Highlights: Psalm 119 - Week 3

Thank you, Jesus, Thank you, Jesus, Thank you, Jesus.

Thank you for what you're doing in the hearts and lives of men, women,

boys and groups in this place and all over all over the world.

Lord, we give you glory and honor and praise in Jesus Mighty mighty name.

We pray and we believe. Amen. Amen and Amen. Somebody give

the Lord a hand cloud. Amen. Amen. Listen when I get through

dancing, listen. If you're here for the very first time today, thank

you so much for being here with us. We are honored that of all

the great places you could have chosen to be that you came to be with

us at Cornerstone this morning. So thank you so much. And we have

a gift for you. If you didn't receive a gift back when you came

in. If you're here for the first time, make sure you grab that

before you leave. You can you can get that gifts of going out through

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great things that are going on here. We would really really appreciate it.

But again, thank you so much for being here. We've been praying for

you all week, so thank you for being here this morning. Amen.

Amen, We're gonna continue in our series today Psalm one nineteen. It's a

it's a highlight series. We're just going through Psalm one nineteen and today.

By the end of the message, you're gonna find out we're not doing it

in order. Come on, somebody, because we still got several weeks left.

But we're gonna jump. We're gonna jump down to the end of the

book before we get done today. But we're gonna start over in Psalm one

nineteen, verse twenty five. Psalm one nineteen, verse twenty five. If

you have to put if you have to put a title on it, let's

call it real Revival, Real revival this morning. So psa on one nineteen,

starting in verse twenty five, reads like this, my soul clings to

the dust. Revive me according to your word. I have declared my ways,

and you answered me teach me your statutes, make me understand the way

of your precepts. So shall I meditate on your wonderful works. My soul

melts from heaviness. Let's pray, Father, we thank you for your word.

It's the only change agent we have on the face of the planet.

So I pray that you change us, Lord, not just our not just

our actions, not just our behavior, Lord, but change who we are

at the very fabric of our being. Lord. Make us more receptive,

make us more passionate about you. Father. I pray that you help us

to see people the way you see people, to see circumstances and situations the

way you see those things. Father, that today would be a transformative experience

for every single one of us in Jesus name, Amen, Amen, and

Amen. So, if you've been doing your homework and you've been reading through

Psalm one nineteen, just over and over and over and over again, there

are some themes in Psalm one nineteen, and I walk to I want to

point out one of those themes as we get into the message, and there

is a major theme that sometimes we miss because you know, the Psalmist is

writing and everything seems so holy and so eager to please the Lord. But

one of the themes in Psalm one nineteen that's just unmistakable is I have you

Have you realized how many times the Psalmist says I in Psalm one nineteen over

and over again, I have done this, I desire this, I want

this, I'm doing this I I I. And if we're not careful,

we begin to really think that the way to get closer to God is to

focus on I. But the way to get closer to God is not focusing

on me. The way to get closer to God is focusing on He.

And even though the things the Psalmist talks about are very holy pursuits, it

starts looking very self righteous as you continue to read how many times he talks

about how much he is doing to get closer to the Lord. Now,

you can't get closer to the Lord without doing certain things. But it also

can't be about me. It has to be about the Lord. The way

we get closer to the the Lord is by striving for him and forgetting about

me. Come on, somebody over. In the Book of Job, Job

has this same problem. All throughout the Book of Job, Job spends all

of his time talking about all the things he has done and the level of

faithfulness he had. And then he has these friends that come around, right

and they start talking about how awesome he is and all the dedication he had

and all the things that he has done. And we go through this whole

this whole book of the Bible, in the Book of Job. And really

it is properly named because the book is all about Job. But the reality

is it wasn't until this young fellow showed up and he jumps into the discussion

and he says, listen, I yeah, yeah, I hear what you're

saying. But have you ever thought that maybe it's not about you, it's

about God. Have you ever thought about the fact that that what you're going

through, it's not about you, it's about him. See when we when

we pick up in the Book of Job, this is how we're introduced to

Job. Job was a man who feared God and shunned evil. Perfect in

all his ways. Wow, way to stay. You know, if I

had that as an epithath on my tombstone, that would be pretty cool.

I'm not gonna have that that that that won't be because I'm not perfect,

especially not in all my ways. I might have one. Amen, I

might have one, but not all my ways, certainly, But that would

be a pretty cool thing. But but when we begin to look at the

way these things transpired in Job's life and we get over to the end of

the book of Job, Job has stopped having conversations with people. He stopped

having conversations with his friends that we're telling him how good he is and how

great it do you know? Sometimes we need to stop talking to the people

that just let us hear what we want to hear, people that are just

speaking into our lives. Sometimes we need discomfort to motivate us. Sometimes we

need discomfort to move us out of our rut. I mean, amen,

Because you're rut. If you're not careful, it'll fill up on each end,

and that rut that you're end will become a grave. That's what a

grave is. It's a rut with both ends stopped up. And we'll find

ourselves dead and dying in our situations and our circumstance, and we need somebody

that will speak that truth over. In the end of the Book of Job,

he starts having a conversation with God. And this is what Job says

about God. He says before I had heard about you with my ears.

I'd heard I'd heard about you with my ears, But now I have seen

you with my eyes. The difference between those two things is that when we

have only heard something, it may or may not be true. But when

we've seen something's transformative, because our eyes will not lie when we have seen

the Lord. So matter of fact, anything that you can see clearly,

you can possess fully. Anything that you can see that's that's tweeted. One.

The reason I'm saying it twice is because you can tweet it Facebook,

at Instagram and whatever you want to do. If you can see it clearly,

you can possess it fully. And Joe says, I've come to a

to a more ready understanding of who you are. You're not a character in

a book. I have gotten to know you, and I've laid my eyes

upon you, and now I'm navigating myself by your character and your nature,

not just some stories that I've heard about you. It was that vehicle of

change that he walked through. And in this passage, this portion of Psalm

one nineteen, the writer is speaking just a little bit different than he has

in the preceding verses, because in the preceding verses. It's I IIII.

Everything we've read up until now, everything that we've talked about in these in

these messages, has been I I. But now his words are a little

different. He says, my soul clings to the dust. In other words,

something has changed in my life. Before everything was going pretty good and

talking about how great everything is. And everything is great because of my actions,

because I've followed clearly, because I've chased after you, because I've been

righteous, because I've made the right decisions. And now he says, hey,

my soul clings to the dust. I am knocked down and beaten.

As a matter of fact, when you go through Psalm one nineteen, it's

pretty evident that the psalmist didn't write this in one sitting. He didn't write

this in one day. He wrote it over a process of time, and

you can tell the ups and the downs that he's going through as he pins

this Psalm, this masterpiece to be sung unto God. And he says,

my soul clings to the dust. And then he uses a word that Pentecostals

love. I mean, there's some words we love, and one of them

is revival. We won't revival we won't revival. We won't revival. We

won't revival. And what we mean is we want somebody to come and preach

us really good messages and seeing really good souls and make us feel good about

ourselves when we leave. That's what we mean when we say revival. But

here the Psalmist is writing, this is between him and God, and he

says, my soul clings to the dust. I'm beaten down, I'm being

stepped on, I'm struggling where I'm at right now, and all that self

righteousness that I had has kind of gone out the window because that doesn't support

me in the posture that I'm in right now. Sometimes you go through stuff

and you're the only one that knows you're going through it. Sometimes you can't

explain what you're going through. I'm gonna ask for I'm gonna I'm gonna ask

for for transparency here. How many time have you been living life and it

looks like everything's good, but you don't feel like it's good and you can't

explain why you feel like it's not good, but it's just not good and

you don't know why you feel that way. Raise your hand and if you

try to tell somebody things are not good. They look at you and they're

like, why are you talking about You got a good job, your kid's

mind. I mean, your wife is a great cook. Come on,

somebody, everything looks great. And he's in that place where he's like,

listen, I just things are not going right. And then he says to

the Lord, revive me. According to your word. I need to be

re energized, to be inspired. I need to be lifted up. I

need that spiritual vitality rushing through my veins again. Revive me. Lord,

here is something that I know. Before you ever get corporate revival, people

will begin to experience personal revival before it becomes contagious to the masses. It

will be individually exclusive to you. And that individual exclusivity of revival is what

becomes contagious to the plurality of humanity. And he says, Lord, I

know that other people need you, but I need you to revive me according

to your word. Breathe fresh into me. According to your word. I

just I need you. God. It's not about the things I do right

now. It's just about you, because you're the only one that can get

low enough to meet me. At my point, of need. So many

times we focus on God way up above and way up high. But there

are times that it's only the long arm of the Lord that can reach low

enough into the valley that we find ourselves in to reach us at the bottom

of that pit. And the Psalmist says, I'm isolated in loneliness. I'm

broken and don't know why. Revive me, Oh Lord, revive me according

to your word. I have declared my ways, and you answered me.

Teach me your statutes. Now it's you may miss it. But he says,

hey, before I've told you all the things I'm doing right, I

was a master of all things. I had it together. I was pursuing

you, I was chasing after you. I was this, and I'm meditating.

But now he says, hey, I have declared my ways. Lord.

I just told you I'm eating the dirt. I've just told you,

Lord that that it's not about me anymore, because my position is not one

of superiority. It's one of brokenness. I've declared my ways to you,

Lord, and you answered me. Now, listen those things that he just

said that he did in the previous verses, and the previous verses he just

told us. How good he was at keeping the Lord's statutes, at keeping

the Lord's precepts. He just now, he says, Lord, you teach

me your precepts. You teach me your statutes. Lord, right now,

I know that the only way revival can come is if you teach me those

things that are bedded or are buried and hidden in your word. Teach me

those statutes. I desire to hear from your mouth. I desire to have

an encounter with you. Make me understand the way of your precepts. He

says. I I thought I had it. I thought I had mastered it.

Come on, somebody, when everything's going good, it looks like we've

mastered things. Looks like everything's going great. You know when when I walk

out to my greenhouse and every I mean there's just I mean, I listen,

I got tomato us, I think it's gonna pulled aside of my greenhouse

over. I mean, it's just it's it's full of life. I mean,

I've got I had broccoli and cauliflower just everywhere. I mean, I

was a master gardener. Everything was going good. Well, I've got to

make room for other stuff. So I have had to give up and decide

that it's time to harvest my cabbage that I was growing. And I was

a master gardener because I could look over the air and skip that one and

look over the air and over the air and back there and over here,

and everything was going good. So I decided that I had to start harvesting

this cabbage. And I looked at it, and here's the thing. The

cabbage is about that big around, about as big as your fist. That's

like one cabbage per person. Come on, somebody, it almost it almost

doesn't look like a cabbage. It almost looks like one of those little things

what are those little things called? You know, they look like cabbages,

but they all grow on the stalk together. Yeah. I don't like to

say that word Brussels sprouts, yeah, because I can't grow those either.

Right, they almost looked like Brussels proud. So what I did to bring

the concept of bountifulness is when I harvested it, instead of just taking the

head off of it, I just cut it down low and brought all the

leaves too. So it's just a big round right, with a little bitty

tiny cabbage head in the middle. And I brought it and he said,

oh, and you said, oh, that's so beautiful, and I said,

yeah, because I framed it that way. Amen, if i'd brought

that little cabbage it at, you would have said, oh, it's so

legal. I'm not a master of growing cabbage, and I know I'm not

a master of growing cabbage now. But when everything's good, it's easy.

I don't have to frame anything. You just go out there and you cut

it down and you bring it in because everything is going good. But when

things are not going so good, we realize that we're not a master of

the things that we talked about, and we start trying to frame them to

make them look better than what they really are are. And we find ourselves

in a place when we realize that that we just quietly want to slip off

by ourself and say, God help me. I need you to revive me,

because I've told everybody how good I am at this and how wonderful I

am at that, and I have a mastery of all things God and spirituality.

He says, make me understand the way of your precepts. Because I

read what the precept is, I can see what your word says. But

help me understand the underlying intent of what it means. Lord, tell me

what it really means to you. Do not want to tighten your belt up

for just like ten seconds. Tell me what it means to walk in healing,

but I'm only getting sicker. Tell me what it means to walk in

your peace? But things keep going wrong and I only find myself more worried.

What does it mean to walk in your joy when I cry myself to

sleep every single night? Teach me those invisible principles that I read what your

word says. But I want you to revive me. I want you to

bring life that wasn't there. I want you to do something in me that

I've never experienced before. Teach me the deep understanding of your ways. And

we talked about this just last week. But the Bible says that Israel,

on their way out of Egypt and through the Exodus, it says that Israel

knew God's acts, but Moses knew God's ways. Israel said, why did

God bring us into the desert just to starve us to death? But Moses

knew that provision was on the way because that's his way. See the acts,

The things on the outside may look different than the character and the nature

of God on the inside. And we've got to get past that surface level

understanding so that we can get to the deep things of God. Because when

we get to the deep things of God, our lives become a testimony.

Now listen, I know some of y'all just checked out, And the reason

is because I talk about that a lot, right. Oh, we gotta

we live to reach the community. We live to reach those that are lost,

those that are far from God. We're here to make Jesus famous.

We're here to do this. And I know that that sooner or later every

one of you have are not sooner or later that every one of you have

left here. At some point walk into your car and you said, yeah,

pastor, but what about me? When is it my time? You

talk about everybody else, but when is it time for mine? But here's

what you don't understand about the testimony that you live out to others. The

Scripture teaches us that we overcome our current situation by the blood of the lamb

and the word of our testimony. That it's not just the fact that Jesus

did it, but that we live in such a way that we proclaim to

the world that he did it, and that breaks the hold of the enemy

on our lives. When we open our mouths and we live that testimony in

front of the world that He did it. Those things together make us overcomers.

Well, what is my testimbout? Listen, You're testimony doesn't have to

be finished. What God is doing in you doesn't have to look clean and

pretty with a bowl on top. Sometimes we need to invite people into the

middle of our testimony when it's still ugly and messy and broken, so they

can experience the end result with us, because then it doesn't feel like a

story. Then it becomes a journey that we all go on together. Wow,

make me understand the way of your precepts, show soul. Shall I

meditate on your wonderful works. I'm eating dust, I'm beat down, I'm

downtrodden, is the way he opens it up. But then he says,

listen, I know if you help me understand your precepts, that deep,

invisible principle that is there, I know I'm going to see the wonderful beauty

in what I'm experiencing now. And if you'll allow me to see the wonderful

beauty the reason behind what I'm experiencing. Now I'm going to be able to

live through it a little bit cleaner and a little bit better because I'm trusting

you. Because now I see the beauty and the brokenness. There is beauty

in every brokenness. That's easy to say when you're standing on a stage,

but it's not easy to stay when you're standing on a stage and you know

you're still broken. See, it's easy for people to say something about you

and you respond to it. But when it's true and they say something about

it, come on, somebody, see the apostle Paul. He shows up.

He's shipwrecked on this island. He's been preaching the gospel. Everybody knows

who Paul is. He's preaching the gospel. They get washed up on this

island. The people are there and they got a big bonfire going, and

Paul reaches down and he grabs a piece of wood to throw a piece of

wood on the fire. He's preaching the truth about Jesus and the gospel.

When he reaches that and he grabs the wood to throw it on the fire,

a viper bites him on the hand. A poisonous viper bites him on

the hand. And this is what his audience said, surely he's a murderer.

Maybe they had a custom that if you got bit by a snake,

it meant you were a murderer. I don't know, but that was what

the entire crowd came to understand, is that because he got bit by a

poisonous sneak, he was a murderer. And they're saying this, And Paul

could have said, hey, no, no, no, come on,

guys, I don't don't you here, don't you hear the beauty of the

story I'm telling about Jesus. But the reality was Paul was a murderer.

Prior to his preaching debut. He killed Christians. Now they're looking at him

and they're saying, hey, we see your brokenness. We see the hidden

thing in your life. We see those that those dirty areas of your life,

that brokenness, and that that that that that that dysfunction that's there.

And Paul continues to proceed because he wasn't defined by his past or his current

trials and tribulations, because he understood the ways of God and the invisible precepts

below the ways of God. And he pursed, severed, and he continued

to go, and he continued to live, and the Psalma says, let

me meditate on the beauty in my brokenness. My soul melts from heaviness.

God, I'm here and I I want to experience, experience you, you

so much deeper. But I'm still heavy. There's in my heart and in

my chest. Things are heavy. God. I want them to be better,

and I know one day they will be better. But I'm still heavy

right now. And where you are right there, it's probably still heavy in

your heart. Your search, you're you're you're searching for those answers. You're

praying for someone that's in a state of discontent, or maybe you're in discontent

and things don't feel easy and good. But we say, revive me,

Lord, bring revival to me. Watch this. I don't need to wait

until everybody else gets revived for me to be revived. And just because everybody

else seems to be revived doesn't mean I am revived. You know, you

can live in the midst of revival and still be broken. So Lord,

just just revive me. Breathe into my lungs, Alan, you can come.

Get ready at the keyboard. Breathe into my lungs. The Vital life

breathe into my lungs, the refreshing that I need. God. I just

need you to revive me. I need you to restore me, to wash

me, to take some weight from me. I just need you, Jesus,

I just need you. The very last verse in Psalm one nineteen Psalm

one nineteen, verse one hundred and seventy six, we have this intense up

and down with the Psalmist. He's a master of all things, he's broken

and realizes he's broken. In Psalm one nineteen, verse one seventy six,

he says, after all of this, this is how the Psalmist is.

I have gone astray like a lost sheep. Seek your servant, Lord,

for I do not forget your commandments. I've been on the mountaintop with you,

Jesus. I've quoted your word. I've operated in the gifts of the

spirit. I've i've laid hands on people and seen them healed. I've i've

experienced your deliverance. I've i've taught, I've I've done all those things.

I've been on the mountaintop with you, Jesus. And I found myself down

in that broken place where I'm just eating the dust and all along the ridges

and mountain sides in between, and he finds himself at the close of this

chapter, and he says, I have gone astray, like a lost sheep.

I've experienced, I've tasted, I've seen, but I've gone astray.

I'm not I'm not where I should be. And then some powerful words the

Psalma says, I don't even know. I've gone astray to the place where

I don't know how to look and find you. Seek me, Lord,

Come and find me, Jesus. I was in the process of running up

the mountain and down the mountain and stopping halfway on the mountain and the Transfiguration

and the Resurrection. I've lost my way and I don't even know how to

get back in contact with you. Jesus, so seek me. I believe

Jesus used that passage as he taught that powerful parable of the shepherd leaving the

ninety nine going after that one lost sheep, that he would depart from the

safety and the adoration of the masses to chase after the one. And you

know why Jesus gets a bad rap sometimes. You know why people get mad

at Jesus sometimes because he'll chase you to where you are right now, and

the nighty night are over there, and they're they're in those first two weeks

of this message, they're in those first few passages of scriptures. We're doing

what we're supposed to do. We're chasing. Look, I'm raising my hands

and I'm swaying. This week. Whoa, I'm in the midst of discycleship.

Next week, I'm going and I will be sanctified. Right. But

Jesus leaves and he comes to the dirty spot where he finds us after we

have gone astray, like a lost ship, stuck in the mud, separated

and lonely, an object of attack for every wolf and coyote and bear and

lion. And Jesus climbs down into the muck and the mire because he's not

afraid of your sin. He's not afraid of the games you've played and the

mask you've worn, because he came to seek and to find that which was

lost. And I'm not even talking about you that you have broken the Salvation

covenant. I'm just simply talking about you that you are far from him and

you don't know how to get from where you are now to where you need

to be. But he came today online in this building, looking and seeking

you, to uncover every stone, to look behind every tree, to find

that which he loves. It doesn't matter if you're a master of everything.

And that's what makes holy people mad, that he treats holy people like Sean

the same way as he does broken people like me. But today he's found

you right there on wine. He made his way through the airwaves, and

he found you right there you're living room, through the blurredness of those tears.

His desire is an encounter with you right here in this place. He's

waiting with his arms open because he wants to relive you. He wants to

breathe life and life more abundant into you. He's made his self known.

He's taken every step to find you. You just have to take the last one.