YP Talk—Stephen Rule
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I'm sorry if I can father we.
Will December.
Our life.
Are so.
Hard.
We will.
Nor can.
I.
Turn.
For Oscar, for all of their hands.
Are in thy hands.
Ending till we.
Come up this week every time.
And all of my glory.
Before we pray and before you close your handbook or if you get it back open real quick. Uh, the somebody said we do more lying behind the hymn book than we do just about anywhere else in life. I'm not talking about verse four. Our times are in the hands. Jesus the crucified, the hand are many sins that pierced is now our garden guide. I'm talking about verse six. Our times are in the hand. We always trust in me until we have left us weary land and all thy glory. See, but my desire is that we.
Don't look at it as as a lie saying stands like that, but as a prayer that as we feed on the Lord Jesus, as we enjoy him together, as we make it our life habit of thinking of our unimaginably good God that it would become more and more true of us. And so when we sing hymns like this, sing them with a conscious sense that may not be totally true. Verse one our times are in thy hand, Father, we wish them there.
Not always, but we can sing that as a prayer and have that as a desire that really we would and as we get to know our Father better.
It will become more and more true of us. Let's just ask for help.
00:05:01
OK.
Just wanna review that person I read at the tail end yesterday.
Really, this is my main desire. I wanna cover a bunch of details today. You notice I flip forward. I'd like to start at the very end #8 the God of joy in a moment or two. But before we get there. And I, I want to start there because it's one I wanna make sure we don't skip. We'll skip several, probably. I wanna make sure we don't skip that one. So we're gonna start with #8 in a moment or two. But before we do that verse in First Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 9.
1St Corinthians 2, verse 9.
But as it is written, I have not seen, nor ear heard, neither ventured into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
But really, if you get nothing else out of.
Talk yesterday evening or this morning, I hope it's this, that what God has for you and it's hard toward you is not something you could figure out by the world you observe around you, by any father that you see or mother that you see, or beloved brother or sister that you see. Whatever you see, whatever you hear, or whatever is in your mind, naturally, the natural mind of Mass isn't going to make it up to.
How good your God is, how good my God is, how good God is, period. What God has for those that love him is so much better. You're not going to get it out of what you see around you. You're only going to get it through God's Word. And so it's very important that we're taking in God's Word because it gives us the truth about our unimaginably good God.
Think about what you observe around you. I thought of it this way just to kind of get an idea.
How many of you know how Cain killed Abel?
OK, many of you know the story that can kill the table, right? But I mean the method. I'm talking about the method. How many of you know the method that Cain used to kill Legal?
The Bible pictures show that, right? You have a little Ki little kid Bible. It picks up a rock. Uh, I don't know. Does the Bible say I didn't double check, but.
Right, exactly. So I don't know the method, but to make it memorable. So I, I wanna begin with that. So what I'm about to say, what Alex just said is about what I'm going to say. But remember, that's not a physical description from the Bible. It's going to be the principle I want to bring out. Suppose that in the day of Cain killing Abel, he did use a rock like the Bible pictures, probably easy to draw, maybe use a headlock. I don't know what he did, but we'll say he used a rock.
Let's say this afternoon.
At the UH Circle K in Carrollton, some disgruntled former employee walks in with UH Glock pistol and it becomes national news because of all the damage they do in the Circle K and Carrollton. So the headline is from the Rock to the Glock, The Ascent of Man, right?
What's changed? Look at the technological progress, right? Look at how much more efficient it is today. Look at how much more you can accomplish in a minute or two.
From the rock to the Glock, it's the same story, right? It's the heart of man expressing itself in self will and rebellion against God.
But what about the heart of God? Look, you can read back in the story. It's amazing how God responded to Cain. It's amazing how many people that commit a crime like that receive the mercy of God in prison. I've spoken to one. My dad interacts with him constantly. He's a wonderful brother and the Lord now, but his history is just about as bad as what I just described. So it's the word of God that makes a difference in the heart of God that makes the difference. So let's look at the.
God of Joy 01 other One other thing I did want to mention before we turn there, Brother Brian mentioned during the conference about working in a garlic factory. I thought of a similar thing in the past and I'd like you to think of it in this way. Suppose you were busy and you're what they call a news feed zombie. You know what a news feed zombie is? It's a fairly new word, a news feed zombie.
Is one of these right?
00:10:00
Because you've got what they what they say today is you get about 3 seconds and if it's not exciting enough in three seconds, the next one, the next one, ah, there somebody defying death, a 100 foot high wave and they're surfing on it. Wow, 43 seconds. I could do that in 33.
And you're looking for the next stupid cat hanging on to the end of the fan, twirling the ceiling and running, hitting the wall. You already saw that with three geared little brother may be excited by that one, but you've already seen that one four times. That's a news feed zombie. That's the person who is looking for that next quick hit of excitement. All right, That's not the way God presents himself. But if that's what we're filled with, and maybe it's a little longer, maybe it's a long period of time reading about whatever the topic is, what we're feeding on.
Is what's going to smell on our breath so you turn to your friend and you're walking down to the car afterwards and hey, did you see that Did you know that and what comes out of our mouth is what we're feeding on right. I had a colleague an older man and every time every between every class he ran those little closet he reached in and grabbed his breath mince and he took a couple of breath mints between these class because.
What he'd been feeding on kept coming out and he wanted to hide it, and sometimes around others. We grabbed for a couple of spiritual breath mints and we talked about something nice for a few minutes. But what's on going on in our digestion isn't all that good.
But with what we take in, our ingestion is good and our digestion is good. What comes out of us is the beautiful scent of the things.
And so that's what I want to encourage is the habit of picking up God's word and pausing, dwelling on it, spending time there so that while we're taking in and what we're digesting is what's coming out of us. And it's a beautiful thing. So the God of joy, if you would turn with me, I really like this one.
For Chronicles 9, verse 33.
I say these things are intensely and immensely practical. I'll give you an example after I read the verse, but before we talk about it, First Chronicles Chapter 9 and verse 33.
And these were the singers, chief fathers of the Levites, who were in the chambers free from service.
For they were employed day and night.
Now, there are multiple reasons why there's a special, but I wanna give you just one example of why these things are intensely practical and uh, so this has a good ending.
Last night I went down and you guys were making the ice cream and you went through and then people vanished out of the room and it looked like the activities and so on were over. And, uh, so you took off and I thought, oh, that's interesting. I thought they're gonna have snacks or something. I was gonna eat a little bit of fruit and maybe try something. Oh, well, that's fine. I'll go back up and have a real, real nice conversation with close De Luis on my way back to the room. Went back to the room.
And a little while later, my wife came by with a nice bowl of fruit and some salsa and said, hey, how come you're not down there? Oh, well, I didn't realize there was anything else going on. Oh, they got root beer floats and it sounded pretty nice. And I thought, well, what should I do? And I, well, you know, I'd love to have a root beer floor.
I have. I had one the other night and.
You know what, I'm just going to apply a little bit of what Mark was talking about and ask the Lord for something special and replace it because I really think ought to sit here. The first person I opened to was this one, and I especially enjoyed it. This was my root beer float last night, and it was actually better, tastier, because it says that these singers, now this is the establishing of the temple, and it says these singers, they were employed day and night. I don't.
Post physically that a single singer saying day and night, right. I assume that it means that the singers were singing day and night. But the way it's written, I think it's supposed to teach us something and that is that the job of singing was round the clock right. We sing, I think because I'm happy. It's a one of the reasons one of the main reasons for singing unless you're into country music. Well, I guess there's other kinds too, but I think in the word of God, the concept is.
Singing relates to joy as it relates to praise, it relates to Thanksgiving, it relates to flowing out of the heart, and it is day and night.
Imagine that somebody came up to you and you are one of these, umm, chief fathers of Levites who's singing and they wish to register a complaint and you check your parchment and I'm sorry, you know it's July 4th today, but I can't fit you in until around. Looks like November 1St is the first opportunity for filing the complaint. I'm booked.
00:15:17
Praising day and night between now and then, and by the time you get there, I'm afraid you're gonna bump down the list. Imagine if it were like that in our life.
Imagine if it were like that in our life. It says. They were employed today and night.
I'm not going to pretend any attainment in this, Ernest.
Uh, smartphone yesterday somehow got this little crack all the way down the side and uh, now only the left 1/3 of the screen is functional. The right 2/3 of the screen don't work. So when you swipe that little security pattern, you get the first dot and then you can't do it, can't open the thing. So what's the first thought?
At least by face you can send. This must be good. And so you can leave my face, thank the Lord, and maybe someday rise up to the day and night, singing and praise. So it's something that we grow in.
And that's where I want you to turn next. If you turn to Leviticus 19, it kind of gives a little bit of an idea, I think that there's growth here.
So it's not meant to be.
The measuring stick for the perfect believer. So you can feel guilty and ashamed that you're not praising at every moment. But it is a privilege. It's an opportunity. But I think this next one gives a privilege and uh, sort of a, a pattern maybe, umm, like to apply it that way. Anyway, Leviticus chapter 19 and verse 23. We'll read 3 verses.
And when you shall come into the land, and shall have planted all manner of trees for food, then you shall count the fruit thereof as uncircumcised. Three years shall it be as uncircumcised unto you. It shall not be eaten up, but the 4th year all the fruit thereof shall be holy, to praise the Lord with all. And in the fifth year shall ye eat.
Of the fruit thereof, that it may yield unto you the increase thereof, I am the Lord.
You're gone. There's a lot here.
But a lot of fruit trees in the Land of Israel, Book of Deuteronomy talks a lot about them when they got into the land and what they were going to do with the fruit trees and so on. It's very interesting, the fig trees, et cetera, that they had, and there's a lot of instruction in it, but these were to be uncircumcised to them. That is, they were to be cut off from the fruit of those trees for three years.
The 4th year.
Who got the fruit?
Got you and the 5th year who got through.
I did. Now there was a feast of first fruits. I suppose I gave God the first fruits in those years when the crops came in, but in the fifth year they could start to eat. And I think there's a principle here. And in fact, look for the pattern in the Word of God, you'll find over and over and over again. And the Word of God, it says refuse the evil and choose the good. It doesn't say choose the good and refuse the evil.
Different evening. And today I really want to focus on our unimaginably good God. But I do need to mention this part of kind of a little bit of a balance and that is that the principle in the Word of God is to refuse what's evil 1St. And you'll find that pattern repeated over and over and over again. You'll see it in the pistols in the New Testament. It's refusing evil and choose the good.
Why? Well, there's multiple reasons, but one of them here is that when they came into the land of Canaan, the Canaanites in that land had a habit of taking the fruit from the trees. And they were like, they were like, I don't know, maybe somebody who's trying to grow fruit like me and Spirit, you know, we have apple trees in our backyard. One of them is three years old, one of them is 2 years old. And you want to go out there and look at those little, teeny little things and you want to kind of.
Create a little bigger because I'd really like a Honeycrisp apple and shake the other one with the one of golden. Those are really good apples and I'd like to get bigger. Piece of hunt on the tree just doesn't work that way. Takes a while to develop and grow. But you know the Canaanites and all of us are flesh. It's just like that silly person shaking the tree and making the Honeycrisp grow. What happens is.
They decided that if they offered sacrifices to their idols like bail, et cetera.
They could get a faster crop and so in the first year they have offered all the sacrifices to bail etcetera and they tried to get that joy round one right now, instant gratification.
00:20:11
Uh, no, that doesn't apply, does it? Umm, instant gratification. I wanted it right now. Give it to me now. Give me my if we go back on to Louis from yesterday. Give me my out of bounds when I need it now.
Because, because, because I can't see it and I want it. I want it now. But right here they're being taught that you cut off what's evil. Don't sacrifice the idols. Don't have to have it immediately. You wait in faith on God and I will give you and you put me first. I get the crop in the fourth year and then you can eat abundantly of those trees.
Now I'll I'll echo something as a little bit of a balance of that.
I think Mark said yesterday, and that is illustrated by this. My favorite candy when I was young. Sorry Joe, this is worse than raisins. I think we're now in laters.
Sticky hard toffee thingy about once every two weeks. When we mom got the little, uh wagon, she took all three of us little kids and she walked down the 1 1/2 blocks to the NP to get groceries. And on the way back was a little skinny candy store and we could go. We had $0.50 for a dollar or something. We could buy one thing. And I, my sisters who weren't wise like I was, they got like an ice cream cone or something. It was gone by the time they got home, but I got now and later.
And I get a one now and later on the way home. And that was good. And another one, and another one, and another one, and another one. And my candy lasted several days.
But actually I think that name is pretty good. God often gives us things now, houses and lands and brethren and sisters and fathers he speaks of in the Gospels now and in the life to come. And there's the wonderful of what's ahead. And often in the principle in our lives. The principle is that self-discipline and waiting for God to give, giving him the 1St place and then deeply enjoying what he has for us. But often in his grace he gives.
Things along the way, some of his fruit while we're waiting for the fruit from our tree. So that's a principle in joy. The next one, I'll maybe do one or two more on joy and then I'll go to the next one. Yeah, uh, let's turn to two verses in Romans, Romans 5, verse 11.
This gives a New Testament.
Principal, I think at least it illustrates it. You can double check on that, but let's read Romans 5 and verse 11 and it says that not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the.
It says atonement here Mr. Darby has reconciliation.
According to all the reasons why but reconciliation is a better translation. So this is some people have said joy is a high point in the book of Romans, joy and God. That's as good as a gift in the book of Romans and in the very same verse. It's coupled with the fact that we have by whom we have now received the reconciliation. Hang on to that thought One more verse from Romans.
In Romans 15 and verse 13.
I want 15 and verse 13.
Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that she may abound in hope for the power of the Holy Ghost. He may abound and hope to the power of the Holy Ghost in the first part fill you with all joy and peace, I believe.
Before I develop the thought of those two verses and what I think is true in a pattern across the New Testament, because if you take that word.
Transliterated chara. I'm not sure how to pronounce it. I'm not a Greek scholar. Just look it up on your strongs. And it's CHARA when they transliterate it, so I call it chara. If you look at that Greek word for joy in the New Testament, and you go through all of them, I think you're gonna see a pattern we're gonna come to in a moment.
But one of you had on a that new T-shirt slash Internet meme the other day. Keep calm and the little crown on the bottom and I forget what. Maybe it's one of not one of you, but one person that's hearing is gone. I don't know. Keep calm and pick up coffee. Keep calm and you know all of those things. Do you know where that came from?
00:25:05
Anyone know where that came from?
OK, a couple of you do. Where'd it come from? Silence.
Yep, in England during World War Two, keep calm and carry on. And there's actually a bookstore in Alnwick, northern England, where they discovered one of those old posters about 7-8 years ago or something, and they put it on their website and somebody found it, grabbed it, and it took off. But they found that was exactly what it was. And the reason I bring it in here is that keep calm and carry on is the way many of us try to do our Christianity. Keep calm and carry on. The stiff upper British lips facing the great trial. Keep calm.
And move forward, Winston Churchill, you know, we'll fight them on the beaches, we'll fight them, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, right? That's strong. We're going to meet the challenge.
There's nothing wrong with being strong and medium challenge. There's spiritual warfare, and that was wonderfully covered here last year. But that's not the only thing. In Christianity, God is a God of joy, and really the joy is now and in the future. And so here's the principle. I believe that joy in the New Testament happens when there is the power of the Spirit of God bringing us into alignment with God. You can think of reconciliation as coming into perfect alignment.
And we are reconciled to God, so he doesn't need to move, and we're brought up into alignment with him and everything is lined up properly.
And then there is joy, and that occurs at the very beginning. And the great principle of it in Romans 5, because of the work on the cross, we can be reconciled to God back back into alignment with them so that there is a free flow of joy. And I think you'll find lots of verses in the New Testament that connects joy with sin being taken care of out of the way.
And therefore the full power of the Holy Spirit to connect us to that full flow of all the God is.
So here's the image I have in my mind for it. It helps thicken my mind. Maybe it'll help thicken yours if you have the backyard. Everybody have a backyard. Nobody lives in the condo apartment with no backyard. OK, so you're gonna water your backyard. It's your job to water the daffodils. And you go back to the backyard and your your hose is stuck into the tap and it's a little bit loose. You turn it on, there's.
Spray there, but it's not too bad and you go to the other end and nothing's coming out.
Right. Nothing's coming out of the other end of the hose. It's because that thing on the end of the hose, right? You gotta squeeze the thingy on the end of the hose and adjust the stream. You got a lot of water. Squeeze the thing on the end of the hose and you just fit.
What's the problem?
Got a king of mine.
And if there's no joy coming out of your life and there's no joy coming out of my life, that's kinking the line somewhere along the way, there might not be sin, may just be something where, you know, I, I don't wanna be over simplistic. A lot of you are tired this morning. I'm not judging you or me or anybody else. If you're sagging like this and your eyes aren't bright and dancing and you're not bouncing up and down and writing as fast as you can, it's not because there is sin in your life. It's not what I'm trying to convey.
There's physical tiredness, there's a need for a little bit of.
Food when you have hypoglycemia and it's been too long between your last pack and now, etcetera. Purely hypothetical examples right there are those needs in life all right but as a general principle if there's not joy in the life it's because of the king in the line the Spirit of God doesn't have full liberty to bring out the beauty of your unimaginably good God because.
Maybe there's some hope, goal or desire and it's been frustrated and it hasn't happened yet and you're dwelling on that.
Rather than the God of power that can make something even better maybe happen.
And so if you look at it, the principle of it is there in Romans 5, and that's where the, uh, joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have received now, we have now received the atonement. Look at it again there in Romans 15. And there it is in practical a prayer of the apostle that it would be true of them on a day-to-day basis. Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing, and he goes on.
Roman 5 We've all got that verse for the fruit of the Spirit memorized. How does it begin? The fruit of the Spirit is.
OK so I was wrong or maybe I was right about the tired part. So for the spirit is.
Lovejoy, peace. And it goes on to the other six aspects, right starts with love, the second one's joy. And what's the the fruit of the the fruit of the spirit. What came right before that in the chapter, do you know?
00:30:07
90, I'll give you 98%, right? I'll throw this little bonus in and a little bonus and I've looked for it. Maybe you can find one. So I'll just say that I think I'm pretty confident that you'll never find the fruit of the flesh. Whenever there's fruit, it's always what God produced.
Yeah. OK, so you're, you're right. What comes before is all the works of the flesh, right? And flesh works, God produces fruit. And So what you have right before is the setting aside of those works of the flesh. And then right away comes the Spirit of God, when the Spirit of God can work because the works of the flesh have been set aside.
Then immediately you've got joy. So when that hose has been unkinked, and maybe it's a little painful, you know, sometimes they get all tangled in the Kinkos, right in the mirror. They're in the middle of the tangle and it takes a little while sometimes, right?
You gotta unwind, untangle, and then you can get to the kink and you can straighten it out, and then there's a flow. It's not always immediate and simple, but when it's unhindered flow, there's no problem in the source.
It's somewhere between the source and where it's flowing out that there's a problem. And when that's taken care of, there's the proper flow. OK, let's go to the second one, and the second one is not going backwards there again, I want to make sure that I got in the ones that were. I'd like to go to number six here, which is the God of intimate personal.
Knowledge.
We need a volunteer so that you can relax. It's not going to involve anything intimate or personal, but I do need.
You can have that intimate personal relationship with God.
Umm, but I do need a volunteer, so I'm gonna do a little task for me.
Maybe even not more than 5 minutes.
Just while I'm reading some verses, I'd like you to do something. While I read those verses for me, I'd like to make a point. Thank you.
All I'd like you to do is I went down to the volleyball courts there yesterday and I filled this apple sand.
They won't notice there are tons of sand on the volleyball card, right? There's a lot of sand on the beach and there's no sand that leaves the lake that even begins to compare with where Anna's heading, uh tomorrow, uh, to the Gulf Coast in Alabama. Sorry Anna, didn't mean to do that to you. Umm, so this is just a minuscule amount of sand and I would like you to please tweezer the mount one by one and count them.
This cup for me. Just give us a count here when I'm done reading the next set of verses. Turning your Bibles to Psalm 130.
9.
I'm 139.
There's a lot more here than we can cover, so I'm not going to read the entire chapter, but I'd like to read the beginning and then apart a little bit further on.
Umm, second.
There read from verse one to verse 10, and a little set of verse a little further on. And so the chief musician, the Psalm of David. Oh Lord, thou hast searched me and known me. Thou knowest my down sitting and mine uprising. Thou understandeth my thought afar off. Thou compasseth my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways, for there is not a word in my tongue.
But lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether. Thou beset me behind and before, and lay thine hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me this high. I cannot attain unto it.
Whither shall I go from thy spirit, or whither shall I flee from Thy presence? If I have stand up into heaven, thou art there. If I make my bed in hell, behold thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall hold me. I'd like to turn down just a little bit further on.
To verse 15. I'll read a couple verses there. My substance.
Was not hid from thee when I was made in secret and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Lanai did see my substance yet being unperfect. And in my book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. How precious are thy thoughts unto me, O God, How great is the sum of them, if I should count them.
00:35:07
They are more in number than the fans.
When I awake, I am still with me.
I'll read it one more time so I can get a little bigger count here. If I should count them, they're more in number than the sand. Thank you very much. How did you get through?
60 Can you imagine counting the volleyball court down there today?
Alright, thank you very much. Appreciate it.
Just wanna get a little tiny visceral feel for what it means, You know, we can read out the word of God and.
And we're almost like the News Feed zombie, right?
Hey wow, that always took 3 minutes to get through my chat this morning. But it's important to pause, to meditate, to digest what we're reading. And as you meditate and digest and think about it, just I'll read it one more time. If I should count them, they are more in number than the stand.
His thoughts toward me, not just his thoughts in designing this grand and wonderful universe. Not just his thoughts and keeping everything in alignment so that the coming of the Lord will become at the perfect time or whatever. His thoughts toward you. It says that's how David expresses it to get an idea. It's more than the grains of the sand.
If you wanna look at this world in this earth and you wanna come up with something that you could count.
Imagine David, and I don't know when the sum is written. The heading just says that it's David, the Psalm of David. I don't know where in his life this fell.
I'd like to think it occurred later in his life just because it comes toward the end of the thumbs, but I know they're not arranged that way. But they had an experience running in a wilderness, right? And the wilderness in Judea, yes, there's shrubs and there's rocks and so on, but there's a lot of sand as well, even was back then. And so you've got an incredible amount that, David, when you look out there, stand everywhere. Can you imagine all those greens?
And counting them. And yet when you want something to express how God was thinking about, I mean, he picks the number.
Bigger than the biggest thing you could imagine. I think he also talks about stars, right? That was the other thing that he could count that he saw, and he speaks in other songs about that.
Bob God giving them names. By the way, I did want to illustrate one other point. Thank you very much for volunteering without reward for a thankless, boring task of counting 60 grains of sand. And I know that you may have zero interest in figures, but I really don't want to eat all of it. So you want to pick one. If you don't want it, fill it to one of your brothers or.
I can get it get the joy of all right. You can get the Facebook keyboards.
Alright.
I did want to illustrate the fact that God often asked us for something in our life, asked us for obedience, and we go through it because he said to do it without any sense of reward. Very often. He's the God of now and later. And so now the rest of you volunteered for that. Thankless on on. Not the rest of you have a Snickers bar either.
And that's the way it is also in our lives. You know, God of joy doesn't prom. You know, now you can't say, oh, by the way, I'll put my hand up. I'll be happy to count the next 60 grains. And often in the way that God gives to us in our lives, he gives to us the joy of communion with him or he surprises us with a kindness we didn't expect to see coming. And we go back and see what that is. Hey, you know, yesterday I read an extra 15 minutes. I think I'll read 15 extra minutes today.
That would be like you volunteering right now. Now that you know what's going to happen and you'll volunteer and it doesn't have the same character, does it?
And so God often doesn't give in that way. But I wanna go back through this Psalm and pick out a few things here that relate to the God of intimate personal knowledge. So go back to verse two and it says, thou knowest my down sitting in my uprising. Thou understandeth my thought. How far off? Now here's a beautiful thing here. I think the whole verse holds it together.
So I don't really think that the main thought, at least in the verse, is you walked in here.
45 minutes ago roughly or a little bit less and you sat down in your chair and you did a down sitting and in 15 ish minutes you're going to do it up rising that's not.
Better not be before that.
But there's a down sitting and the uprising, right? That's not physically what he's talking about. I don't think down sitting is that settling down. And I think in in David's case, you look all the way to the bottom at the end of the chapter, how he wants to be searched and known by God. I think these things are primarily in David's mind, spiritual things in his life. And you know, long before David sinned with Bathsheba.
00:40:23
He was doing a down city, he was doing a settling down.
In his heart, and he says here to God, speaking to God, you know, if I'm settling down in my heart, I might not even know. He wants to be searched later on. So it'll know, right? But I might be sitting down in my heart or something that nobody else here could see. And maybe we can't even see it ourselves. But there may have been a stirring up. And that's what the uprising is. It's a stirring up. I wrote it down from the strong. It's to rouse up or stir up. There's a lot of the thought there.
The uprising. And so maybe over the last few days there's just been a little flame. It's turned on in your heart, maybe something you heard yesterday, the day before during the conference, some comment made by somebody else. Are you walking behind them along the way? And they're talking together and you heard a little ****** of something and it right went inside and there's been a little bit of a stirring up in your heart. God sees that.
And he's going to just most, yeah, most of you, probably all of you, virtually all of you in the room. We're out on the pontoon boat the other night for the thing, and there was a fire starting going on so you could have your smakos.
Right. The person starting the fire spent a lot of time getting those little bits and pieces going before, I suppose when you dock, if you happen to be looking that way, you could have seen a nice going fire by the time you got off. But the person who was building that fire took quite a while to carefully put it all together, get it going nightly so that the loss would burn. And that's what God is at work doing in your life, that uprising, that kindling, that giving it.
To go and getting it to burn, the Lord knows exactly all about it, but if there's a settling down, if there's sort of a damping down on the fire, the person making it needs to work at it a little bit more to get it to go further. I want to give you another thought about this God of intimate knowledge, and that is just a little bit further down. Let's see if I can.
Find it right? Yeah, the next, next verse.
That compasses my path and my lying down, which means prostate for sleep. I suppose we could apply this different way, but lying down me is just going flat for sleep.
So how many of you does that sound really good right about now?
Do you know that Lord knew that?
Knows exactly what you need.
And I, at least as I read this, because of the whole verse and are acquainted with all my ways, He does know spiritually whether or not we are lying down and going prostate. So there's that aspect. But I like to think of it, and I believe it's true as well. The Lord knows exactly how you feel at the moment. You know better than you do how tired you are. You know, sometimes you can be really tired. You get into good conversation, you bounce back. But if you're at the edge of the grave and you're getting a good conversation.
Just, you know, you're not gonna bounce back.
So if you're feeling really tired, I'm, uh, tired, maybe maybe you're just kind of tired.
And the Lord knows exactly what level of tired you're at. He knows about your prostate lying down on the inside. You know it's about it spiritually. You know it's about it physically. He's aware of it and he's taking care of it. He'll provide for you and you can turn to him. You know he knows about your lying down. There's another one, umm, the well, we'll skip over that one. I wanna hit a just the highlights and the time we have left. So let's go down to verse 9.
And look at verse 9 briefly. If I take the wings of the morning.
And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea.
Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.
The wings of the morning, the beautiful poetic expression, The wings of the morning. There's probably a book out there with that title. It's probably it looks like the title you'd put on the on a missionary book. Maybe the wings of the morning, right? The wings mean the very edges of something. So the wings, this word used here for because it's the very edges of the bird, the thought isn't so much one of uplifting as the various edge, the wing of.
Wing, the left wing of the army, the right wing of the army, the same word gets used apparently for the very edges of the thing. And so the very edges of the morning. Now most here, it's kind of hard to see the very edges of the morning, right, because you got a hill back there that blocks it. But if you, umm, maybe Anna tomorrow. No, not tomorrow morning, Anna. Friday morning.
00:45:21
She gets up and goes down to the beach and she looks in the general direction of the rising sun, which should be easy if it's a Long Beach, even though your beach is going to face SI think.
But if you go sit there and you look off to your left sitting on the beach, you may be able to see to the wings of the morning, the very horizon. And I think the thought here is the farthest edge of where you can go. So suppose there's a center like a like a bird has a center right and way out there at the edge, far from your comfort zone, far from your friends, far from your family, if the Lord puts you in that situation.
Is he there with you? I take the wings in the morning.
If I'm way out there at the edge, far from everything else, and everybody else, is the Lord there watching over? Yeah, absolutely. And the uttermost part of let's see. Well, there's a lot of ways that could be applied.
Other most parts of the sea. But think about it in David's day.
David didn't Don scuba gear.
I don't know if you have a snorkel, you could have as normal, right? 511 tells anything about it except because it's not important.
But he didn't don't scuba gear, and he certainly didn't go down in the bath of gas or the modern equivalent to ones at the bottom of the Marianas Trench either, right?
But it could have gone out into the sea and you go out into the Mediterranean Sea and you drop something into the Mediterranean Sea and it just goes and it's gone, right?
It's gone for good if you drop it there, right and so.
The uttermost part of the sea is way down there where it just seems totally and completely lost. That's just far from everything else just gone.
Is it?
Am I just gone from everything else? You know, sometimes in our thoughts and our feelings, we just feel completely lost, completely far from everything else. But David is saying even the uttermost parts of the sea, umm, even there shall thy hand lead me first hand?
You can't get out of a place where God's hand can't reach you and lead you.
No, David didn't want to be that far away, and so he becomes joyful in the rest of this song. Let's turn to another one. I'm going to go back.
Hit a few highlights here and the rest of our time and the point is not to cover 8 perfect points. There aren't 8 perfect points, just some highlights of our unimaginably good God. Well, look at the God.
Communication.
You know that volunteer.
Thank you, Kristen. Umm.
Krishna, would you just?
Step outside that door for a brief moment. I'm not kicking you out. I'll, I'll wave you in here just a second or two. I'm gonna read a small number of verses. Well, you can wait by the door, by the door and you can hear the verses. Turn to 1St John, chapter one.
First John, chapter one.
Uh, verse one.
That which was from the beginning is that which we have heard.
We have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the word of life.
But for the lifeless manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us, that which we have seen and heard declarely unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us. And truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things write me unto you, that your joy may be full.
00:50:08
OK, now Christian.
Would you, umm, let me ask you to step outside the door and off that direction, in between the window and the door where I can't see you? I'm gonna yell for you here in a moment.
Thanks. That's good enough right there. Perfect on that part. You can come in the air conditioning. Appreciate it.
Go back to verse one.
That which we was from the beginning, that means the beginning of Christianity. John's describing all that, the relationship that described by the sun coming into this world, which we have heard.
You heard me, didn't you?
I hate to see the spike in your recording there, Christian Herdbings. All right? He I couldn't see him. They heard him.
You know, perhaps over the last few days you've heard something of the voice of God speaking to your heart through his word, through something sad, whether it's in a meeting or not in a meeting or wherever it was. Maybe you've heard it. And I asked Christians a step closer.
Than he did now.
Which we have seen with our eyes.
Uh, but we're all looking at Christian, right? You can see him with his eyes. He's a little closer. But you know, I can't really tell.
I can't. You know, I got a better idea now, right? But if you really wanna get to know Christian, then stop. close enough, isn't it?
So it's the next part of it says which we have looked upon. Would you come here where my ancient eyes can look on your person?
Umm, wow, lighting's a lot better now. Thank you. So I could begin to, umm, get to know Christian a little bit better. Glad you have a conversation because I can actually look into his eyes now and get to know him a little bit better. And I'm not going to go too far on this next month. I'm going to shake your hand, which our hands have handled. Thank you very much. Appreciate that. And uh, I, I will apply another verse.
Since I don't know what his thoughts were, but uh, the labor is worthy of entire. You got one on your way back. Alright, pass it on to somebody else. That's fine. Thank you.
All right, here's my point.
The apostle John is trying to communicate to the people that he's writing to about God, and he knew God so well that his head had rested on the Lord's chest at the meal.
Right now that's hands up handles, that's about as close as you can get. That's the intimate, close and personal communication that John had. Christian, can you hear my voice outside? But I thought I needed to yell as loud as I could possibly yell because a nice big stick door that's closed there. Once he steps inside, you can tell a lot more about him and that's good. And it comes closer and you can begin to, uh, get a much better idea of what Christian looks like and then you.
Our hands have handled of the Word of life and that is the opening verse to the book.
So what does John want to do? He wants to explain this life, the Lord Jesus. What is he like so that you can enjoy what he enjoys? It's not good enough to be way out there. You want the person as close as possible.
When I drive in the car with my wife, she doesn't ride in the trunk.
She sits next to me and depending on how windy the road is and whether it's raining or whatever, I fairly often will hold her hand while I'm driving. Don't worry. And the night coming in here on our way on the way. And the other night I had both hands on the wheel.
Somewhat practical, but the point is that if you want intimate personal knowledge of somebody that needs to be communicated to you what they're like, and God chose to communicate to man, to John, a witness of John through his word to you and through meditation, the power of the Spirit of God and the Word of God, you too can come to know the Lord Jesus in that same deep, intimate and personal way. And that's why.
It says on verse three, that which we have seen and heard declare unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us, and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. John wants you to enjoy the Lord Jesus as much as He did. I want you to share what I have. I want you to have in common with me what I have, a deep, personal, intimate knowledge.
00:55:09
Of the Lord Jesus Christ and why because God is out to get you and withhold your Snickers barn No because you're unimaginably good God says in verse four and these things rightly unto you that's your joy may.
3-4 that your joy may be full. My joy and your joy is never going to be full until there's that unpinked hose leading straight from.
The heart of God and the reservoir of His love to where you are at any given moment in your life. And that's why He brought this whole chain of communication to you so that not so that you can have 17 restrictions that will cut you off from all possible pleasures in your life.
But so that you can have an unhindered flow of God's love to you and that joy will flow out from you. But thank you for.