Spiritual Journey...Scripture
- Michael Dennis
- Mar 7, 2010
- Series: Spiritual Journey: Rhythms
Welcome to North Village Church. My name is Michael and I am really excited to be with you this morning as we continue through our series called “Rhythms” because we believe God created us to be in rhythm with Him and this morning we are going to talk about being in rhythm with Scripture and look in Psalms 119 in the Old Testament.
I provided a handout on the validity and authority of the Scripture. There is too much information in there to cover in a message so you can take that home and look it over a little more and let it stir up some questions. Please take the time to look it over because our desire over these 35-days is that we would become more confident of Scripture.
During these 35-days our prayer is that as a church we would become a people who are walking in rhythm with the holiness of Christ. That we might get a taste of it during this time that is so exciting, so fresh, so sweet, that we are eternally changed. To help us move in that direction I want us to spend our time this morning in Psalm 119. Take a look at verses 9-16.
9 How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping it according to Your word. 10 With all my heart I have sought You; Do not let me wander from Your commandments. 11 Your word I have treasured in my heart, That I may not sin against You. 12 Blessed are You, O LORD; Teach me Your statutes. 13 With my lips I have told of All the ordinances of Your mouth. 14 I have rejoiced in the way of Your testimonies, As much as in all riches. 15 I will meditate on Your precepts And regard Your ways. 16 I shall delight in Your statutes; I shall not forget Your word.
We don’t know who the author is of this psalm, but I want to take notice of his question in verse 9. How can a young man keep his way pure? Here we have this young man reflecting on his life. Possibly with regret of past mistakes, maybe with hope of future decisions, but in some capacity he is contemplating how he can live a life of purity.
I think all of us during this 35-day journey, during this fast, have found ourselves in a place of reflection. Perhaps we have seen some of our life that are less than pure. We have seen our shortcomings, our inadequacies, and we feel discouraged. Maybe we have found ourselves thinking about future decisions and feel unsure about where we are in our marriages, as parents, in our finances and we find ourselves thinking, “How is this going to work?” Maybe as we go through this 35-day journey as we look within to find rhythm we end up seeing more chaos and could easily become very discouraged with what we see.
As verse 9 starts out the author asks a question that I think all of us are asking which is how. How does that happen?
What is great about the psalms is that it tells us how in the next verse. Look at the second part of verse 9. By keeping it according to His word, by not wandering from His commandments, learning His statutes, telling of His ordinances, rejoicing in His testimonies, meditating on His precepts, and not forgetting a word.
We start off in verse 9 and we think, “Yes” I want a life that is pure, a life that is focused, content, passionate, free from sin, a heart that longs for Jesus, a mind that doesn’t drift toward slander, lies and pornography and in the next 5 verses it tells us how. In repetition alone it is saturating over and over and calling us to a draw closer to the Scriptures, the Bible, the word of God and somewhere around verse 12, if we are honest, our excitement starts to fade, our disposition drops a little, our body slouches, we exhale in disappointment because we so badly want to experience a life that is pure in verse 9 and when it tells us how perhaps there is a level of discouragement. Psalm 119 is telling us to simply draw close to Scripture.
Maybe some of us have been in that place where we have read the Bible and nothing changed. Maybe we have had those moments where we pour out our heart to someone and they simply tell us to read the Bible more as though it contained some magical spells that make everything just go away. Ala-ka-zam!
Probably there are some of us here this morning that are getting a little nervous because you are not really sure where I am going with this point, but I think there are sometimes when we interact with Scripture and it becomes impersonal, academic, it is just reduced to a check list of things to do that day. Over time, for some, it becomes a discipline, a duty, an obligation and if we are not careful we will find ourselves in a place where we hear our alarm go off in the morning open the Bible, read a verse or paragraph, and we are not really sure what it means.
Something about Hitites, Gentiles, and demons, so we pray for our kids, our job, our day for a couple of minutes and jump in the shower, and by the time the shampoo touches our hair we have already forgotten what we have read. It never touches our heart, we never connected with Scripture, and we never connected with God.
There is something in this passage that is so easy to read over and it starts in verse 10. Look at verses 9-10 again:
9 How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping it according to Your word. 10 With all my heart I have sought You;
“With all my heart I have sought you”, the author tells us there is a delight in his heart to seek after God. There is passionate pursuit of the person of God in these words. Have you ever chased after something with all your heart? We often overlook verse 10, but there is a passionate pursuit to draw close to God and hear from Him. There is desperation, a desire, a delight, a longing to know who God is and draw close to Him.
When we approach the Bible this way it will create a hunger, awareness, an intimacy like we have never experienced. It is like when we fast from food and in the midst of that fast we can feel our stomachs hunger for food, long for food, growl for food because we are so hungry. When we are in the midst of that fast we will suddenly notice an awareness of food that is new. We will notice restaurants we haven’t seen before. When did they open an Arby’s there…that is so exciting! We will notice food we haven’t eat before. We will notice scents we have smelled. We will notice foods we would have normally overlooked, but in the midst of our fast there becomes a heightened awareness. During this 35-day journey we want a heightened awareness to delight in Scripture. For our hearts to seek after God.
I think if we are honest that for some of us we struggle to delight in the word of God because we are skeptical of Scripture. It is difficult to delight in something if we are skeptical. We live in a culture that has become completely confused and skeptical about Scripture. We have people that see it as fiction, folk, and fairy tales. We have people that have used the Bible to bring judgment and condemnation for their own power and political views. We have people that have been raised and exposed to the Bible their whole lives and yet simply see it as academic information. We wonder if we are we really holding the words of God in our hands?
Hebrews 4 tells us the Bible is the living and active word of God. It isn’t just a book or words on a page, but it is though when these words are read that God Himself is walking in the room and speaking those words. Revealing Himself, His character, His wisdom, and that is why some will ask you to stand for the reading of Scripture because we are standing up in reverence and honor just as you would stand if the president of the United States walked into the room. God has revealed Himself to all of humanity in His word.
Apart from Scripture the best we could do is speculate about who God is and what He wants. Historically we have done this when we look up into the sky and speculate about what God is like. If it rains he must be happy because our crops will grow and we can eat. It floods he must be unhappy with us and then we try to do things to make him happy. It is complete speculation. We do this in our culture today through psychology, sociology, and philosophy trying to explain life and it is a human attempt to define God and it is all speculation, however, the Bible isn’t speculation, but revelation.
All of Scripture is supernatural revelation that isn’t about heroes of holy people in the Bible, but there is only one hero in Scripture and it is Jesus Christ. When you read the Bible you won’t find stories of heroes but of villains and over a period of 1500 years, from Genesis to Revelation it all points to Jesus Christ. There are over 40 different authors from a variety of backgrounds from kings to slaves, 3 different languages, 3 different continents, and it all points to Jesus Christ.
The entire Bible is simply a story that captures how God created all of humanity to be in relationship with Him forever, however, through sin our relationship is broken and throughout all of Scripture it is telling us that we are a people that need to be rescued and that rescue comes in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
This Bible which 2 Timothy tells us is God-breathed is where God breaks into human history, reveals Himself, speaks to us, and tells us who He is. It is supernatural revelation that doesn’t come from one or two people, which is a cult, but from multiple people. We don’t have to speculate about who this rescuer might be, but Scripture gives us promises to who He will be. Over 300 promises in the Old Testament like being born of a virgin, born in Bethlehem, a man of sorrows, betrayed, hated, beaten, pierced, die, and resurrect, and the list goes on and on. Over 300 promises that are fulfilled in Jesus Christ! No other belief system comes close to the amount of promises that are fulfilled in Christianity.
Therefore, as we come to Scripture we need to ask ourselves what stops us from delighting in the word of God? What stops us from chasing after it with all our heart? Are we skeptical of its authority? Then seek answers, but do so with an attitude of humility.
Do you know what I mean by having an attitude of humility? It means that our hearts first response isn’t to critique, but to understand. We do that in our relationships when we get into arguments with our spouses or friends. If we approach the argument to critique what the other has done wrong we will just volley insults back and forth, however, if we approach the argument to understand then we will start to make progress. When it comes to Scripture we want to approach it with an attitude of humility so that we can understand.
When we do our heart will begin to soften and Scripture will begin to reveal itself to us and we will have those ah-ha moments where things click and it will be a lot of fun. We will start to experience a delight and we won’t want to stop.
During these 35-days we are looking for Jesus to create in us a delight in Scripture so that we chase after it with a passionate pursuit.
In verse 10 we not only see his delight, but we also see his desperation.
10 With all my heart I have sought You; Do not let me wander from Your commandments.
When he is approaching Scripture it isn’t to read out of discipline or habit, but out of desperation to find God. It isn’t the newspaper or a magazine, but there is a meditation and pursuit of God in the word. The author treasures it, he rejoices in it, he id desperate for it.
Sometimes people will chase after Scripture for the sake of knowledge and learning information. There is something in us that wants to know more than the next person so we read Scripture to prove our points, impress our friends, or point out others sin, but a delight and desperation of Scripture doesn’t come from simply seeking knowledge. I have had times in my life where I chased after a lot of knowledge and it didn’t create any delight or desperation for Scripture. For the author of psalm 119 it is out of desperation.
What is the last thing you did out of desperation? Get to the doctor because you were desperate to get better? Go on a date because you were desperate to get away from your kids? Study because you were desperate to pass a test? Most of our desperation comes in moments because most of the time we are doing okay, but this guy knew he was desperate for God. Did you know all of us are completely desperate for God?
Scripture teaches us our hearts are rebellious and wicked and that we don’t chase after God and in fact we run from God because we don’t want anything to do with God which is never a popular message that people get excited about. People will want to push back and think we aren’t that bad, basically good people, who do good things and every once in awhile a Charles Manson sneaks through, but Scripture teaches us for humanity to dwell in the presence of God He doesn’t require basically good people, but instead perfect people. All we have to do is weigh our life against something as simple as not lying to see that we aren’t perfect people. None of us, no not one, and some of us will still push back and think, “Well maybe white lies but they don’t count”. Yes, they count. They are all lies and all of us are liars, we steal, we lust, worship idols like our jobs, our kids, ourselves and it goes on and on and we are completely imperfect people guilty before God and for us to dwell in the presence of a Holy and Perfect God then we need to be Holy and Perfect.
This should feel like a weight that is impossible to carry and some of us are stubborn and we see it as a challenge and our heart deceives us because we either have a low view of God or a high view of yourself and you think your perfection is enough for God’s standard and it isn’t. That is why God came to us, that is why Jesus walked among us, that is why when He died it was for our sin and our imperfection and a Christian is one who trusts that when Jesus died it was for their imperfection and through faith they become perfected in Christ. We receive the righteousness of Christ.
This is the good news. Our desperation for God isn’t going to Scripture so that Scripture can change our behavior and we can become good people. The Bible isn’t a tool to get our kids to be good kids. The Bible doesn’t teach us to be good people. The Bible teaches us to run to Jesus.
Our desperation for Scripture is because our perfection, our purity, in verse 9, only comes through faith in the perfect work of Christ on the cross. When we go to Scripture it is to learn more and grow more in our understanding of Christ, fall more in love with Him, see a bigger picture of the gospel, because it is huge, and as a result it will lead to change behavior. Jesus will bring His perfection to the surface, but it is only through Jesus.
What will happen when we neglect Scripture, where there is an absence of delight and desperation will end up naturally drifting towards finding our perfection in other things that are apart from Christ.
We will look for perfection in our marriage and try really hard to be good spouses. We will look for perfection in our jobs and try to be really good employees. We will look for perfection in our families and try to be really good parents. When we do this we will live on this roller coaster of emotions trying to find our perfection in other things and the gospel teaches us our perfection only comes through Christ. That is why we are desperate to chase after God in Scripture. That is why we come to it with a delight because we are continually reminded that our perfection is in the finished work of Christ on the cross.
This morning when we examine our hearts we need to see if we are a people who are desperate for God? Not desperate because we are supposed to be desperate, but when we look in your soul do we see someone who desperately needs more of God. This guy did. When he says, “Do not let me wander from your commandments” it isn’t because he was trying to be a good person or do the right thing, but because he knew what happened to his life when he drifted from God.
You see this is so hard for us because we want a schedule and there is a part of the 35-day journey that we like because we know for the next 35 days I just read these devotionals and it creates a schedule for us, a routine, and we love routines. We love waking up in the morning knowing where we are going and there is nothing wrong with routines, but sometimes when our relationship with God becomes routine, when it becomes a duty that we feel guilty about not doing then we miss the delight and the desperation of connecting with God through Scripture.
Do you know what happens when we approach Scripture with a delight and desperation is that we experience what is described in verses 12-13:
12 Blessed are You, O LORD; Teach me Your statutes. 13 With my lips I have told of All the ordinances of Your mouth.
In verse 13 he says, “With my lips I have told of all the ordinances of your mouth.” When we experience this delight and desperation in Scripture we can’t help but talk to other people about it. It isn’t in judgment or condemnation of others, but in an excitement of how good God is because we haven’t experienced a routine or a duty, but a relationship and we will talk about it just like we talk about life with others.
I know some of you will push back and say, “Michael, you don’t want me talking to people about God because that could get dangerous.” Yeah, I do. I don’t want you to talk to people to create fights, debates, exchange of knowledge, but if we share with others our delight and desperation then our lips will recount the glory of His word. It doesn’t need to be spectacular, but simply, “Did you know that He loves us, I didn’t know, I just read it? Did you know that He cares? Did you know that He is always with us? Did you know that and share what you are learning because it is your delight!
We did it with our children when they were first born and out of delight we sent out pictures of them wrapped in a blanket or laying naked on a bearskin rug because there was such a delight. For the psalmist each morning can be a new discovery of his desperation and his delight in the glory of God and it rolls off his tongue into the lives of other people.
This 35-day journey isn’t just some gimmick for us to do and afterwards we will just move on to something else, but it is a way for us to know Him. Do you know Him? Because honestly that is why we started this church and if we are just going to come together on Sundays stare at each other and go home and wait till the next Sunday then we should just stop. But if God can move in us so that we are tired of just living from Sunday to Sunday, bible study to bible study, and create in us a delight and desperation then lets do this until we die because God will create in us a gathering of people that are drawing after Him.