Read the Word

Good morning church. This morning Scripture reader

will be from Psalms 119. If you're using the Bible under

the seat, you can find that on page 480.

Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law

of the Lord. Blessed are those who keep His

testimonies, who seek Him with their whole heart, who also do

no wrong but walk in His ways. You have commanded your, You

have commanded your precepts to keep diligent, diligently.

Oh, that my ways may be steadfast in keeping your

statutes. Then I shall not be put to

shame. Having my eyes fixed on all Your

commandments. I will praise you with your

upright heart. When I learn your righteous

rules. I will keep your statutes.

Do not utterly forsake me. This is the word of the Lord.

Good morning, poor city family and friends.

How are we doing? Sorry, my hair has gotten a

little longer. So we're in this thing is get

stuck in there. But hey, it is a pleasure to be

with you. My name is Ron and I am one of

the pastors here again. Every single time I get up have

the opportunity to preach. It is a joy.

So so thank you for for being here.

I'm excited to dive into God's Word today.

So we're going to be beginning a short series over the next three

weeks entitled In the Word. And so over the course of the

next three weeks, we're going to be looking at reading the Word,

meditating on the Word, and living out the word.

And we've chosen Psalm 119 because if there's any chapter

of the Bible that does not allow us to approach kind of the the

God's Word casually is Psalm 119.

I don't know about you, but I don't know if you're anything

like me, but on on most days, like I'm pretty casual with my

like phone battery. You're right.

So like sometimes I might charge it, sometimes I might not.

A lot of times it's because my kids have like moved the

chargers and but you know, I'm casual.

Like if it's charged, it's it's fine.

If it's not, I'll find a charger.

We'll we'll get it charged up. We're good.

But imagine if I change the setting now imagine I'm not in

my home, but I am somewhere where I don't know and my phone

only has 10% battery where I was casual before.

Now I'm like in a panic because this phone is my lifeline,

right? It's like it is, it's going to

guide me, it's going to help me. This GPS is, is essential.

And, you know, if we, when we look at Psalm 119, we are

looking at someone who kind of knows the difference, who, who

treats the word kind of like that, like it's a lifeline.

Not, not something casual that we sort of kind of read like

we're scrolling. But it is something that the the

psalmist desperately needs. And so we're going to see over

the next couple weeks really that our hope is to to capture

sort of the heart of the psalmist, his posture as he sort

of approaches the the word. And so a little context before

we dive in further. Psalm 118 is the longest chapter

in the Bible. It is kind of written as an

acrostic poem. So it is each HH stanza is

matches one of the Hebrew letters in the alphabet.

So from a kind of to Z, if you will.

It's almost like God is saying that, you know, my word speaks

to every part of life. It is complete and we're going

to see that that nothing outside of I'm sorry, nothing in the

world exists outside of God's word.

And it is, you know, it is profitable for for all of life.

And so I do want to say, you know, as we, you know, think

about the word and, and talk about the word, you know, the,

the primary goal of of today's message isn't, you know, I want

us to leave like loving the word and excited about the word.

But ultimately it is not about loving the Bible as much as it

is loving the God of the Bible and loving who the Scriptures

point to loving God through his revealed words.

So if you leave today, kind of beating yourself up about, you

know, how much you have not read or should be reading, you really

have missed the the point. This is not sort of a guilt trip

as much as it is an invitation for us to walk with God through

his word. And so, you know, the big idea

we're going to see, you know, in looking at Psalm 119, there's

this, this blessed life, this flourish in life.

It comes from a wholehearted devotion to God's word.

But that only comes through his grace, his sustaining grace, not

our efforts, not our kind of trying to will, not our, you

know, our checklist and our, our, you know, our habits.

But it is his grace that keeps us and that allows us to, you

know, leave from the word the way we should.

So my prayer today is that we would leave more eager to meet

with God in his word with a posture of dependence, not

self-confidence. So, so let me pray, Father God,

you are the greatest and your word, it really is the greatest.

And so often we, we just yawn at it or we casually, you know,

indulge in it. Father, I, I pray that you would

forgive us. I, I pray that where we go

throughout life sort of focused on the words of others and not

your word or, or that we are just distracted when we approach

your word. I pray that you would, that you

would forgive us and that by your Spirit you would make us

new. God, that you would do as Psalm

Psalms 118:18

118 verse 18 says, Would you open our eyes so that we might

see wondrous things in your law? Father, I know that all of my

preparation has been, and it will be in vain unless your

spirit moves, unless you open eyes.

And so God, I ask that you would do that this morning.

Father, what we are not, would you make us.

What we have not, would you teach us, and what we know not,

would you teach us? And may the words of my mouth

and the meditations of my heart be pleasing and acceptable in

your sight, O Lord, our rock and our Redeemer.

And God's people said, Amen. All right.

And so for the psalmist, right, life only works when God speaks.

And that is what we're going to see.

And so when we look at Psalm 119, it opens with this idea

that aiming our lives toward this path that actually leads

somewhere. And it's the psalmist calls it

the blessed life 'cause somebody say the blessed life verse one

says blessed are those who walk is blameless.

I'm sorry, whose way is blameless?

Whose walk in The Who walk in the law of the Lord.

The psalmist starts with where we all want, right, We all want

sort of the good life. We all want to to live well,

right. We want to be blessed.

We want to to flourish. Nobody sort of wakes up wanting

life to be empty or to be anxious or to be sort of broken,

right? We want a life that sort of

works and can be held up even when things are difficult.

And our culture certainly has a lot to say about what sort of

the good life is. Sort of the message comes

everywhere through so many different forms.

But it is something to the effect of, you know, more money,

more things, more possessions, more freedom, more control,

fewer restrictions and limits. Well, Psalm 119, it, it pushes

back on that definition of blessedness.

And it says that blessing is not set in a sort of set of

circumstances, but rather it is found in alignment with a God

The, the word blameless. It, it can be confusing if we're

not careful. It doesn't mean sinless.

Because if it did, then that would disqualify all of us right

here, every person in the room. But instead, blameless refers to

undivided, not not perfect, but oriented, not again, not

flawless, but in a faithful direction.

And so the psalmist is sort of describing a life that is

pointed somewhere, a life not just somewhere, but pointed at

at God. There again, it says that he is

walking in the law of the Lord. His life is oriented around

God's word. That reminds me of of something

that happened recently in our house.

We recently dusted off our old we.

So we've been playing a lot of tennis.

And one night, my kids, you know, one of my kids was we were

playing double S tennis and he just kept missing the ball over

and over again. You know, turns out he was

watching the wrong character, right?

He was swinging hard. He was trying his best, wasn't

trying to miss the ball, had a lot of effort, but just no

alignment. He was focused on the wrong

target, had a lot of energy, but a misplaced focus.

And I just wonder if that's a picture of how many of us

approach life, approach the word.

Many of us, you know, maybe we are busy, maybe we're even

sincere, even disciplined. But it's misdirected.

The the word doesn't just tell us what to do, but it wants to

Orient our lives. It want to kind of point us in a

direction. It wants our goals to be shaped

by his desires for us. And we find that in his, in his

word. And so for many of us, the aim

is not God. Often times it is

self-sufficiency, it is control, it's freedom.

It is, you know, restraint. No, no restraint, freedom from

limits. If we want a life that the

psalmist is describing, it is not found in chasing the right

set of circumstances, but it is found in walking with God, not

going ahead of him. But walking with him, not sort

of negotiating around him, not consulting with him only when

you're in great need, but walking with him.

And verse 2 sort of deepens this idea.

It says blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek

him with their whole heart. To keep means to guard, to

treasure, to cling to, right? And testimonies refers to sort

of what God has declared, what he's revealed about himself,

what he's revealed about his people, what he's revealed about

how to live in his world, his way.

And so to seek God then is not sort of chasing this spiritual

kind of feeling. It's about a wholehearted

response to what he has already spoken.

See, we don't seek God by ignoring his word and what he's

already said. We don't love God by treating

His word lightly. The word, it's, it's not sort of

an obstacle to our intimacy with God.

It's the primary means of it. God makes himself known through

what he has said. And then verse 3, as we continue

it, it grounds us in in everyday life.

It says they also do no wrong but walk in his ways.

And again, this is not a claim to sinless perfection.

It's a description of directional faithfulness.

It is a life that keeps choosing God's way overtime.

It's long obedience in the same direction to walk with God.

It means to agree with God about reality, to live in God's in

God's world, his way. It is a settled conviction that

knows that God actually knows what how life works best.

And so I remember, you know, before really being a believer

and really understanding, I thought that, you know, God just

wanted to control my life. And, you know, that reading the

word was all about trying to do a bunch of things.

And you know, I quickly realized that that was not that's not

what God intends with his word. It is to show us who he is and

his word and his, the commands are intended to lead to a life

of flourishing again, Let's let's think back to sort of the

GPS again. When you miss a turn, the GPS

doesn't shame you, right? It doesn't yell like, I can't

believe you missed the turn again, right?

What does it say? It just simply says

recalculating. Psalm 119 isn't describing a

life that never misses a term, but a life that keeps

recalculating back toward God. Where direction is is more

important than, you know, perfection.

The Word of God doesn't exist to condemn you for every wrong

turn. It exists to keep reorienting

you toward a life that actually leads to life.

And so over and over again, God is patient with us.

You know, he's directing us with his Word.

Reading the word doesn't just give us information, but again,

it gives us a direction. It gives us orientation.

It teaches us what the blessed life actually is.

And again blessed happens when our lives line up with how God

has designed the world to work. And so but once we're on this

but once the word directs our paths, it doesn't stay neutral

as soon as we start walking with the Lord and you know following

his word, it begins to speak with wait direction quickly

gives way to confrontation, which is our our second point is

that the word confronts us. Look at verse four with me.

It says you have commanded your precepts to be kept diligently.

Verse 4, it confronts us this with this reality that we often

try to forget you or maybe just, you know, intentionally or not

that God's word carries authority.

You know, his word is not just suggestions.

It's not helpful life hacks. It's not inspiration.

God's Word is God commands not because he's harsh or because He

is, you know, trying to control your life, but rather because he

is loving and he is wise and his commands flow from his wisdom

and his care and so his authority.

He, you know, when he speaks with his authority, it is

directed toward what will lead us to true life.

And notice the language to be kept diligently.

The Word confronts our casualness, right?

God's word demands not not just convenience, but intention.

And again, we shouldn't be sort of afraid of that because, you

know, grace isn't opposed to effort, it's just opposed to

earning. So the problem isn't our

diligence, it's about what we're diligent about, right?

We all are diligent. And so God calls us to, to keep,

to keep, to guard, to watch over with care like a shepherd, you

know, tending his sheep. It is not a passive reading, but

a one that has responsibility and friends.

I, I don't think there's ever been more of a time for us to be

diligent in God's word where it matters more because, you know,

we're constantly being formed by screens, by stories, by all

kinds of noise. And if we're not paying

attention, then formation will happen without us even noticing.

Because the Christian life, in the Christian life, whenever

we're coasting, if we're not walking, if we're coasting and

we're drifting, that means we're going downhill.

Nobody accidentally grows in Christ, but plenty of us just

drift, accidentally drift and we go with the ways of the world.

And verse five turns the confrontation inward.

The psalmist says, oh, that my ways may be steadfast and

keeping your statutes. This is not sort of the psalmist

being confident it instead it's actually a confession.

The the word confronts sort of the gap between what we what we

know and what we actually do. But the psalmist doesn't hide

that gap. He doesn't pretend.

He doesn't posture. He prays.

So it is a prayer where he says that my ways, that my ways may

be steadfast in keeping your statutes.

He is saying, God, you command what is good and I want to

follow you, but I need your help like I need you.

He is dependent on grace. And when the word confronts us

honestly, it, it doesn't just leave us exposed, but it begins

to do something deeper. It begins to shape our posture.

The word doesn't just challenge our behavior, it starts to form

our hearts, which is the Third Point the word forms us.

And verses 6 and 7, the psalmist says, Then I shall put to shame,

having my eyes fixed on all your commandments.

See, shame comes from building life on what can't hold us.

The psalmist knows that drifting from God's word will lead to

exposure, regret, collapse. So what does he do?

He fixes his eyes. And that is again, formation

language. We repeat.

What we repeatedly look at is the thing that shapes us.

It shapes what we love. And again, what we fix our eyes

on is what we become. And so often, most of us again,

myself included, right We, we don't fix our eyes.

What do we do? We, we escape.

Distraction is our default. When, when things get heavy,

when things you know, are, are difficult, we, we reach for

distractions, Netflix, scrolling, food control,

cynicism. But the psalmist doesn't escape.

He focuses because formation is happening either way.

And he says, I will praise you with an upright heart when I

learn your righteous rules. Did you?

Did you notice the order right? I will praise you when I learn.

Learning leads to worship and formation leads to praise.

See, when the Word rightly forms us, it doesn't just inform our

mind, but it stirs our heart. The Word produces in US

humility, gratitude, joy. And so if reading the scriptures

never leads us to praise, then we might want to ask ourselves,

are we just? Maybe, Maybe we're just

consuming information instead of actually encountering God.

The Word forms us by reshaping our focus.

And so obedience becomes a response, not a performance.

We don't read again, I want to also emphasize we, you know,

here at Port City, we don't read the word alone.

Like God is forming a people that are stumbling forward

together, helping one another keep our eyes fixed on him.

And so that's why belonging to a local church is so necessary.

There is no, you know, walking with Christ in isolation.

We need each other to help one another stay, keep our eyes

fixed on Jesus. And so, but even, you know,

being formed isn't sort of the final word because the psalmist

knows something that we often forget, right?

We can have the right direction. We can sort of be confronted.

But all of that is for not if we don't have grace.

So the stanza ends as every faithful reading of Scripture

must end with dependence. And this is sort of my last

point. The word sustains us.

Verse 8 says I will keep your statues.

Do not utterly forsake me. The psalmist opens with a

blessing and ends with a plea. He says God, if you don't

sustain me, I won't make it. There's desperation there.

This is the posture Scripture is meant to produce in us.

Not self-confidence, but dependence.

This is someone who knows that even God's word requires God's

presence. Obedience requires grace.

Even loving the word requires God himself to move again.

Imagine if you, you know, we're with your, with a child, your

child and and you're in a crowd. You wouldn't say or the child

wouldn't say like, let me go and watch how I can walk on my own.

No, that the child would say like, don't leave me, like I

don't, I don't want to be left. That is sort of how the psalmist

is approaching the the psalmist reads the word expecting God to

to meet him, to be with him, to walk with him, not so that he

walks away more impressive, but more dependent.

The word sustains us by keeping us near to God, and he is the

one who gives life. And so all throughout Psalm 119,

you see the the psalmist constantly doing two things.

He's constantly declaring his desire to treasure God's word

while also pleading with God to produce that very desire in him.

He knows that you know, apart from God's grace in his life

that he can't, that he won't. And the same is true for you and

I. And so the diagnostic question

here is, do we read the word in a way that leaves us more

dependent on God or more confident in ourselves?

And so, you know, to apply this, we should read the word that

leads to the Savior we need. OK?

We read the Word because it leads us to the Savior we need.

Psalm 119, It holds up this beautiful vision of the blessed

life. And if we're honest, it also

exposes how short we fall from that, right?

We are not naturally blameless. We are not consistently

wholehearted. We certainly don't always keep

God's word diligently. We drift, we forget, we resist.

And that's the point. Psalm 119 is not primarily meant

to meant to make us feel capable, but to make us feel

dependent. The Word directs us, it comforts

us, it forms us, it sustains us because it ultimately leads us

to Jesus. And Jesus is the true blessed

one that Psalm 119 talks about. He is the only one whose life

was perfectly directed, who was never misaligned, never aimed at

the wrong target, never pulled off course by distraction or

fear. He always walked in the ways of

the Father. He is the only one who never was

confronted by God's Word as guilty because he fulfilled it

completely, perfectly. Every command that we fail to

keep, He obeyed perfectly. He is the only perfect one

formed by delight in the Father who loved God's Word not out of

duty, but out of joy. Where we treat the Word lightly,

Jesus treasured it. And on the cross, Jesus

experienced what verse 8 fears the most.

It said, don't, do not utterly forsake me.

Jesus was forsaken. He was treated as if he had

wandered, wandered from the Word and as though he had failed to

meet the law, as though he deserves separation so that when

we would come to the Word, weak, distracted, inconsistent,

needed, that we would not be rejected.

He stands in our place. The Word leads us to Jesus, and

Jesus meets us with grace every single time.

And so we don't read the Scriptures to try to prove

ourselves. We read because Christ has

already proven faithful friends we were.

We were made to gaze. We were made to seek.

We were made to walk a path with intention.

We do these things naturally, but when we do them apart from

God, that's when everything begins to drift.

Our gaze gets misplaced. Our seeking is shallow.

Our walking leads off course. That's why reading the Word

matters. And so as we, you know, enter

the new year and we're, we're setting goals of, you know,

trying to set new habits. All of those things are great.

But we must remember that the word is not a ladder to climb,

but it's a place to meet our faithful God who has come and to

hear from him who is eager to speak.

Reading the word is not about proving anything.

It's about positioning ourselves so we don't come to the word

impressive. We come desperate, we don't come

strong, we come dependent. We don't come, you know, without

need. We come needy, we come honest.

And when we read the Word, because God still speaks,

because God still gives life, because God still meets his

people. So come to the word not to

perform, but to be sustained, not to earn but to receive, not

confident in ourselves, but confident in Christ.

Let's pray together. Father, we thank you so much for

your word, God, that you did not just put us here to try to

figure out what you want for us or life, but God, you have laid

out God, who we are, who you are, what you desire.

And Father, as we have seen in this Psalm and verses one one

through 8, God that we your word confronts us, it directs us, it

gives us what we need, it sustains us.

And so, Father, I confess for so often in my own life, I've

become casual and I have neglected to seek the word with

intention. But Father, I thank you that

God, that my walk with you, my acceptance before you is not

determined on my faithfulness, but it is yours, God, it is the

fact that you have been faithful, God, you have done

everything necessary to to save me, to bring me back into

relationship with Christ. And so, Father, I thank you for

that. God, I pray that you would make

us a people who love Your word more than we love the words of

others, Father, that we would desire because we know that in

your word is where true life is found.

And so, Father, I pray that you would help us, help form us,

make us a people who who who love your word and who are

shaped by it. Father, we love you seen your

beautiful name. We pray.

Amen.