Psalm 119:133 Devotional w/ Bro Andy Montoro

Okay, good evening.

Good to see y'all.

I'm starting to really develop a southern accent.

I can actually say y'all.

It's good to see you guys.

The trees.

Okay, so as we get started tonight, again, we're not back to our normal way in which we do this on Wednesday.

So rather than have prayer individually, I'm going to open up with a word of prayer.

And then we're going to go again to Psalm 119 for a few minutes.

And then Brother Keith continue on in the study of soteriology.

So let us just take a few minutes and come before our God.

And I know there's a lot of requests that we all have.

But if we can, if we can pray together, it's a good thing.

So let's pray.

Our great God and Father, we again now come to you in that name.

Lord, how could we ever begin to approach you except through that name, the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior of sinners, the one who came and took the form of a servant, the one who was obedient even unto death, the death of the cross, the one who rose again, the one who ascended, the one who was seated, the one who's coming again.

We come in his name now.

Because, Lord, you are so well pleased with him and what he accomplished for us that now we are accepted in the beloved.

So as we approach you tonight, we come to you and ask you for great grace, Lord, that you would enable us to be what we ought to be, especially in the days in which we live, Lord, when there are so many that seem so movable and going from one fear to another fear and one misunderstanding to another.

Oh, Lord, help us as your people to be steady, to be grounded, to be founded in your truth, not to be moved by every wind of doctrine, not to be moved by merely the thoughts of men, but to have our steadfast hope on you, to look to you, to know that you are the sovereign God, that you are the one who is infinite and intimate, and that you are working all things out according to the counsel of your will.

And, oh God, we thank you tonight that that is true, that you are not perplexed, that you're not worried, that you're not dismayed, that you do not have to devise things to remedy other things, but that you are the great God who speaks, and when you speak all things come to pass.

So thank you for that, Lord.

Thank you that you are unchangeable.

Thank you that you have told us that you change not, and that we can take great comfort in that, and though the days change, and though the situations of life change, and through all history, Lord, different customs, and cultures, and kings, and nations have risen, and then they have sunk, that you remain the same, that you are the King of kings and the Lord of lords, that your throne is established, that your word is established, and that because of that we, your people, are established.

So help us, Lord, help us to look to you, to look up, even as the psalmist said that he would order his prayers, and look up, look out to you, wait, wait upon you.

Help us to be those, Lord, that wait upon you, to serve you, to love you, to trust you, to depend on you, to exemplify your grace in our lives.

Thank you for our time tonight, Lord.

Thank you that we're able to gather again.

Thank you that we're able to to open your word, Lord.

Thank you that we're able to to see one another, and to see in each other's lives the workings of of the Lord Jesus Christ, through the power of the Spirit, that you are conforming each one of us, and every one of us, into the image of the Son of God.

Until that day when you would come and receive us for yourself, and in that day, in that day our faith will no longer be needed, for we shall see you as you are.

But until that day, Lord, increase our faith.

Help us to to grow in grace.

Help us to grow in the knowledge of the Son of God, who so loved us that He gave Himself for us.

Be with our people tonight, Lord.

So many requests, so many sicknesses, so many issues, Lord, that come upon us.

Be with Sharon and Adam in their situation, and for Chuck's mom, and for all those, Lord, that are sick.

Be with the the older members in our assembly, Lord, that are still shut in because of the issues of the day.

Be with them, Lord.

Give them grace.

Help us to help them.

Help us to care for one another, Lord.

Help us to to not just be hearers of the word, but doers also.

Bless us this night, Lord.

May you take even a few minutes and transform them for little as much when you are in it, Lord.

So be with us tonight.

Be with Brother Keith as he teaches.

Be with us as we listen.

Be with us as we pray.

Be with us as we leave this place.

Oh God, we thank You that You are our God.

We thank You for the Lord Jesus Christ.

We ask it in His name, for His glory, and for our ultimate and eternal good.

Amen.

Okay, good evening brother.

Let's take a few minutes and go back to Psalm 119 as we continue to kind of just take a few minutes every week and look at a verse.

Tonight I want to look at a half of verse because really I think there's too much in it to try to cover it in a few minutes.

But Psalm 119 and I want to look at verse 133, Psalm 119 and verse 133.

I'll read the whole verse, but again I really just want to speak on the first half and then next week the second half because it's just so much to say and even splitting it in half is not sufficient.

But Psalm 119 verse 133 in the psalmist says this, he says, direct my steps by Your word and let no iniquity have dominion over me.

Direct my steps by Your word and let no iniquity have dominion over me.

And so I want to just ask us to think about the first part of it, direct my steps according to Your word.

And let me start it this way and I'm constantly, as I've been looking through Psalm 119, I'm constantly reminded of how the psalmist and whoever the author is, whether you believe it's David or you believe it's someone else, but how in Psalm 119 the psalmist has, always seems to carry this double thought.

And the first one is the preeminence of the Word of God and the the integrity of the Word of God and the sureness of the Word of God.

But then it's always matched with his experience in relation to the Word.

And I think that's very important for us to consider that as we read, and particularly as we're looking at this first portion of this verse, he says, direct my steps according to Your word.

He kind of unites those two things.

He unites the Word of God because it is the very Word of God, but he also unites his desire towards that Word.

And to me there's a great difference in someone who just will give a mental assent, if you will, to the Word of God, and someone who truly desires that that Word of God would have an effect in their life.

And as you read it, as he lays it out, I think you'll see it.

He says, direct my steps according to Your word.

And that's really the difference between head knowledge and heart reality.

The true child of God not only comprehends the Word of God, but he desires it to direct his life.

There's a great difference between the two.

You could have all the mental knowledge you want of the Word in a factual way, but the true child of God, he hungers and he thirsts that that Word, that very Word of God, would direct his steps.

And he says in a very simple way, direct my steps according to Your word.

The psalmist is also one, and again I know I've said this before, I'm going to say it again, if you think about it as you read Psalm 119 in particular, as well as many of the other psalms, but Psalm 119, the psalmist is continually praying for himself.

Direct my steps according to Your word.

Let not iniquity have dominion over me.

And I thought how some people might brush back and say, well you know what, that's pretty selfish to keep praying for yourself.

But I want to ask you to think about this, because I really am more and more convinced that what I'm going to say is true.

I think praying for yourself is one of the unselfish things that we could do.

Now I'm not talking about God give me a new car, and I need this, and I want that.

I'm talking about the true prayer of the child of God, he ought to pray for himself, or she ought to pray for herself.

And I think it's a very unselfish thing for two reasons.

One, because if we truly are hungering and desiring that God would direct our steps, and we pray to that end, that God would conform us to His word, then what would we, what would be the result of that? But the glory of God, right? So direct my steps according to Your word, not formind me again, but that I might in a sense reflect Your glory in it.

And then there's another thought.

One reason why I don't think prayer for yourself is selfish, and I actually think it's unselfish, is because as we are more conformed to God's word, as we are more changed by God directing our steps according to His word, do we not become more useful to others? Does not the man of God, or the woman of God, are we not the most useful of all mankind? If we are truly being directed by God's word, I really believe we are.

So I don't see prayer as a selfish thing, I see as an unselfish thing.

And we ought not to be tricked into thinking that we should not pray for ourselves, because again, I think Psalm 119 truly bears out that the psalmist, no matter what he seems to speak about, he takes it to himself.

And then he asks God to do whatever it is that he's speaking about in his life.

And like I said, if David is the author, just think about that.

If we were to look at David's life, David was always front and center, wasn't he? Ever since he came out of the field where he was keeping the sheep, and then we know the story when he first came to Goliath.

But my point is that David was always front and center.

He was always on display.

He was always the one that everybody was focused on.

And wouldn't it be right for David to pray, oh God, I am pretty much exposed before all.

Direct me according to Your Word, that I might bring You glory, and I might be useful in Your kingdom.

And again, that's why I say to you that we need to think about that.

You know, we really are always on display.

Now I'm not just saying that we ought to be actors, but what I'm saying is we are constantly on display, every one of us, in every situation of life, somebody's watching us.

And so what better than to be directed in every step by God's Word, and changed, and transformed, and renewed, and our thoughts being washed.

And I remember a long, long time ago when I first came to Christ, and I was still in the Teamsters, and it's a tough group of guys, and it was a hard environment to witness the Gospel.

Nevertheless, we did.

And I remember people would come at me, especially when I was just starting to, my soul was just lighting up, and they would say, you know something, you're brainwashed.

Somebody brainwashed you.

And I always used to defend it, and I always used to say, no, that's not known.

And then I started to realize, wait a minute, that's exactly what's happened.

And then I started to say, you're right, I've been brainwashed, and my brain needs to be further washed by the Word of God.

And when I said that, that was the end of the conversation, because they didn't have, they didn't have the edge over me anymore.

But again, that's a thought to think about that.

As he says that God would direct him, that his steps would be directed by the Word of God.

And here's another thought.

He says, direct my steps according to Word.

How could anyone, just asking you to think about this, how could anyone who does not truly desire to be guided and directed by God's Word in every step of their life, how could they ever really live a right life? Now I'm not saying they can't live a happy life.

I'm not even saying they can't live a profitable life.

But they cannot live a right life.

If truly life is in Christ, then how could anyone who rejects God's Word ever be one that lives a right life? It's just, it's not possible.

If someone does not desire that his or her every step is directed by the Lord, then they can never really live the way God intended them to live.

So that's another thing to think about.

And again, that's why I think the exhortation is, what's the exhortation that James says? That we ought to receive with meekness the engrafted Word, which is able to what? To save our souls.

So again, to me, when I read things like this, it's a great encouragement, and it's a great instruction to me that you and I really need to consider ourselves as those that truly desire to be directed by God's Word.

And so I say to you when we pray, we ought to pray to that end.

You ought to pray for me that God would conform me according to His Word.

And I ought to pray for you that God would conform you according to His Word.

Because here's the reality, the more I am conformed to God's Word, the less issues I'm going to cause you, and the less issues you're going to cause me.

And would that not solve the issues of life if everybody was conformed to the Word of God? You think about it as far as government, we would pray for governments and authorities and rulers, and we pray for this, and we pray for Republicans, and we pray for Democrats and Independents, and we pray that they would do this, and they wouldn't do that.

How about we pray that God would conform our leaders to be directed by His Word? Because if they were directed by His Word, we wouldn't have to worry about all those other things, right? Because it would flow out of us.

And again, direct my steps according to Your Word is, there's so much to be thought about in that.

We pray for others that way.

We pray in our relationships.

That's the one thing I pray for my wife more than anything else, is that she might see Christ higher, and higher, and higher.

That she might be conformed to His image, not my image, because I will mess it up.

But the images that God would direct her steps, and if God's directing my wife's steps, then I'm a happy man, right? And again, that's where you and I ought to find ourselves.

And so we should never run out of thoughts about, what do I pray about? Let's pray about that, that God would direct our steps according to His Word.

And I'll leave you with this, just to think about it.

It's not easy to do this.

What I'm saying is not easy.

And if you think it's easy, it's because you don't understand what's involved in it.

It's not easy to work out our own salvation, is it? It's not easy to fight against the tide of this world.

It's not easy to humble ourselves before God's Word, and truly desire that God would direct by His Word.

It takes a lot of discipline.

I remember one time, and just the thought that came to me, I remember one time someone asked me how long it took me to prepare a message.

And I said to him, an hour and 30 years, because it takes time, right? It's not something that you just get up and, unless you're truly, especially gifted.

But my point is, it's going to take us discipline, brothers and sisters, to truly seek and be directed by God's Word.

And again, this reality of, you know, you come to Christ and all of a sudden the heavens open up, and you know, you're walking on clouds the rest of your life, and your feet never touch the ground.

There's something wrong in that kind of theology.

The reality is it takes discipline, it takes work.

The Lord Jesus Christ resisted unto blood, striving against sin.

There was never a time when they can make a true accusation against the Lord Jesus Christ.

They made many accusations, but never a true one.

They could never catch Him.

And how often did they try to trap Him, and catch Him, and twist His words? But you see, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of Man, was directed by the Father's Word, by the Father's will, by the Father's desire, and therefore there was no enemy that could overcome Him.

May we be those who truly desire, truly desire to be directed in our every step by God's Word.

And I'll leave you with the thought of Psalm 32.

It talks about how there's two ways in which, basically, God leads people.

It says, God says, don't be like the horse or the mule that have to have the bit and the bridle put in their mouth to direct their steps.

But He says, be guided by My eye.

Now just think about it.

How many of us as parents tried to get our kids to be that way? That, and I remember my wife, all she had to do was, she raised her eye and my kids knew exactly what was going on.

But we ought not to be the ones who have to have the bit and the bridle.

We ought to be the ones who are guided by God's eye, by His Word, and that our steps will be brought into conformity to Him.

So again, I hope that going through the Psalm 119 will be beneficial to us.

And again, not that we go out here and say, that was fantastic thinking.

But little by little, we would start to piece together in our lives that we have to have the Word of God as our foundation, and then we have to have a desire, and then we have to have the ability to humble ourselves and submit to it.

So may God bless us.