DECEMBER 15, 2024 - "Light Unto My Path"

Welcome to DeSoto Hills Baptist Church.

Our Sunday morning services are weekly at 9 and 10 30 am.

You're listening to an audio recast of this past week's service.

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God bless Okay if you have your Bibles.

This morning we're going to be in Psalm, chapter 119.

Psalms 119 · chapter mention

Psalm, chapter 119.

Psalms 119 · chapter mention

We're going to start reading in verse 105 of Psalm 119.

We just heard the kids sing and singing and we're going to carry on kind of with that thought.

As most of you know, psalm is a group of songs at least, if it's not songs, it's poetry that most.

David wrote most of them.

He didn't write all of them, but as we come to Psalm 119, if you don't know, it is the longest chapter within the Bible but most of this Psalm pertains to God's Word and the necessity of God's Word and reading God's Word.

So we want to read some of this this morning and talk about the necessity of God's word and the importance of God's word in our life.

So if you'll stand with me, if you're able this morning, we're going to read.

We're going to start in Psalm 119, verse 105, and read down through verse 112.

Psalms 119:105

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

I have sworn an oath and confirmed it, to keep your righteous rules.

I am severely afflicted.

Give me life, o Lord, according to your word.

Accept my freewill offerings of praise, o Lord, and teach me your rules.

I hold my life in my hand continually, but I do not forget your law.

The wicked have laid a snare for me, but I do not stray from your precepts.

Your testimonies are my heritage forever, for they are the joy of my heart.

I incline my heart to perform your statutes forever, to the end.

Let's pray.

God, we are thankful for today.

We are thankful for the opportunity that we've had already to sing praises to your great name.

We are thankful for Christmas, where we have the opportunity to celebrate Christ, that you came and dwelt among us.

And, god, we are thankful this morning for your word and we pray that as we dive into your word this morning, father, that you will change our lives for all eternity through the study of your word.

We love you so much, jesus.

It's in your wonderful name.

We pray Amen.

So as I was preparing this week, it happened what happens pretty frequently as I prepare a song got stuck in my head.

I'm not going to sing You've heard me sing enough on the videos this morning, so I'm not going to sing it but a song got stuck in my head.

It was a song written by Amy Grant and Michael W Smith back around the year 2000.

I just want to read some of it.

Here's what it says Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path 2000.

I just want to read some my feet and a light unto my path.

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.

I will not forget your love for me, and yet my heart is forever wandering.

Jesus, be my guide and hold me to your side.

I will love you to the end.

Nothing will, I fear, as long as you are near.

Please be near me to the end.

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.

As you can tell, this song that they wrote together, amy Grant and Michael W Smith.

It was based loosely on Psalm 119.

And I love when we are able to sing the Psalms because, again, most of them were written as songs or at least poetry.

So I appreciate and I love when we're able to sing those in songs.

But as we come to Psalm 119 today, here's what we find.

The psalmist is explaining how God's word lights our way.

And if we're honest and if we look, and hopefully today, as we unpack this package together, that we will see that even today, still in a dark and crazy world in which we are living and dwelling, god's word still can light our path.

And so, hopefully, that we will come to a place today and the challenge for us is that, hey, let's read God's word, let's study God's word, let's hear from God through his word, let's study God's word, let's hear from God through his word, not just on Sunday mornings, not just in Sunday school, not just on Wednesday night in small groups, but every day.

Let's hear from God and his word.

So the question that we want to answer this morning is how does God's word light our way?

How does it light our way?

I think as the psalmist set this psalm up, he built it in a structure, and so he goes back and forth.

He begins with this first verse in Psalm 105.

In verse 105, your word is a light unto my feet and your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.

That he starts here in just kind of a neutral position and says here is is the purpose of this.

At least this section of the psalm is to for us to understand how God's word.

How does it so?

Because, because, listen, we have questions all the time.

Right, you have questions that come up in your life and you, you have things that come up and you just want to know how, how am I supposed to navigate through this?

How am I supposed to do this?

How am I supposed to live life in this section, and and, and.

Sometimes we even come and say, yeah, grant, I understand.

I have people say, grant, I understand, the Bible is God's words, but it was written so long ago.

How can it affect me today?

How do we understand and see it?

How can it be relevant to me still today?

Well, we want to see today how the psalmist says God's word is a lamp to my feet and a light into my path.

There's two ways, I think, that we see this.

The first thing I think we see and it doesn't go verse by verse through this, he skips over some.

But the first thing I think we see that the word of God does for the psalmist and for us still is that it sets a path.

It sets a path Now.

Let me explain what I mean by that.

I don't know if you know this about me, but I can be a distracted driver.

It just happens.

Some of you have ridden with me, some of you have not, some of you will never ride with me after this sermon today.

That's okay, but when we go on, when the Stegalls go on long trips together, amber is usually driving.

Now, there are several reasons for that.

It's not just because I'm a distracted driver, but that's at least one of the reasons.

And here's how I get distracted.

It's not necessarily the biggest thing that I do is I like to see what's happening around me.

That I do is I like to see what's happening around me.

You know what I'm saying.

If we're driving through a new city or a new town, somewhere we've never been, I want to see it.

If we're riding down the road and there's road construction, what are they doing over there?

Man, that's a lot of rebar.

They got in there.

They must be pouring concrete.

I wonder what's going up over there.

They're building something new.

I like to know, I like to see, I like to watch and, as you know probably, what happens as you get to looking around, you start to drift and bless their hearts.

My family knows exactly what those little bumps on the side of the road feel and sound like.

But you know, while we have lines that mark the path on the road, they also have bumps, say hey, you better get back over.

Pay attention Now.

While I'm sure the psalmist wasn't thinking about thinking about bumps on the side of the highway, right Throughout history people have done things to mark paths, to find their way around and to find their way back, and they have done things to mark their way.

Well, I think the first thing the psalmist says in the way that he says God's word is a lamp unto his feet and a light unto this path.

It marks the path, it sets out the path.

Look at what he says in verse 106.

He says I have sworn an oath and confirmed it to keep your righteous rules.

I have sworn an oath and confirmed it.

Listen, let me put that in redneck terms for you.

Okay, he didn't just shake on it, he spit, shook on it, he took.

And he didn't just take an oath, he took an oath and he confirmed it.

And here's what he confirmed by his oath that God's word was going to determine his path, not his own understanding of what's going on, not his own understanding of what should happen or what needs to happen.

His own understanding is not what's going to to set forth his path, but what's going to set his path.

What has determined his path is God's word.

His path is God's word and we ask, why would that be?

Why would that set set his path?

Well, because it says his rules, that God's rules are righteous rules.

Here's why God's word should set our path is because his rules and his ways are right.

They are Listen, and if we're really honest with ourselves, we understand that our rules and our ways are not always righteous.

Just be honest, sometimes our motivations are not righteous, but God's word, god's rules, his ways are righteous.

And he said one way that God's word is going to direct his path and mark his path.

And he has confirmed this, that he is determined to allow God's word to be the determining factor in his life.

The second thing, second way we see that God's word sets his path.

Skip down to verse 108.

He says this accept my free will offerings of praise, o Lord, and teach me your ways.

One way it's going to set his path is he is going to praise God, but listen, not just in good times, if you go back and we're going to come back and look at it in just a minute.

But verse 107, we see that his life has not always been easy.

He has lived a troubled life.

Listen to verse 107.

It says I am severely afflicted.

Give me life, o Lord, according to your word, I am severely afflicted.

But you know what I'm going to do.

In that severe affliction, I am going to praise you.

I'm going to, I'm going to offer praise to you and I want you to teach me your ways.

Here's what he's saying is another determining factor in my life is not going to be my past Good or bad and his has been bad, the psalmist, he's gone, he's been persecuted, but his persecution is not what's going to determine the way he moves forward.

The bad things that have happened in his life are not going to be the determining factor in how he moves forward.

No, instead, it is going to be God's word that is going to be what drives him and sets his path.

How is God's word?

A lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path?

It sets our path.

Finally, in this point, verse 111, he says Finally, in this point, verse 111, he says your testimonies are my heritage forever, for they are the joy of my heart.

I've told you all stories before about the pocket knife that I carry.

I don't always carry this pocket knife, but most of the time I have this pocket knife.

I'll tell you why I have this pocket knife, tell you why I carry this pocket knife.

When Thanksgiving, before my father passed away, he had a knife just like this and he had lost it.

He couldn't find it, and so this was before Amazon.

So I found a Smoky Mountain Knife Works sale magazine and ordered this pocket knife.

When we came home from the hospital the day that dad passed away, it was in the mailbox.

Now, this is not a heritage, it's an heirloom.

But it is an heirloom that reminds me of a heritage that I have.

When I reach in my pocket and feel this knife, I have memories of my dad.

I have memories of the life that he lived.

I have memories of the legacy that he left behind for me.

It is a heritage that he has left for me and it is something that I hold dear.

What the psalmist is saying here is God's word.

It is more than just an heirloom.

God's word is the heritage that has been left for him that marks his path that he is going to follow.

So the first thing we see is that God's word?

How does it?

How is it a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path.

It sets our path.

The second thing is it helps us to stay our course.

To stay our course.

Listen, life is not always easy.

I don't know if you understand that.

Sometimes things come up and they are hard and they are difficult.

Sometimes the world that we live in is not perfect, the people that we are surrounded by is not perfect, and sometimes life is hard.

But what the psalmist is saying is, in those hard times, he is going to stay his course.

Listen to what he says.

If you go back in verse 107, we've read it already.

But he says I am severely afflicted.

Give me life, o Lord, according to your word.

Listen, he is going through persecution and he is going through affliction.

And he is going through persecution and he is going through affliction, and it is more severe than somebody just calling him a name.

The affliction that he is undergoing is affliction to the point of death, and what he is saying is God, while this affliction may bring death to me, where I find life is through your word.

Help me to find life in your word and stay the course.

He also says down in in verse 109, he says this I hold my, I hold my life in my hand continually, but I do not forget your law.

What he is saying here is that he is showing his vulnerability here.

He understands that his life, more often than not and honestly, more often than he would like to admit, is in danger.

His life is at a point where he could die.

And what he is saying is while I hold my life in my hand continually, god, while I hold it there, let me not forget your law.

Let your law help me to stay the course to you.

And then, finally, in verse 111, he says well.

In verse 112, he says I incline, I'm sorry, go back to verse 110.

He says this the wicked have laid a snare for me, but I do not stray from your precepts.

You understand this right, what his enemies are doing, they are attacking him and they are trying to get him to fail and to fall.

They are trying to trap him.

And what he says While they are trying to trap me and while they are trying to get me to fall, they are trying to trap him.

When he says while they are trying to trap me and while they are trying to get me to fall.

I will not stray from your precepts.

I will stay the course.

How is God's word a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path?

Not only does it set the mark, set the path for us, but it helps us to continue on that path.

But if you go back to that song, that song that I read to you right at the beginning just a few minutes ago, did you hear the verses of that song?

Well, they sang thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.

Listen to what they said in the verse again.

Still, you're there right beside me.

Nothing will I fear as long as you are near.

Please be near me to the end.

The second verse says this I will not forget your love for me.

And yet my heart is forever wondering.

Then hear this Jesus, be my guide and hold me to your side.

I will love you to the end.

The last phrase, I didn't read, says this thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light into my path, and a light unto my path.

You're the light unto my path.

Jesus came all those years ago and we sang this morning.

The kids sang this morning about his coming.

He came and he was the word of God.

They read it even in the beginning was the word, and the word was God and the word was with God.

The same was with God in the beginning.

That's Jesus.

And Jesus came and he came to declare to us the word of God.

And so here's what the word of God does for us.

The word of God reveals to us who Jesus is and how he brings us into relationship with the Father.

It is the word of God that shows us how, from the very beginning, when Adam and Eve were in the garden and sinned, and how their relationship with God was broken, how, from that time forward, in the Old Testament, it points us to Jesus and his coming to earth and his dying on the cross for us to take upon himself the punishment that we deserve.

And then it moves from Christ and it shows how, in the New Testament, how we should point back to him and how we should see him and focus on him, that that he came to give us life.

And it is here in this word that we find Jesus.

It is all that we need.

So, listen, I'm going to do something a little bit differently this morning in the invitation time.

I want to challenge us as a church to do something.

2025 is coming.

I don't know if you know that it's coming Just a few weeks away.

I'm going to challenge you in 2025.

I can't even say it, I'm not ready for it.

I'm going to challenge you in 2025 to let's do something together, as a church family.

Let's read through our Bible together, together, as a church family, let's read through our Bible.

I found this Bible.

It's called the Daily Walk Bible.

There are some available out here in the Grand Hall for you to purchase.

But look, amazon Swear where I got it.

If we run out out here, you can go to Amazon.

Or if we run out here, you can sign up out here and I'll order you one.

Okay, there's nothing special about this Bible.

It's not a magical Bible.

It is a Bible that will take you through God's Word in a year.

It has devotions that go along with it, just to kind of help you as you walk through the Bible.

But I want to encourage us as a church family to walk through the Bible together.

Now you may be saying, grant, I have a Bible, why do I need to buy another one?

I have 50 Bibles at home.

Why do I need another one?

And I would say, okay, you're right.

Let me tell you what else we have out in the Grand Hall.

We have bookmarks.

Now this bookmark only goes through April because if we put a whole year on a bookmark it's going to be bigger than your Bible, so it's quarterly bookmarks.

We'll put some more out for May, june, july and for the rest of the year, but you can pick up a bookmark.

What this bookmark has on it, it has the readings on the days of the week that you would read here.

So you can still, along with your church family together, we can read through the Bible.

The same thing on the same day and we can read through the Bible together.

You may say, grant, I don't need something else to lose, I would lose a bookmark.

Okay, grant, I would lose a bookmark and I don't want to buy a Bible.

Okay, we're also going to put a page on our website where you can go to desotahillscom and you can pull up a tab and on the website it will have the readings that you are going to read that day.

You might even find yourself one day on vacation.

Hopefully you get to take one of those and you say I forgot my Bible, I forgot my bookmark.

I don't know what I'm supposed to read today.

You probably have a smartphone that you can go to our website and look up the look up the passage.

Look, I'm not telling you there's a right or wrong way to read through the Bible together.

Here's just what I'm challenging us to do together, church.

I'm challenging us to allow God and his word to set our path.

God and his word to set our path, instead of allowing a darkened world to set our path.

I'm challenging us to let God's word set our path, and not only to allow God's word to set our path, but allow God's word to help us to stay the course together.

Help us to stay the course together, to not get distracted or when life gets hard or when life just throws us a curveball, to stay the course and to follow him together.

Just a moment, I'm going to pray for us and they're going to come back and we are going to have a time of invitation.

Listen, you, you may be sitting there today and realize that you have never met Jesus.

You've never placed your trust in the fact that Jesus did come 2,000 years ago and that scripture has pointed us to him that Jesus came and that he lived and that he died and that he arose to take upon himself the punishment that you and I deserve.

God's word is right and it's righteous, and it shows, demonstrates to us so often how we are not right and righteous and how we need a savior.

Jesus is that savior, and if you've never trusted him as your savior, during this time of invitation, we're going to invite you to come.

We would love to pray with you.

There are counselors who would love to take you and share with you how you can can become a follower of christ and trust him.

Or maybe you have, and maybe maybe you're just trying to get along in your own strength and you constantly fall and fail.

I encourage you this morning Listen, the life that we have been given through understanding God's Word and through Jesus Christ is not a life where we have to work in our own strength.

It is not a life about trying harder.

It is a life about depending more upon Jesus, to falling more upon him, to allowing him to change us.

So maybe this morning you're trying to do it on your own, but you need to stop and you need to repent and turn back to him.

Listen, we'll be down here front with you.

We would love to pray for you.

You can do that right in your seat, I understand that, but we would love to invite you to come forward and let us pray with you and let us together, as a church family, walk with you.

Maybe God's calling you to something different.

Maybe God is calling you to the mission field.

Maybe God's calling you to the mission field.

Maybe God's calling you into ministry, or maybe God's just calling you to share the gospel right where you are.

I encourage you this morning, during this invitation time, to answer that call.

God may be calling you to unite with us here at DeSoto Heels.

If so, we would love to have you come as a member and walk with us together as we allow God to set our course, to set our path and help us to stay his course.

Let me pray for us, god.

We love you.

We thank you for today and we thank you for how.

Pray for us, god.

We love you.

We thank you for today and we thank you for how you love us, god.

We pray that this morning, spirit, as you are working, you are working among our kids singing.

God, you are working through your word.

God, I pray this morning for those who are here who don't know you, that today can be the day of salvation for them.

God, I pray for those who are trying in their own strength for surrender to you.

God, I pray for those who you are calling that they will surrender God, whatever decisions need to be made in this place this morning.

As we sing this hymn during this invitation time, spirit, I pray that you will give us the faith that we need to answer your call.

Jesus, it's in your wonderful name that we pray.

Amen.

Thanks for listening to this week's sermon.

If you have any questions for our pastor, feel free to reach out at desotohillscom.