Highlights: Psalm 119 - Week 8

Things that happened over in Honduras over the last couple of weeks. So make

sure you're here. We're gonna spend a little time talking about that. Um,

it was a great trip, and I want you to know that that

the need is great, but God is sufficient. The need is great,

but God is sufficient. And uh, you know, in this morning,

our our board got together and uh we have taken on a new mission's commitment

and we're going to be supporting the Gravel Bay Orphanage over in Rowatan on a

monthly basis. And UM, it's so exciting to be able to pour into

the lives of those young people. And I just want to commend U,

commend the board, the leadership here at this church for having vision and a

heart of compassion to be able to reach out to those that just don't have

a way to help themselves and to be able to make an impact. So

I want to commend you guys on making that decision. And it's always good

to come home and immediately get right back to work. Amen. So that's

what we're gonna do. If you got a Bible, go to Psalm chapter

one nineteen Psalm one nineteen. We're gonna be ending our highlights series this morning.

Sam one nineteen Highlights. This will be the last of this series.

If you're here, I forgot to tell you, we're gonna give you an

opportunity to give as you leave today in the buckets. You can go ahead

and prepare your gift or give on the church center out. But I forgot

to do that. And I also forgot I was still an island mode,

and I forgot to pray over the offered Father. I pray right now that

you bless every person that gives every seed Psalm, that you multiply that seed

and bring an exponential harvest in the lives of your people. In Jesus Mighty

mighty name, Amen, Psalm one nineteen. We're gonna read verses one seventy

four and one seventy five Sam one nineteen, one seventy four, one seventy

five. There say Amen, not on my Oh okay, read along on

the screens. I long for your salvation, Oh Lord, and your law

is my delight. Let my soul live and it shall praise you. And

let your judgments help me. Father, anoint your word to pierce our hearts

this morning. Your word is the only change agent. On the face of

this planet. And I pray that today you would change us, that you

would do something so deep and so profound that we look back at this morning

and we know that's when our personal revival started. Lord, I ask it

in Jesus name, Amen, Amen, and amen, he says, I

long for your salvation. You know, salvation is something that we shout about,

we sing about, we we we it's the very apex of of of

Christianity. It's what Christ died for. But a lot of times we uh,

we use these words, and we talk about this a lot, but

we don't really dig into what that means, what what what exactly does it

mean? You know, we think that that salvation just keeps us out of

hell, right, I mean, that's it's it's fire insurance. That's that's

kind of what what it is. But salvation is so much deeper than that.

And I want to just kind of take a little bit of a look

um at salvation this morning, what that covenant is, and and really what

it means for us as a believer. In Psalm chapter three, it says,

arise O, Lord, save me, oh my God, where you

have struck all my enemies on the cheekbone. You have broken the teeth of

the ungodly. Salvation belongs to the Lord. Your blessing is upon your people.

Say lie, he says, Lord save me. But salvation it belongs

to you. Salvation belongs to the Lord. Ward. I know that a

lot of times we talk about my we we use the phraseology, the terminology,

um, my salvation, my salvation, my salvation. But salvation belongs

to the Lord originally. So um, you know, let's say that,

uh that that that my car breaks down and Jeremy loans me his truck,

and uh, you know, he gives me the keys and uh, he

loans me his truck and I drive his truck for a couple of weeks and

then my car gets out of the shop and I called Jeremy on the phone

and I say, hey, man, why don't you come over to the

house. I got a gift for you. You know, the Lord's just

put it on my heart to do something special for you. I got a

gift, and um, I want to present it to you, So could

you be over here about six o'clock they looting. You're gonna like it,

man, It's nice. It's best gift I've ever given. Anybody, So

come on over. I want to bless you. So Jeremy shows up at

my house at six o'clock and I walk outside and I read in my pocket

and I take out the keys to his truck, and I tossed him the

keys to his truck. He said, hey. Manage said, hey,

I want to get you. I want you to get you this truck.

And Jeremy looks at me and he says, you, dummy, that's my

truck. Yeah, but I'm giving it to you. I'm I'm giving you

the truck. You realize, I can't give him something that doesn't belong to

me. I can't give him something that I don't first have ownership of.

That's not a gift. As a matter of fact, it's it sounds ridiculous

when we think of it that way. But so many times when we think

about salvation, we think salvation is something that we initiate, and therefore it's

ours. But salvation first belongs to the Lord, and it has to belong

to the Lord first. It has to be his. It has to be

an ownership of him. He has to be the one that can convey it

to humanity. In revelation, it also talks about it in Revelation. It

says in Relationships, after these things, I look and behold a great multitude

which no one could number, of all nation, tribes, peoples, and

tongues, standing before the throne and before the lamb, clothed with white robes,

with palm branches in their hand, crying out with a loud voice,

saying, salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the

lamb. See, there's nothing we can do to earn salvation because it is

not for sale. Let me say that again, there's nothing we can do

to earn salvation. And because salvation is not for sale. As a matter

of fact, it's for a very exclusive club who is willing to lay down

everything in order to receive a free gift from the Lord. See, salvation

is completely under the ownership of God. And then He gives us this gift

of salvation. So if we come into this thing with any understanding that I'm

good enough for it or I'm not good enough for it, Come on,

somebody, If we think that somehow our actions and our behaviors have earned us

this favor from God, then we start the Salvation covenant completely mixed up and

on the wrong footing, because if I earned it with my actions, then

I have to keep earning things with my actions. And the Bible says that

we serve a good, good Father, and that every good and perfect gift

is from above, and that he is a God that blesses and desires to

pour out his blessing on us to show us his favor. Now, does

that mean we don't go through hard times. No, we are subject to

the course of life and the world just like everybody else. But what it

does assure us is that we have the peace to get through those trials and

those tribulations and make it through on the other side unscathed because of who He

is and the gift that He's given us. In Ephesians chapter two, verse

eight, it says, for by grace you have been saved through faith,

and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. So salvation

is the gift of God. We've been saved by grace. Now we talk

about grace here, and we've talked about it a lot, just casually over

the last few weeks. The fact that Gray says simply the fact that God

is leaning in towards humanity ready to catch us when we fall. That's what

grace is that his momentum is already moving towards humanity. His momentum never moves

away from us. Come on, somebody, So he's always in a in

a in an interception mode directly towards our greatest points of need. He is

moving in that direction. So that is grace. And it's by grace the

fact that his desire is for us through faith, that little bit a part.

And I think that sometimes we um we we misunderstand what faith is as

well, because we think faith is this big concept that we never live up

to, that that it's something we have to get a little more of something

that that is other people have it, but I just don't seem to be

able to have it. After all, I I always worry when things go

bad. Let's let's beyond. Let's okay, y'all are looking at me.

Y'all are awful quiet this morning. So let me start by saying it's good

to be home. I'm back from Honduras. Thank y'all for allowing me to

be on the mission field. I don't know, maybe y'all feelings was hurt

because I didn't say good morning. I don't know, but y'all awful quiet

and serious looking this morning. I just like, you know, I just

pick up where I left off. I don't know. Maybe Clay threatened jall

or something. I don't know, but we think faith is this great,

big thing that that somehow we have to stir it up and we have to

pull it together, and it's a combination. And let's just get on us,

because you know, transparency and all. How many of you you worry

about things? How many of you you know there are moments when something happens

and you just get a little bit afraid, goes beyond on worry. I

mean, we all have those moments in time. How many of you this

morning when you were brushing your teeth, Jesus, was it the foremost thought

on your mind? There are moments where faith is not right in the front

of our mind. It's not the foremost thing we're thinking about, but yet

it's there. And he says, we're saved by grace, and here's your

part through faith. So there is two parts to it. And faith is

not something we do, it's something we're awakened to the moment. Listen,

this is what awakens faith. The moment you realize Jesus paid a price that

you couldn't pay, and he paid that price that you couldn't pay for a

debt that he didn't know. At that moment, salvation faith is born,

and it is enough to complete the Covenant because it's mostly him and a little

bit of us, and at that collision of grace, him leaning in and

us just kind of falling into his arms. Let me find somebody, Paulo,

come up here real fast, come run all right. First of all,

I love you, and if this goes badly, I still love you.

Okay, turnaround. Do you trust me? Do you have faith that

I love you? All right now? I'm leaning in towards humanity and faith

is just kind of falling backwards. Let's do that one more time. That

was fun. Faith is just falling backwards. Let's try it one more time.

Faith is just falling backwards. Let's try it one more time. Faith

is just falling backwards. Let's try one more time. Faith is falling backwards.

That's more salvation faith right there. It's that initial moment that we come

think I'm done, give him my hand. He's the best follower I know.

It's that initial moment where we come to the realization, and that's all

we need to step from mortal to immortality, to step from natural to supernatural,

from finite to eternal life. It's just that place where we recognize that

Jesus loved us enough to give his life on the cross at Calvary. So

matter of fact, I think, for the most part, when we make

an altar call and we we say that we use this terminology and we say

the sinner's prayer, I think it the for the most part, ninety nine

point nine percent of the work is done when you step out of your seat

and make the first step towards the front. There's nothing magical in the words

we say, or in the fact that we give you a Bible. There

there's nothing magical in those things. It's that moment that your heart is awakened

and you either will step or you did step towards that encounter. And salvation

is given from the owner of salve, shouldn't Jesus to the recipient of salvation

and the steward of salvation. See, salvation is something that we should steward's

resource, that we care for, that we that that we cultivate. It's

something that we share. It's it's salvation. Is that thing that that makes

us, that supernatural being that it awakens. Okay, I almost preached it

in front of myself. Don't you hate it when you do that, When

you just get going, it just happens. For by grace you have been

saved through faith, and that not of yourself. It is the gift of

the God. Now we talk about what happens at salvation, and salvation is

when the spirit part of us. I believe, and there are people who

argue this, but I believe that man, just like God, is three

persons, father, son, holy ghost. I believe that man and it's

three parts flesh, soul, spirit, our flesh, that's the suit that

we wear, our soul, our mind, our will, and our emotions.

Than the spirit man that place that connects to God, that that God

place that is quickened the moment of salvation, that it comes alive. And

when that spirit man comes alive, it affects the soulish man. See that

that's the thing. My grandmama was a great theologian, my grandel my grandmama

brasled it. She was a great theologian. She she would sit me down

and she would drop great spiritual truth into me like this. You would say,

now, if it if it, if it waddles like a duck and

it quacks like a duck, it's probably a duck. And I used to

think, yeah, that's dumb, but okay, so let's let's apply that

to the spiritual truth this is. It was later that I became she was

a that I realized she was a theologian when I started applying some of her

wisdoms to spiritual things, and I realized, oh, yeah, that's deep

theology. If it looks saved and it talks saved, and it walks saved,

and it acts saved, it may very well be saved. If it

doesn't walk saved and talk saved and act saved, it is probably not saved.

So a matter of fact, we we we get into this dilemma where

we take scripture and we say, oh, well, you know, pastor,

you shouldn't make those judgments upon people because we're not supposed to judge others.

The Bible doesn't say that. Bible says judge not less you be judged,

for the same measure of judgment you use will be used against you.

I don't mind Jesus judging whether I'm saved or not. Well, we're not

supposed to do is cast judgments and then have our actions act differently towards some

one because of the judgment that we assess upon them. So, hey,

that you know what, I don't Jeremy. I don't like him, so

I'm going to act different about that. That's that's that's wrong. But we

have to look at the tree and see what fruit that's being bared. If

it's good fruit, it's a good tree. If it's bad fruit, it's

a bad tree. And this applies to our salvation. So there has to

be something that happens in us at that moment of salvation. It's a matter

of fact, grace. We're saved by grace through faith. Grace is an

inward action in which there is an outward manifestation. Let me say that again.

It's an inward work, an inward action in which there is an outer

manifestation. That means when you get saved, people are going to tell a

difference about you, and there will be some difference that's immediate. Now,

you're not going to listen. When you get saved, you don't know everything

I've been doing this for a long long time, and I still don't know

everything. So a matter of fact, I will not know everything until I

go to meet my father in the sky. That's the moment that all revealed

to me. I try my best to tell you everything I know. That's

right though, amen so, But the moment it happens, there should be

something that stirs on the inside of us. One of those things is probably

that pulled towards destiny, that there's more to what we can be and what

we can have than what we currently are living in. There's going to be

that pull because God's a progressive god. He's always pulling us to where he

wants us to be. He never wants us to stay where we are,

because if we're still alive, there's still more for I know. The plans

I have for you declare as the Lord plans to prosper you, plans not

to harm you, plans to give you hope and the future. It's calling

you up, He's calling you towards something. The other is that you're gonna

have that little feeling that things are wrong, that you know I probably shouldn't

do that. Have you ever started again? Honest? That because we're just

coming back off mission trip and vacation, so they're not synonymous. Mission trip

and vacat not synonymous. But I did take vacation after the mission trip.

Okay, so we're breaking it down being practical here. So hot on a

Sunday, have you ever started to do something and you just got that little

feeling that I shouldn't do this. Raise your hand. That's part of that

salvation coven up, pulling you away from sin, pulling you away from those

things that are contrary to the will of God. That is, the Holy

Spirit that listen is deposited in you the moment you're saved. Now. I

know in Pentecostal theology we say filled with the Holy Ghost, but Holy Ghost

is already there the moment we get saved. Now, we're not gonna jump

over into baptism the Holy Spirit because that's coming in a few weeks. But

um, but Holy Ghost there and he's speaking, and he's drawing, he's

pulling, and he's pushing, and he's nudging and he's doing all of those

things. Because that's part of the salvation covenant, that we look different than

the world. The Bible says, when we're saved, we'll leave an appear

peculiar to the world. One of the one of the most shocking moments I

had as a pastor was I was pastoring a church plant over and Hushton and

I walked into a hardware store and one of my board members was sitting on

a stool in this hardware store. I walked in. He said, hey,

Pastor. Now. I hugged him and patted him on the back and

we talked for a few minutes. He got out left and he said,

how do you know him? I said, Oh, he's one of my

board members. And this is now. Listen, they weren't ripping and roaring

and doing all those things. I said, oh, he's one of my

board members at the church. And the owner of the hardware store said,

wow, I didn't even know he was a Christian, And I thought,

oh, my goodness. It wasn't that he was doing anything blatantly bad,

but he didn't do anything that looked saved either. As we evaluate our lives,

has that inward action become an outward manifestation in our lives? Do we

walk in peace where most people don't? Is kindness a response of our lives

when most responses would be critical Listen, we're talking about just like intermediate level

Christianity. Here these things that should be happening. Amen, that when the

waitress on Sunday afternoon walks to our table to take our order, and the

restaurant's packed, and she brings our drinks and the drinks wrong, that our

immediate response is mercy and the thought that, hey, she's having a bad

day, so I'm gonna give her a little bit better tip, rather than

not leaving a tip at all. Generosity. See, salvation is about our

whole life and how we respond and interact with the world around us. It's

not fire insurance that keeps us out of hell or or something that gets us

part of this social club, this closed experience when we come together on Sunday

mornings. It's a it's a life encounter where Jesus and I are doing life

together and where his representation and people should see a lot of him and a

little bit of me, a lot of him a little bit of me.

The soul is the essence of humanity's being. Your soul is that that part

that your personality lives in. It's kind of how you're wired. It's the

way we say it here it's it's how you're wired. It's it's apart from

your giftedness from God, it's how God wired you. If you got saved

or if you didn't get saved. Um, those things remain largely the same.

It's that that that that encoding, and the way God is wired us.

It's the essence of our being. It's who we are. The spirit

is the immortal part of humanity that connects with God, and the soul is

impacted acted by the spirit. Now, I do believe that if you live

a holy life and you are exceptional, I do believe that you can even

move to the place where your flesh can be impacted by the spirit of God

as well, that you can live because the Bible talks about living in health

rather than depending upon healing. Come on, somebody. That's when the spirit

is impacting our physical well being. Those things are attainable. It's really hard.

If we're not showing kindness, we're probably not gonna get there. Come

on, somebody. If you're a you know, one of those, you're

not gonna get there. But if you master the simple things God allows us

and reveals more, and we step into a new level of that contract.

That covenant relationship that we have with Jesus. In our original passage of scription,

says, I long for your salvation, Oh Lord, and your law

is my delight. Listen to what he says. Let my soul live.

Let my soul live. Now. The soul is not the part that comes

alive at salvation. The spirit man, it's what's made alive at salvation.

Your soul is there. Your soul is operational, but it's not real life.

It's not the life that God intended for humanity. Until after we get

saved and we allow our spirit man to have an impact on our soul ish

man, that's when we really begin to live and experience life, where we

move past that the mundane monotony of just simply reading a few passages and going

to church, but we begin to experience him on a whole different level.

In John chapter ten, verse two, and my favorite passage of scripture,

it says the thief does not come except to steal and to kill and to

destroy. He only comes to steal, to kill, and to destroy.

He's not going to do you a favor. If he does you a favor,

it's gonna cost you something. If he does you a favor. He

is exchanging that small favor for something of greater value. He wants you broke,

busted, and disgusted. That's how the enemy wants you. But I

didn't want to focus on that part of scripture because we're not talking about him

today. I have come now, Jesus is saying this. I have come

that they may have, that you may have life, and have it more

abundantly. The Psalmist is tapping into this abundant concept of life all the way

back in the Psalms where he says, hey, let my soul live.

I want to experience that salvation. I want a real connection with you,

so that my soul comes alive, so that the things that I ponder are

the things of God, so that the wisdom of God is my guiding source.

That I don't struggle through those decisions that I used to come on somebody.

But now I have some God insight. Now I have some God influence.

Now I have the drawing of the spirit, and he's impacting my mind,

my will, my emotion, so that you know, I respond a

little differently. I was telling Jeremy's story, Letten. People drive in Honduras,

crazy man crazy. There's all kinds of experiences to have to take a

ding on your salvation when you're driving in Honduras. Amen. But but we

do those things less as we give the spirit control to impact our soul,

and that initial reflexive response is Jesus, not the world. Now we call

that sanctification, but it's born as salvation. In Psalm chapter thirty four,

the band can come and get ready, it says, oh, taste and

see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who trusts in him.

Taste and see that the Lord is good. You know, there's two

times where you ask somebody to taste something two times mediocre food. Nobody ever

says, hey, you need to take a bite of this, right if

it's just if you go to a restaurant, nobody says, hey, you

got to take a bite of this. That's probably not a place you go

back to. You know, it's just it's not memorable. It's just run

of the meal food. We were we were eating at this little restaurant in

Panama City Beach one time, and Lexie loves fried catfish loves it. I

mean just like and but but you know, you're on vacation, you snack

all the time. So we go to the restaurant, we order this food.

It comes out and she's not touching it, like she ate one little,

one little catfish finger, and she's just and she kept saying, I'm

for it. Doesn't it doesn't taste good. It doesn't taste good. And

I'm getting angrier and angrier because I know when we get back, she's gonna

say, hey, can we go to McDonald's. Can we do this?

You know? And I didn't want. When I went back, I was

getting on the couch, that's where I was staying, right, and I

finally said give me that. She said, don't taste good. It don't

taste good, and listen, I grabbed that. No, that's not She

said taste it, and I said eat it, and she said taste it,

daddy, I said eat. Being a good parent, right, I'm

just concerned about nutrition at this point, you know. And she said taste

it, and she handed it to me and I bit into that thing.

It was rotten on a level I've never tasted rotten before. It was just

like, right, you had that something tastes terrible. You say, here,

taste this. But then there's also those moments where you bite into something

like, there's this place and listen. I know I shouldn't do commercials,

and I'm not doing a commercial for this restaurant, but it's good. There's

this little Mexican restaurant over beside Walmart called Taco Madre. They got this thing.

It's like, I'm pretty sure it's like what we'll eat in heaven.

It's these tacol tacos tacol. It's a taco called Ca Siberia, and it's

like this, I don't know how to experience it, and it's in this

I don't even know how to explain it. And then they put on this

grill and they put the cheese in there, and then they take some of

the grease and they like fry, and then they give you the grease to

dip it in. It's like, you know, like four thousand calories of

bite right, and you're just like oh, and you just want to say,

hey, taste this, taste this, taste this is this. It's

the same way with sin salvation. The world is over here saying hey,

come taste this spiritually. It's bad. Maybe good the first taste, but

by the time it hits your stomach, you're all ready, ready to throw

one, And there's a whole lot of people evangelizing in that direction. Come

over here, taste the world, Taste the world and everything that it has

to offer. And then we're over here and we're saying taste and see that

the Lord is good. When Lexie asks me to taste food from now on

and she says it's no good, I'm never tasting it again. If I

believe her, now, I know she knows what bad tastes like. Are

we living our lives so that people can tell when we say taste and see

that it's definitely good. Are we living our lives our soul engaged by the

spirit to the level that we're living in a peace that does pass off human

understanding. Are we living and showing kindness that can't be generated in and of

ourselves? Do we do we have the ability to have patience with the unlovable

to the point where it looks like it's just status quo with us because we

don't move into that time of aggravation. Are we living our lives so that

when we say taste and see that, people want to come and have that

moment where they trust Jesus and step into salvation, because your testimony starts with

your actions far before your words. The impact do you have on humanity will

begin with an encounter and a restaurant or the grocery store, or at work,

and it will be someone who observes you doing something way before you ever

open your mouth and begin to have a conversation with them about Jesus. That's

why when you go through Engage, we talk about intentionally building relationships with people

for the purpose of having a conversation about Jesus. Taste and see that the

Lord is good? Is your salvation making an impact on the soulish part of

who you are? The psalmist the passage scripts are right after this. He

says, I've gone astray, I've missed the mark so many times. But

Lord give me your salvation. Restore unto me the joy of your salvation.

Everybody, stand with me all over the building and listen. If you're here

this morning and you don't think that that your salvation has made a maximum impact

on your soul, you're not living in peace, you're not living in joy,

or you're not living in kindness. Your you're filling the blank. But

today you just want to come back and say Lord, I want your salvation

because I want my soul to live. I want to experience John ten ten

life down here. If that's you, when you're looking for a deeper connection,

of more real connection, to restore that relationship and listen. It doesn't

even mean that you've been out lost in sin. Could just mean that you've

neglected the relationship that you that you haven't talked to him like you should,

that you haven't stayed in touch like you should. But today is the day

where you can reconnect. And I open up and say Lord to have your

way in me. Use me as a vessel or altered team will come and

get ready on the count of three. If you're here and you just want

to you just want to leave this place knowing that you're a little closer to

Jesus, that you've positioned yourself to live in all the things that Scripture says

you can have. When I count to three, I want you to step

out and I want you to move one, two, three, step out

and move right. Now you're struggling with something, You're want to make things

right with the Lord to day. You want to find that peace and healing

and strength, that joy and joy unspeakable Amen, these altars are open. Pastor Clay