Godly Counsel From The Psalms

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The title for today's Sunday School is called Godly Counsel from the Psalms and we're going to look at how to read
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God's Word how to apply God's Word and how to hear from God when you're in the midst of a particular trial or a circumstance where you need to hear
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God's Word speak to you. I'm going to just pick one particular example and we'll walk through it.
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It's going to be a little different in terms of format from our previous Sunday Schools. I'll get to what we'll be doing in a minute.
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But I want to give some introductory notes so you have this right frame of mind before we get into the text.
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When you think of counsel or God's counsel I think we need to have some context set in place.
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In the world we have a lot of counsels, counselors and ideas and plans that people have in order to have a good life a successful life, a life that is not wandering around different paths.
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But for a believer when you come before God and say I need counsel you need to have the context of counsel set well in place.
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So let me ask you a question as we get started. Why are we here on earth? What is the purpose of individuals?
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To glorify God. And what does that mean? How do you glorify
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God? To serve Him and keep His commandments. And who is the person who can actually serve or keep
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God's commandments? What type of a person can do that? Only a child of God.
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It is impossible for one who either does not know God or has rejected God to be able to serve
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God or to keep His commandments. So when we think of counsel or godly counsel the first place you need to start from is who am
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I or who is this person who needs a counsel? If a person is not a believer it is all the counsels that you as a believer may give to this person or all the counsel that you may try to apply to yourself if you are not a believer those principles and precepts that God has given us will not work because these are meant for the children of God who have a relationship with God who know
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God that can hear God and apply it in their lives. So when we go back to that question of glorifying
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God it is actually not just for believers but also for unbelievers. Every single person is intended to glorify
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God. How can a believer glorify God? Specifically in our lives when you seek to serve
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Him when you seek to obey His commands you are glorifying Him here on earth. And for an unbeliever it begins with bowing your knee to Christ.
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So the person begins to glorify God when you recognize that there is a great God, a great
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Savior and I am a rebel that needs to come into His kingdom who needs to bow allegiance to this
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King. So that is where the glorification starts. Now back to counsel God when
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He saves us does not leave us just to figure out what you need to do here on earth. He has given us
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His word. He has given us His spirit. And He instructs His children on the way of life here on earth.
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All of you know after you become a believer it does not mean you just jump one step and no more sin.
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We are perfected here right now and no more sorrow, suffering, trial because we are a child of God and we are in the kingdom.
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There will be a day when that happens when we are in heaven when sin will no longer have a place in our lives when there will be no more sorrow or suffering when we are in God's presence eternally.
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But while we are here on earth God purifies us, sanctifies us and uses these earthen vessels which are broken and in circumstances that are very difficult in order to showcase
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His glory because He is the one sufficient for all our needs while we go through trials.
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So when we think of counsel you always want to think about the bigger picture of God's glory
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His purpose in your life and in the life of the ones you would be counseling. And then look into God's word rely on His spirit in understanding
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His precepts in recognizing this power of God that is given unto you here on earth and being able to apply in the particular circumstance or suffering that you are going through or someone you know is going through.
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One more introductory comment before we get into the text there are certain types of accusations that our church receives.
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There are many types of accusations one particular one might I say false accusations but this particular one sometimes irks me because I don't think people understand what it means to be a
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Bible believing or a Bible practicing church. Many a time when we talk about how we expose it or exegete and preach the word people seem to think okay you know you guys are those guys that look at the
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Bible and say here are all the things you do 1, 2, 3, 4 and you just kind of blindly just do these things and that's all you guys do and you really don't have a relationship with God or you're not led by the
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Spirit. Most of the such type of questions come from people who are a little more maybe on the charismatic side who would say that why do you just keep talking
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Bible, Bible, Bible all the time yeah we know the Bible but we need to be moved by the Spirit we need to be dynamic we need to be like Elijah just flying on chariots instead of just gritting your teeth and reading your word and saying okay
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God wants me to do this and I need to obey him no come on obey you need to just fly along on chariots right and sadly many of these accusations the people that will come from you will find are
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I think Pastor Mike has said this before are just lazy because you don't want to sit and study the word that God has given to you as an instruction as a light unto your feet but you would read the word
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I mean I wouldn't say that they don't read study the Bible but do not give the sense of importance the all sufficiency that the scriptures have in terms of being a guide to our lives here and a means of hearing from him it's much easier to just say okay
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I have my devotional and then I'm just sitting in my car and all of a sudden oh
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I should be doing that where did that come from oh man I think I know where it came from it came from God and you know it's very quickly a good idea comes down your brain and then you just go about it and say you know
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God told me and I go and do this and sometimes they may be right because as you read the scriptures your scriptures come back to your mind and that's what
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God has promised the spirit of God will take the words of Christ and apply it into your lives and so it would be
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God talking to you through the words of scripture but you need to recognize that the source of truth the counsel that we receive ultimately comes from the word of God everything that we need for life and godliness has been delivered unto us and it is in the word and we study the word diligently not because like a
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Pharisee we are just making a list of things and saying you know I do all these things and God will be pleased or I do all these things and I won't have a financial disaster it is more of knowing the mind of God as he has revealed it to us in order to live a life that is pleasing to him and we'll look at once we finish our study today we'll look at how to distinguish this false dichotomy between you know rigorously just obeying
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God's word versus you know just being led by the spirit wherever we go and we do need to have the word of God we do need to have the spirit of God and every child of God has both of these today to guide us along this path we need to take so I said today we are going to look at godly counsel from the
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Psalms I'm going to specifically look at one particular area as an example we are going to dig some of these things out in these two
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Psalms we are going to study today and then and that will give you a pattern of how when you are going through a trial in your life and you want to just get into this text and you want to just seek the
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Lord's face in your time of need how do you do it? and that will just give you an example a template of how you do that whatever your circumstances might be and it will be the same whether it is for yourself or it is for somebody else you know sometimes it seems easier to apply the word to your own life but when somebody comes and asks you a tough question and you are like you know maybe you want to do this and you need to have the same kind of confidence in taking the word of God and applying it to the life of your brother in Christ or sister in Christ and say you know here is what the
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Lord says and here is what you ought to do that would please the Lord and glorify him in this particular circumstance so the topic that I am going to pick up is called confidence or hope that we have in God and most of the times you will need this confidence and this hope when you are going through trials so you go through a difficult time and it seems like you are ready to sink things are not going well or maybe even things are going ok but you really don't have the sense of purpose did
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I say that word? purpose and genuine looking forward to the works of God in your life and what is it that gives you the ultimate sense of confidence and hope and ultimately even joy in living your life in the midst of these trials or circumstances or whatever it is that you go through so these two
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Psalms that we are going to look at will focus on those particular areas and one thing I want to say before we get into the text once again is when we think of confidence and hope it is different than the sense in which the world uses hope you know when we think of hope in the more common sense it is like you know
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I did an interview and I am hoping I get the job you know did a good job and I need to so you are just waiting around the phone hoping that it will ring and you will get the job there is a hope maybe against hope you did a bad job and you are thinking ok
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I did everything bad but I still hope I get it you know they gave me a deadline till 10 o 'clock tonight and I am going to wait till 10 hope against hope or I have nothing else to do the only thing
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I have is hope so I am hoping because I have to hope I have nothing else to do that is not the sense of hope that the
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Bible talks about the Biblical understanding of hope is along these lines we have a sure hope in heaven we have a hope that Christ is coming back when we say
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Christ is coming back and we hope or look forward or we have great confidence in that truth it is not that you know it may happen you know
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I really wish it will happen it is a sure thing it is done it is going to happen it is promised to us by God and we can count every single thing that we have on upon that hope we can rest assured on that hope that God gives us and that is the kind of confidence and that is the kind of hope that the
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Bible is going to be talking to us as we get into the text and one last note
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Psalms are poetry they are very different than your epistles where you have precepts where you just dig in and break out poetry have a slightly different hermeneutic you know how do you study the text for most of us it just would come intuitively even if you don't like poetry at all if you are you are the kind of guy that is very rigorous and regimented when you go through a trial the
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Psalms have a way of just reaching and connecting to your heart in your trouble you can identify with the person who is writing that Psalm even if you don't like poetry at all and the hermeneutic is very simple it is if you look at most of the
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Psalms there are a few Psalms where it will give you the context saying David was hiding from Saul so you can picture in your mind what actually happened but many of the times it is not actually told what actually was going on when that particular
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Psalm was written and the circumstances of trial the circumstances of joy whatever it is that the
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Psalmist is talking about you can very easily identify because that is how poetry is it is written in a very simple symbolic language which can apply to whatever circumstance you are in so we are going to do two things the first thing we are going to do when we get into the
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Psalm is we are going to look at what the Psalmist is saying it is exegeting studying exposing what the
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Psalmist says and then we will turn the table around and look at ourselves how do we apply this text that we have learned and for those of you who were here for the
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Whitney Conference he talked about how do you pray through the text of Scripture he also talked about how do you study and especially to Psalms he gave an example of how you can study many
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Psalms over a period of time and this Sunday School will be kind of building up on that theme of taking a
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Psalm and just working it out now before I pass out my handouts
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I want to actually start us with the Psalm I would like you to turn to Psalm 16 if any of you don't have a
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Bible please get one from the pews in front of you if there are young ones work with your parents because we will be going through this in a timed manner and I would like you to be able to follow along I won't be asking you questions so as we study this you want to study this with the intent of just studying it as if you were in your home applying this to yourself so what we will do is
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I would like you to read through Psalm 16 to yourself in your mind from the text and then you take about a minute or so to do it so you know what the whole
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Psalm is about and once you have read it once I would like you to take a couple of minutes to actually read it a little more slowly and try to understand what the
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Psalm is talking about so take a minute read it once through it's a short Psalm and then take a couple of minutes to read it a little more slowly to understand what the
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Psalm is saying make like 20 copies can you?
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ok alright maybe Simon can you make a few copies thank you Simon alright ok some of you have gotten some handouts there will be a few more we will get in a minute
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I always underestimate the number of people in a room before we look at the notes just a the word of God is rich beyond measure you can read the same chapter or verse daily over your whole lifetime and the
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Lord can speak to you the meaning of the text and explain it in greater depth and then apply that to your life and here in my notes here there is a particular direction a specific truth that this
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Psalm is talking about that we will try to dig out and apply in our lives these notes are not mine
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I had gone for a class last year and Dr. Borrelli who taught this class brought these questions up I was thinking of reframing them but I think he does an excellent job with it so I have retained them the way he has posed them and we will use these questions in order to just engage with the text and work itself out we won't get into the text yet we will have the rest of the copies come so all of us can follow along actually what
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I can do is I will read the questions out loud so those of you who don't have the sheets you can actually follow with me while we wait for the notes to come but before we get into the questions when you read the
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Psalm the first time you read it what you should be able to get is what is the
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Psalm generally saying you read it once through you see he has certain something he starts with he is asking a plea and then after that he talks about certain aspects of about God that he enjoys in and then he talks about towards the end there is this eternal aspect of not being left in the grave and then he closes almost with a doxology of how
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God is his joy and the second time you go through it certain things will stick a little bit more you look at certain verses and you say what does he mean the
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Lord is the portion of my inheritance and my cup and maybe that verse just strikes you as uncommon maybe it doesn't make any sense at all what does it mean to be my inheritance and you just dwell on that verse a little bit more and say what does that mean what does the text mean and then you try to draw on the meaning of the verse and how it applies to you so that's how we normally study the text and today with these questions
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I'll just show you a way of just digging deep especially when you are looking for a specific counsel that the particular text is talking about that you want to just draw on and rest on and have that confidence that God wants you to have through this particular psalm so let me read the first question and as I read the question you want to think to yourself do
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I know the answer and actually if you do I will ask some of you to speak out your answers as we go through these questions the phrase in verse 2
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I have no good beside you O Lord is striking if the psalmist is speaking with extreme exaggeration understanding that there are other things in life that are good what do you suppose he means
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I will stop with that question there let's talk about this question again he says understanding other things in life that are good can you think of something other than God that is good in a legitimate sense that we can actually enjoy
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Bruce heat from the sun all the natural bounties that God has given us anyone else?
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health we rejoice in good health God gives us we are grateful and we enjoy the health that we have relationships we are grateful for sound relationships which are joyous rather than bitter and difficult we are glad for good we enjoy them, those good relationships we have one more simple things like maybe just food or clothing just the things that we take for granted maybe but those are good necessary and enjoyable we can take joy in those things so now let's get to this question what do you suppose the psalmist means when he says
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I have no good beside you O Lord every good thing that we just talked about without the
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Lord has no significance no eternal significance for sure and we will find actually even in the temporal sense does not have an ultimate sense let's look at the second question what does this say about his priorities, the psalmist priorities why can the psalmist say
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I have no good beside you O Lord what kind of priorities and this is
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David it is a victim of David what does it say about David when he says
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I have no good and actually
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I think you gave me the answer I was looking for see David in one sense had enjoyed a lot of the pleasures and good things in life and even for one such as he who has already maybe has already experienced many of these joys he can come and say no good beside you and the implication is the negative side you have all of these things that are good, legitimate, enjoyable but if you do not have
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God you have nothing he recognizes as and I will say this here, as a believer when you have
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God and you have all these things that is fine, but without God all the good things that you have received from God's hand mean absolutely nothing at all, so in terms of his priorities
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God is supreme and as Christians in the church today we can look back as believers, without God all the good things mean nothing, you can have the best job greatest home, wonderful relationships all the satisfactions of life, but if you had to give up or deny your
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Lord in order to have them, those would mean absolutely nothing at all, because the right way to enjoy these goodness is always in relation to him he is the giver of all these good things and without the giver these gifts mean no it does, you know
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I can't have any punchline when Charlie is in the Sunday school although that's good, I'm glad you brought it up because what
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I wanted to do was once you went through the questions look back at the actual meaning of the text and yes it is a messianic psalm
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I think the clue would come from verse 10 I think and actually there is a little bit more to the text but it is true, whether we look at David as the physical earthly author or Christ as the you know the more full sense of the psalm in its meaning applying to the
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Messiah we can look at someone who is godly and how he patterns his life and that becomes for us a model whether it is
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David or Jesus Christ himself, we can say here is the person, here is how the extent, the limits to which he takes pleasure in God over any other earthly good so when you read that one very simple verse here is how you dig into its meaning you say what does it mean?
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it's not just a casual poetic word like Wordsworth wrote saying
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I'm dancing down these flowers there is a very specific meaning here and it is true that God is his supreme good now so that's your exegesis part, you study the verse you try to understand what it means now let's look at the second question explain whether or not you share the psalmist sentiments and outlook on life there are two ways of answering this question you know if you do not know the lord for example you are here in church and you are not sure you have a relationship with him that becomes a very direct intellectual, spiritual fundamental question this psalmist
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David Christ they had God as their ultimate good, do
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I actually have it am I a believer, do I have that relationship with God where I can say this is indeed true of me so that would be the first way to answer that question am
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I really a child of God like the psalmist was and if not that would be your first order of business to deal with because if you do not know this
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God how good he is, how beautiful he is how enjoyable he is how he is the chief good of all you know when you start thinking about him and you just burst out in rapture in your heart and say wow
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I have a great God whom I serve and I enjoy him thoroughly and if you can say that you know that you have a relationship with Christ you have been washed by the blood of Christ you have had your sins forgiven you have great hope and joy in your moment by moment experience until one day you see him face to face and if you don't you want to say you know why don't
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I have this kind of a joy or this kind of a knowledge of this great one whom everyone calls
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God but let's say you are a believer and you have actually crossed that line you are in the kingdom of God you know who this great
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God is and the question you still want to ask yourself is going through this trial going through this circumstance can
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I truthfully say to myself that with all of my being I treat my
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God as my chief good and that's how I want most of you here to look at this question do you share the
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Psalmist sentiments and outlook on life can you say right now I have no good beside you oh
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Lord and for me I find it always instructive to look at this truth not just as an objective yes
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I am in the kingdom of God versus more subjective I'm walking through my life whether it is at work in my family and am
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I having this consume my being in the way I think and act and walk and as you look at the rest of the questions you will see how that works itself out question 3 according to verse 5 to whom does the
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Psalmist attribute his lot in life I can anyone who has the answer can just lift your hand straightforward to God anybody want to elaborate on that a little bit yes come okay so what she just said was that God is the focus of his life so when you look at your lot in life your allocated portion you know if you think of a physical plot actually verse 5 let's just read the whole thing first the lot is a portion of my inheritance and my cup thou does support my lot in my
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ESV version it's you hold my lot and it is God who ordains what falls to me whether it is my inheritance physically in terms of the land that I'm going to get he'll talk about that later or the circumstances that comes into my life he is the one who supports holds determines ordains what comes into my path and and when we talked about goodness you want to always connect that with your particular circumstances that you're going through the good days the happy days the pleasurable days you have now or your troubles and difficulties and unsolicited trials that are coming your way who is the source of all them all in the ultimate sense and the psalmist very definitely says it is
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God who supports his lot everything that comes to him is coming from God and you as we heard it just points further to the psalmist mindset of God being his chief good and God being his ultimate source of everything that comes into his life and he's always going to be looking to God in what happens in his life question 4 turns that now to inwardly for each of us so what is your understanding of God's sovereignty how much of what comes your way in life would you attribute to the hand of a sovereign
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God if you are willing to attribute only a portion of life's happenings even if it were the largest portion to what or to whom would you attribute everything else you know
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I think one of the biggest troubles that we have in this world is understanding the sovereignty of God in its practical sense we can all acknowledge
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God is sovereign in the big sense of the word you know we know he is ultimately responsible we look at then evil we look at problems and we say how can this be how can
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God be sovereign over this despicable circumstances you know this person who is in my life who is acting out the schemes of the
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Satan himself it seems in my in my life and how can God be sovereign you know those are the troubling questions that come as you walk through this life as a child of God yes knowing in the ultimate sense that God controls everything that happens in your life but in this particular moment in this particular circumstance when things are just you think unnecessary why for a child of God one who is the daughter or the son of the king do you have to go through these wicked assaults of the enemy circumstances that you have absolutely no control over where you are not the one in mastery but you are the one maybe you know steam rolled under how can you look at this circumstance and then have an idea or respond to this question number four very good you we just got a excellent answer about examples of God's trustworthiness and actually his sovereignty how did how was
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God sovereign in the life of people who were extremely under difficult circumstances some of them which
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I don't think some of us will ever go through where you can now look back at that particular circumstance and see the end of that person's life what did
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God do and what happened in this person's life as a result of that particular trial of the circumstance that was troubling to them and and then you can see the hand of God that was overall that was sovereign that brought about those difficult circumstances of maybe
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Joseph going into slavery but raising him up ultimately to be the king in Egypt Amen and so you know if you were thinking about a particular circumstance in your life as you are applying this text this is what you want to think of you can look back at examples of how
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God was sovereign in a good way for his people and you can look at this particular circumstance that maybe you cannot really solve you cannot really fix you're going to have to deal with this problem over a period of time maybe as the underdog you can still look at it in a way that you remind yourself that God is the one who is ultimately in authority you are not you know
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Satan didn't give a curve ball and get around God and throw something at you that you know you have to somehow fix it yourself and that should be the first source of your counsel is that God is sovereign you know no matter what the circumstance
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God is the one who is in control of the circumstance and you need to recognize his hand before you can actually deal with the problem correctly let's actually we will pick up the pace a little bit here in let's go to question number six according to verse six the psalmist understands that his life has been measured out with its boundaries a figurative way of speaking how precisely his life has been mapped out even with its limitations do you suppose that he includes here his tragedies as well as his triumphs and again pastor
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Dave referred to this verse Romans 8 28 it's listed at the bottom of your sheet and we already covered that in the earlier question when we think of God allocating our portion our boundaries he does everything whether it is the good times when you can when your natural response is praise or the difficult times where you need to sit down and meditate and consider that God is the one who brought these days as well as those days of pleasure now in in verse 7 it builds it even further in question 7 according to the psalmist own testimony the boundary lines of his life have fallen in pleasant places and this is where I want you to think a little more carefully about God's sovereignty if he is convinced that these lines have been drawn by the sovereign
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Lord through both tough terrain tragedies as well as smooth planes triumphs how can he speak of it all as being pleasant and the hint there is to compare your answer with number 3 which is whom does the psalmist attribute his lot to and there is also philippians 1 21 for me to live is
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Christ and to die is gain so the question here comes up as your subjective response to your trial so you have a circumstance that you are dealing with instead of saying
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I am bitter I am I don't like this issue
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I am going to just respond in kind to the evil that has come before me work out my own machinations here the psalmist response is he considers them as pleasant he looks at whatever
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God has given to him and accepts them as God's sovereign hand that is for his good it may seem very difficult and this is where I think as Pastor Dave said earlier as you walk through your life as you walk through those trials it is an exercise where God makes you think and act more and more like Christ because it doesn't come naturally we come from the world when we are saved and our natural response is you know
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I don't like this I am going to run away from it I am going to respond sinfully to it rather than say you know
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God is the one who has brought this and my response and this is where godly counsel begins is to do what pleases
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God you look at that difficult thing that comes into your life and you don't say how do I solve it and that is my chief end is to get out of this problem because that is what most of us will be tempted to do and instead of saying what do
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I do to get out you say what do I do to please God who has allowed this circumstance in my life so a severe injustice comes into your life and instead of saying how do
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I get back at this thing and get out of this problem you say what does the
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Bible say about a godly response and you can do that because you know when you do a godly response in a worldly sense it may seem that you are going to lose that issue of justice you may get trampled over but that is not the chief end of man is it the chief end of man is to please
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God and when we have this perspective of God's sovereignty over my individual life in my particular circumstance and you look at this response as one of trusting this
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Lord who is in control you don't try to solve your own problems in your own way I mean the
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Old Testament is full of examples of men and women who tried to do that and you see the disasters that they come up into Abraham Rachel we have tons of people just trying to work out their own solutions rather than trusting their
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Lord through the trial that they went through and that's our call so when you look for counsel in God's word when you remember
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God is sovereign the first thing you look at in your trial is my the life
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God has given me is pleasant it is good even if it is difficult to bear with you look at it in the perspective of God putting it there for you so let's look at verse 8 now what does the psalmist say at the end of verse 6 that would convince you that he is satisfied with life and will remain so he actually says
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I have a beautiful inheritance he sees what God has put into his life and he rejoices in it and when you truly work out the implications of God's sovereignty in your life you will recognize that you can take great joy you enjoy you revel in the life that God has given you
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God has put you Dave or Bob or Nancy he has put you in your particular circumstance for his particular purpose and there can be no greater joy than living out that particular life that you have been given day by day by day and that's the psalmist mindset it says both in the question 8 and 9 he is satisfied and in verses 8 you look at why he feels he will not be shaken in verse 8 he says
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I have set the Lord always before me and because he is at my right hand I will not be moved it is not the circumstance that comes into our life that we say you know right now
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I'm doing well and right now I'm shaken it is because the Lord is our ultimate refuge and it is not just a mental knowledge that just you keep in the back of your mind it is a very real present help in the time of your trouble because you know that God is sovereign yes absolutely in Job 2 when all the trials have just kind of well almost all he is going to have an extended period of trouble after that but when cataclysmic events happen he is able to honestly say
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I grieve but I can the Lord is the one who brought it and the Lord is the one who takes it away and that's the mindset we need to have when we walk through our trials and then back to verse 10 what does such a stance produce according to verse 9 let me read verses 7, 8 and 9 so you have this context for verse 9
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I bless the Lord who gives me counsel in the night also my heart instructs me
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I have said the Lord always before me because he is at my right hand I will not be shaken therefore my heart is glad and my whole being rejoices my flesh also dwells secure he has joy and he has great confidence in the life that he lives right now because of this
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God whom he has put his trust in who is by his side and he is the one who is counseling him through his life and in fact the night seasons in which he continues to receive his counsel as it's asked instructs him in fact the word instruct when you study it it talks about a certain element of chastising it's not that you know you just make all your decisions right you walk through your day you come back at night you examine what you did and you are and as you as the word of God just washes over your mind you say you know
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I did wrong and the next day when I go back to act out in this particular trial or in anything else
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I need to do differently because this is what would please my God and God's counsel is ever with you because you have set your
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God as always before you two more things and then we'll conclude with question 14 how does the psalmist eternal perspective outlined in verse 10 affect his outlook on life and explain how
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Paul's words in 2nd Corinthians 4 16 through 18 compare with his outlook verse 10 says for you will not abandon my soul to Sheol or let your holy one see corruption and then in 2nd
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Corinthians therefore we do not lose heart though our outer nature is wasting away our inner nature is being renewed day by day and he talks about how trials in the temporal sense do not compare with blessings of eternity now and that should be the mindset of every single believer because if you do not have the eternal perspective your trial becomes its own end if you do not win this trial you have lost the battle and it feels like the
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Lord has let you down so if Joseph somehow couldn't get out of that pit before you know those people he got sold into slavery his whole life was ruined and that's never the perspective of the child of God the child of God is always looking at the eternal aspect
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I mean we had the preaching through Peter talking about our temporal sufferings and how the child of God needs to look at eternal eternity in going through these trials so that we can live a godly life and then verse 12 turns that around again what is your eternal perspective on life and how does it dictate the way that you live you look at how the psalmist did that and then we say you know this is a model for me can
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I do I when do I not and when should I and then you submit your life under God's word and then verse 13 according to verse 11 where is the right way to live to be found where is fullness of joy and where are eternal pleasures to be found and verse 11 says you that is
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God make known to me the path of life when you are struggling and you can't seem to find what you need to do next the only source of help you will find is in God and in his word and in your presence there is fullness of joy when you go through trials you come down tired and you
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I mean I remember this week something just happened and I just couldn't sleep and part of it was my own fault
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I had to set right something that I had done wrong that's where your instruction from your heart comes in when you meditate on God's word but when you look ultimately for joy you know even in times when you have messed up it is in God's presence that you have fullness of joy you don't rest in your victories you don't you don't suffer and you know you don't just get dejected in your trials you always look up to your
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God and in his presence there is fullness of joy and in his right hand are pleasures forever more and then the last question
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I have here is is helpful when we just analyze you know use the word of God as a as a mirror and you use the word of God as a as a surgeon scalpel in examining your own life when you go through those trials you want to ask yourself where have you been looking for these things when you look at things not going right you know your response not being godly you want to look back at how we have lived out
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God's word and we just we just took a few steps through this particular passage to say how do
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I understand and how do I apply it I can I can say 90 % of you here knew every single thing that I told you before because you've heard these truths before and I think for us as believers we want to remind ourselves of this truth not just in the broad and general sense but in the specific and daily sense you know what what trials are we going through how intentional am
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I in looking to God's word and letting it guide my path letting it direct my steps so when you go back to the earlier question of you know the dichotomy of just obeying
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God's word mechanistically versus you know being led by the spirit there is no difference there should be no difference when you have
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God as a central focus of your life when you know that he is sovereign he has given you his word you go and rest in his word you study his word you consume his word with great joy and then when you walk your life your circumstances that you're going through these words of God will impel you will strengthen you and the spirit of God will give you the courage to do the difficult things because your mind is wrapped around the things of God he you have set at your right hand and he is the one to whom you want to submit and I have two other psalms in this which you can try later
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Psalm 46 is a lot more direct to this particular issue you can try that at home question number 4 is for verses 1 and 2 it doesn't say that and Psalm 146 is a different text altogether it is actually a praise psalm and you will see that although the subject is different the principles are very similar as you go through the issues that you deal with and you want to dig into God's word and take it and apply it all it takes for a child of God is to sit with the word in the presence of God meditate on it and let
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God speak to you through that word and bear on that particular problem that you need to submit your life to and when we do this as a pattern over and over again you can see the godliness that God affects in our lives when we are made more and more into the image of Christ we are terribly out of time so I am going to stop is there any questions so far
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I will just conclude with one note what
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Charlie said about the Psalm 16 being messianic you know most of scripture you can actually read in the simple sense you study it and you should be able to get the plain sense out for a believer you have the spirit of God within you that will illuminate
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God's word to you but that does not preclude study and if you know your scriptures well you would have connected verse 10 with Peter and Paul in the new testament quoting this verse and you would say oh
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I have seen this before elsewhere let me go study that and if you spend a little more time you will get a lot more richness out of the text so you can actually glean a lot more from the text and I would encourage you wherever you are whether you are just a brand new
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Christian you just study the word or you are a mature 20 year old 30 year old Christian 50 year old
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Christian that you would spend the time in the word and let that word wash you and make you clean let's pray and we'll close
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Dear God our heavenly father we thank you lord for your son for giving us this new life that we can live life in confidence and boldness knowing that you are our great
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God and savior that you are our almighty and all powerful king and you are our good
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God who has your children's interests in mind lord I pray for every single person here and in this church that as we live our lives we would be intentional in setting you in the forefront of our lives that we will submit our lives our own natural inclinations to the guidings of your spirit through your word that we will be children led by the spirit that we will be children who reflect the goodness and greatness of our great