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And that will, even, I don't know about anybody else, but if you can even understand a certain part and continue that way, that's gonna head you out to, you're gonna end up great.
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Yeah.
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Not because it's an outright sin, but because it's not within the realm that you know the Lord is leading you into.
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Right.
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And I think that will come out even further when we look at the second half of verse one, where he says, I don't forget your law because we'll see that God's law, God's word, is the way to keep us from wandering out, right? And, but to finish that point, that you and I would realize, so maybe we don't have a Saul after us.
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Maybe we don't have the enemies that David faced.
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I would think if you and I had a physical enemy that was constantly hunting us, we would live a lot differently.
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Yeah, it would be easier.
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Well, I'm just saying, if you knew that somebody was after you, you'd be looking around all the time, right? Every time you open the car, every time you open the door, this, that, the other thing.
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You hire security, bodyguards.
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My whole point is, David had very vivid enemies in front of him, but David also had the same enemies that you and I have because David's greatest enemy was the same enemy that you and I face, which is the adversary, the evil one, right? And he goes about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may, what? Devour.
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So we might not have the same types of, we might not have the same types of enemies in that sense, but we all have the same enemy.
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And that you and I would realize that as you brought up and has been brought up that we really have to feel in our lives that the evil one is seeking to devour us.
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Now, I want you to just think about that for a second.
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I want you to think about it in a physical sense.
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If you knew that somebody had it out for you and they were just waiting for the right time to get you, they were hunting you, they were trying to destroy you, they were trying to ruin you.
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I'll venture to say that that would be on your mind a whole lot, right? Somebody's out to get me.
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Well, listen, brothers and sisters, someone, if possible, someone is out to get us.
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And it's not one who cares for us, it's one who seeks only to devour us.
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So, a couple of thoughts for what he says in the first half of the verse.
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Let's move on a little bit.
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I wanna try to get through these two verses where he says, my life is continually in my hand.
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And then he says this, yet, yet, I do not forget your law.
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He has some sort of true realization of his state.
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Understands the, if you will, the brevity, the enemies, understands that he has to press on.
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And yet, the real remedy for him is that he will not forget God's law.
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He has a, if you will, a personal resolve of mind and heart.
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Yet, I will not forget your law.
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And I think that's very important for us, especially when we are in a bad place.
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In other words, when we are pressed, when we are troubled, when we are, if you will, sideways, when it seems like everything's going wrong, when it seems like the world's coming down on us, when it seems like the heavens are as brass, that you and I, that's the point where you and I most need not to forget God's law.
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One writer said this, and I remember this from a while ago, he said that troubles and problems, troubles and problems makes many a man forget his responsibility.
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Troubles and problems makes many a man forget his responsibility.
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That there is this tendency, if you will, on the part of men that when they're pressed and when they're pushed, they neglect the very thing that they truly need.
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And what men really need is what we really need.
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We need God's law.
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We need God's word.
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We need to have a resolve of mind that we will not forget it.
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The psalmist says that he will not forget God's law, and remember who this is.
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This is the one who had a bunch of issues, and we could spend a multitude of time considering David's life, between his problems with Bathsheba and Uriah, between the problems with Absalom, between the problems with Saul, between the problems, I mean, David had fightings without and fears within, or fears without and fightings within, I mean, he had both of them, and so do we.
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So this is where we can make this personal, that you and I, and he says it, I will not forget your law.
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And I wanted to ask this question, and I wanna ask you to think about it, and not just think about it for a second, but think about it in your own meditation.
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And the question is a simple one.
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Do we know God's law? Do we, each of us, every one of us, know God's word? Have we committed it to memory as much as we can, that we would never forget it? You know, I asked myself this question, and then I tried to change the subject in my own mind.
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You ever think about something, and it bothers you so much, you say, I gotta change the channel? Because I was uncomfortable.
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I was uncomfortable with myself.
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Here I am, putting this point out, saying, do we, are we forgetful about God's word? And I was uncomfortable, because I am so forgetful about God's word.
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And I have such a tendency, when I'm pushed, that that's the point where I need God's word the most, and that's the point where I usually forget God's word.
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Like when somebody makes me mad.
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It's easy when everything is nice to say that, you know, don't let the wrath come out, and watch your tongue, and your tongue is a fire.
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That's easy when I'm having a great time.
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I don't ever get mad at Keith, or I would never tell him I was mad at him.
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No, I would tell him I was mad at him.
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But my point is, when we get heated, when we get pushed, that's the time when we most need not to forget God's law.
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And it seems to me that's the time when the adversary comes in and deceives us, and we do not react in those times in a responsible way.
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But I wanna push it a little further, and I wanna ask to make an example, and I thought about this.
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I thought about the book of Proverbs.
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And I thought about how in the book of Proverbs, there is not a single experience of life that isn't addressed by God's word.
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So I started to think about all the things that the book of Proverbs, and I wrote them down.
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Let me just ask you to think about it.
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The book of Proverbs covers and addresses every area of life.
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It talks about our own hearts.
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It talks about parents and children.
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The book of Proverbs talks about kings and governments.
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The book of Proverbs deals with the allurements of lust.
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The book of Proverbs deals with the allurement of sex.
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The book of Proverbs deals with the whole issue of power.
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The book of Proverbs deals with the issues concerning money.
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It speaks about deception.
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It speaks about honesty and just weights.
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The book of Proverbs deals a lot with the tongue.
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The book of Proverbs speaks about how we should conduct ourselves in business.
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The book of Proverbs, which is God's word, talks about laziness, talks about marriage, talks about being young, being old, talks about success and failure.
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It talks about the creation.
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It talks about the life after death.
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The book of Proverbs is God's word, and it covers every experience of life.
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And so here's the question.
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How well do we even know the book of Proverbs? How many of us, and I'm in this, how many of us know even more than just a handful of the Proverbs? And yet, and yet, how many of us can tell what the sports scores were three months ago? How many of us can remember a family outing and again, nothing against sports scores, nothing against family outings.
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My point is this, brothers and sisters.
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When David says, yet I will not forget your law, that you and I would ask ourselves, have we? When was the last time we looked in the book of Proverbs on how we ought to conduct our marriages? Or how we ought to behave ourselves in business? Or how we ought to raise our children? Or how we ought to guard our tongue? Do you know the book of Proverbs has much more to say about the tongue than just about any other place in the Bible? You'd be amazed how many Proverbs deal with the tongue.
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You get my point? My point is, if we realize that our life is continually in our hands, if we realize that we're here today, gone tomorrow, if we realize that we're here to please God, to serve God, to not forget his law, then where are we in not only knowing his law, but making that application? And again, I can almost guarantee you we could all quote a couple of Proverbs.
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I've made it a point, it's one of my own studies that every morning I try to read a chapter of Proverbs.
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And every morning I try to memorize one proverb.
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And it gets fuzzy by the end of the week.
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But my point is, I do it because I need that wisdom.
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I need God's word.
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So the one I was looking at this morning just says, is Proverbs 21 is verse two.
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It says, every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the heart.
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Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs his heart.
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So again, I'm just trying to get us to think that when David says this, that you and I would truly ask ourselves, I think we realize sometimes our life is continuing in our hands.
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But how are we doing with not forgetting God's law? Can I just, I thought, brother, I'm sorry to interrupt you.
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The guys from set three, the very first thing outside of having to study the gospel of John is making them read Proverbs.
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Is it really? Cool.
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And I go there and preach every Thursday and Andy's starting to preach once a month.
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Well, him and Mike are sharing that time.
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You will be surprised.
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You'll be preaching and the guys will say, that's in the Proverbs.
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Really? That's so cool.
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And they'll say it because they have to be a part of that.
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And we don't need to wait until we're down and out to be studying that.
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That's the, those guys are in a bad way, a lot of them.
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And they're giving them the wisdom.
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And we should be taking it in now.
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Again, we ought to be preparing ourselves for when we feel in that sense, many times that life is in our hands.
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And if we have this tendency to be forgetful in those times, then all the more reason to prepare beforehand.
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So when those times come, we won't forget God's law, right? So that's the way we should think, but that's really cool.
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And I have found it worthwhile in my own life.
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And I probably have forgotten many of the Proverbs that I memorized, but I'll get them again.
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But my whole point is God's law is there for us.
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It's a gracious provision for us.
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And so something to think about.
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Okay, just a few minutes left.
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I wanna just look at verse 110 now.
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So he says, my life is continually in my hand, yet I do not forget your law.
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And look at verse 10, he says, the wicked has laid a snare for me, yet I have not strayed from your precepts.
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So see, can you see it? So verse 109, he said, my life's continually in my hand.
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He relates an experience.
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He relates what's happening in his life.
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And then he says, yet I won't forget.
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In verse 110, the wicked have laid a snare for me.
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That's his experience.
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That's what he's going through.
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What does he do? He says, yet I have not strayed from your precepts.
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He says, the wicked have laid a snare for me.
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Now, I just wanted to remind us, do we really realize who the wicked are? Do we really realize who the wicked are from God's word? Not from man's word.
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Do you know who the wicked are? The wicked are anyone and everyone who doesn't love the savior.
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That's the truth.
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That'll get you in a lot of trouble if you say that out loud.
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But you know what? It's the truth.
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The wicked is anyone and everyone who is not in union with God's son.
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Now, does that mean that everybody we come up against is wicked and they're trying to lay a snare for us? No, it doesn't necessarily mean that because even in that sense, by God's grace, even the wicked can do great and helpful things for us.
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So don't misunderstand me.
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But my point still remains the same, that you and I would realize that we live amongst wicked people, whether they appear that way or not, and that God very clearly and specifically says, in Psalm 5, God says that he is angry with the wicked every day.
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Remember what Jesus said? He that believes not is condemned.
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And he says that the what? The wrath of God abides on him.
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That you and I would realize that when David says the wicked have laid a snare for me, that we have to deal with the very same things in truth that David did in different, again, in different faces.
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That's a hard pill.
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It's a hard pill for us to realize that even the ones that we love dearly and even people we have deep relationships for, and even people we really, really are concerned about, that we would realize if they are not for Christ, they are against him.
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And that in that sense, their minds are, in truth, wicked because they don't give God the word.
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I was thinking about when you said that, who was that, Ronald Reagan's son last night that said during the debate, there was a commercial during the debate, and Ronald Reagan's son said that he's the head of the Atheist Foundation, and they had a commercial.
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Yeah, he wants to snuff out all religion.
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And then, before they went back to the debate, he said, and my last word is, I'm not afraid to burn in hell.
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Ronald Reagan's son.
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Ronald Reagan.
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That's what he said.
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I'm not afraid to burn in hell.
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You understand that.
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I didn't say that.
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Oh yeah, it was really, not to get off the subject, it was really interesting because it was almost like an infomercial of this guy pounding away at religious.
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The Freedom from Religion Foundation? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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Yes.
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And that was his, he said, this is my slogan to close, is I'm not afraid to burn in hell.
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Might not be afraid, but he will, unless he repents, right? Amen.
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But the point is, and the point I wanted to make was, when David says that the wicked have laid a snare for me, that it's not just always the one who's trying to dispatch him with a spear or a sword, and that, says the, If he doesn't believe it.
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If he doesn't, that's his point.
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I'm not afraid because it's not real.
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Yeah.
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Oh, because it's not real.
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He needs lots of prayer.
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So, let's go back to this a little bit, where he says the wicked have laid a snare for me, and I wanted to think about this thought about, he says the wicked have laid a snare for me, and I kind of looked up a little bit as far as the snare and what it really meant, and it really means, if you will, that David realizes that someone has set up a snare, and the snare was a trap, right? It was something set up, now listen, as I looked at it, and this is what I was able to come away with, it's not just a trap to capture, it was a trap to destroy.
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In other words, they would set a snare for a bird, and the thought wasn't just to capture the bird, the thought was to kill the bird, right? So that snare was more than just seeking to cage in, it was actually seeking to destroy.
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So when he says that the wicked have laid a snare for me, that he means it, if you will, in a true sense.
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Psalm 140, let me just read it to you, it says, the proud, listen, the proud have hidden a snare for me.
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They have spread a net by the wayside, they have set traps against me.
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In the New Testament, you remember 2 Timothy, where it talks about how the desire is that God would grant repentance, right? And it says that they, the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle, all men have to teach, gentle and all that, and then it says that God would grant them repentance, that they may recover themselves from the snare of the devil.
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It's the same word.
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So think about this.
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Who's the wicked one in the truest sense? The adversary.
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What does he desire? He desires to destroy, he desires to devour.
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He goes about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour, and he seeks to snare us, and by that, not just to paralyze us, but to destroy us.
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Were it not for the sovereign grace of our great God, if it were possible, even the very elect would not be deceived.
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So think about that.
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When he says the wicked have laid a snare for me, that you and I would realize, friends, we've got, it's so much comfort to know the scriptures, isn't it? If God be for us, who could be against us? Because boy, oh boy, there's a lot against us.
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I don't know how else to say it, but that's just the honest truth.
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If God be for us, who could be against us? And if God wasn't for us, we gone.
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Right? Sister? In a spiritual battle or conflict, you are totally defeated, because we are in that situation every day of our Christian life.
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Yep, and you know, that's, and I think that could be particularly hard for people who have been in Christ for a while, where we begin to think that we got this thing down.
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Right? Meble of Paul says, let him that thinks he stand, what? Take heed, lest he fall.
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Right? Before a fall is what? A haughty heart, a proud heart, right? There's many snares that are out there.
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And remember, our adversary knows no mercy, cares not, loves not the truth.
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He's a murderer.
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He desires to seek and to destroy.
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And if he could snare us this way or snare us that way, he will.
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So again, important for us to look at it this way, when we read the Psalms, especially again, as I say, when David says, he says, the wickedest slay, and there it is.
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He laid, they laid a snare for me.
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David's not just trying to teach everybody else.
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David's saying, man, they're after me.
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What am I gonna do? But look what he says, just to kind of close the loop.
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He says, yet I have not strayed from your precepts.
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There it is again.
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In the previous verse, he says, I won't forget your law.
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In this verse, the end of verse 110, he says, I have not strayed from your precepts.
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It's really the divine remedy, isn't it? The word of God is the divine remedy for all that ails us.
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It is the thing that you and I most need.
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And I wonder sometimes if it's the very thing that you and I most neglect, and then we suffer.
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And by God's grace, what does he do? What happens to us when God brings us back into fellowship with him? I'll tell you what I think happens.
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He brings us back into conformity to what? To his word, which is really a reflection of his son, right? And the Holy Spirit begins to pick at us with what? The word of God.
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Because if you think about it, that's what we have been, I mean, God is so gracious.
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We were talking about this, me and Brother Richard were talking about how a couple of hundred years ago, how difficult it was to not only get the word of God, but to have access to study and to read and to be able, we were talking about how some of the Puritans and how they spent, they must have wrote by candlelight.
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And it's not like they said, hey, Google, can you look up this word? Or Siri, you know, we are so blessed in our day with God's word.
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Reproof and correction.
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Yeah, yeah, it's reproof for construction, correction and righteousness that what? That the man of God may be what? Complete, thoroughly furnished what? To what end? To all good works, to every good work, right.
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So again, that's where you and I, wow, I gotta stop.
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That's where you and I really need to look at it that way.
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The word of God is both my offense and my defense, right? It's my sword, it's my sword to, if you will, to stop the gainsayer, to stop those that oppose, to stop those that seek to undermine the truth.
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But it's also my sword to defend myself with those things that come against me in the depths of my hearts or, and really that's where the battle is really fought, right? The battle is really fought inside.
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Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.
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If your heart is right, if your mind is fixed on, God says what in Isaiah? He will keep us in perfect peace, right? Whose minds are stayed on him, right, Isaiah 26.
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My whole point is, as you read the psalm and as we continually go through it, I want us to continually probe it for yourself.
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You'll get uncomfortable if you do it, I promise you, but you will also be edified.
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And again, make God's word the preeminent, pursuit of your life, not to the exclusion of other things.
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Well, I will tell you this, if you make God's word in truth, the pursuit of your life, everything else will fall into place, right? Someone who pursues God's word will learn how to love his wife, right? Someone who pursues God's word will know how to train up a child.
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Someone who pursues God's word will know how to interact with God's people, right? Someone who pursues God's word will know how to handle those that oppose the truth.
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So I hope that we are provoked and I hope that we are edified as we go through this because God's word is always good.
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It's always good.
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Sister.
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Can you just remind me, this is so timely, like being at the fishing pole.
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Yeah.
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And I mean, that's what we're doing.
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I mean, we're using God's word.
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You know, Hebrews 9, 27, when it comes to time, we're all accountable.
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We don't know how long our life is.
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We hope not.
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How many days the Lord has prepared.
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You're right.
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I wonder how many people that, and you made me think, I wonder how many people that we're here on the track to have died between the time we're here on the track and today, right? I mean, and again, people say, well, you're so serious and so morbid.
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Am I? I mean, it's the truth.
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It's the reality, right? It's just a reality.
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We're here today, we're gone tomorrow.
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But you're so right.
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And the very thing that people need the most, they avoid the most, right? Okay.
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I hope that helps.
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Anyone else want to add anything? Thoughts? Okay.
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Let's just close with a word of prayer.
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Our father in God, again, thank you for this time Lord.
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Thank you that you not only love us Lord, but you have put within us a desire to know you, not know about you, but know you.
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Help us Holy Spirit to apply your word to our own hearts and our own lives.
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To even as the prophet said, to plow up our own hearts.
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To when we feel and when we experience the issues of life, that we would run towards your word and not from your word.
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Help us as we grow in grace and in the knowledge of the son of God, help us as a body, help us as individuals, help us as families, help us as a nation, oh God.
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Forgive us and bless us we pray in Christ's name.
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Amen.