WEBVTT 1 00:00:01.025 --> 00:00:02.025 Grace, mercy, and peace 2 00:00:02.025 --> 00:00:04.825 be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and our Savior Jesus 3 00:00:04.825 --> 00:00:08.125 Christ. Psalm 119 4 00:00:08.125 --> 00:00:08.825 very long 5 00:00:08.825 --> 00:00:09.525 Psalm. 6 00:00:10.125 --> 00:00:15.525 We have the first eight verses. As you read through Psalm 119 7 00:00:15.825 --> 00:00:23.225 you come across words over and over again law or Torah statutes rules 8 00:00:23.225 --> 00:00:26.625 precepts, Commandments, word. 9 00:00:27.725 --> 00:00:31.625 And when we hear them, we begin to think of what we are to do and what 10 00:00:31.625 --> 00:00:33.125 we are to not to do. 11 00:00:34.525 --> 00:00:42.525 But those words also have a broader meaning. Torah instruction teach 12 00:00:43.125 --> 00:00:44.225 word. 13 00:00:44.325 --> 00:00:51.625 Not just what we're to do but God's promises as well, bigger broader. 14 00:00:53.125 --> 00:00:58.125 Not just what we're to do and not to do but also what God has done and 15 00:00:58.125 --> 00:01:01.125 does do in his steadfast love. 16 00:01:03.225 --> 00:01:10.025 But of course, Psalm 119, certainly speaks about commands and statutes 17 00:01:10.125 --> 00:01:15.325 and rules and law. What we are to do, and what we are not to do. It 18 00:01:15.325 --> 00:01:16.125 simply begins 19 00:01:16.325 --> 00:01:19.725 blessed, blessed are those who are blameless. 20 00:01:19.925 --> 00:01:22.225 Blessed are those, who do no wrong. 21 00:01:22.225 --> 00:01:23.825 Who, who, who 22 00:01:23.825 --> 00:01:25.425 who diligently 23 00:01:25.625 --> 00:01:28.425 keep his statutes. 24 00:01:29.225 --> 00:01:31.125 Whose whole heart 25 00:01:32.625 --> 00:01:34.325 is into his commands. 26 00:01:36.625 --> 00:01:38.725 Well, that's what it takes to be blessed. 27 00:01:39.725 --> 00:01:43.025 These are devastating words. 28 00:01:44.825 --> 00:01:52.025 Devastating blameless, do no wrong diligently with our whole heart. 29 00:01:54.525 --> 00:01:55.025 Nope. 30 00:01:58.725 --> 00:02:00.025 We take a look at 31 00:02:01.625 --> 00:02:06.625 our hold or the hold money has on us. 32 00:02:07.825 --> 00:02:14.025 And our Lord's, our Lord's command, to be generous, and we realize we 33 00:02:14.025 --> 00:02:16.325 could be more generous. 34 00:02:19.325 --> 00:02:19.925 Or 35 00:02:21.125 --> 00:02:22.225 the time. 36 00:02:23.825 --> 00:02:29.025 The time that we devote to ourselves to our studies to our work, but 37 00:02:29.025 --> 00:02:33.325 then also time that we simply become distracted. 38 00:02:34.925 --> 00:02:38.125 And we're not always fully present with someone who may need us. 39 00:02:39.525 --> 00:02:48.525 We live in a XXX society explicit and exposed and exploited, sexuality 40 00:02:48.525 --> 00:02:55.225 on billboards and movies and television and music on the computer that 41 00:02:55.225 --> 00:02:56.325 surrounds us. 42 00:02:56.325 --> 00:02:58.225 It's that culture that we live in. 43 00:03:00.425 --> 00:03:04.825 Our whole hearts our minds, our desires, not always pure. 44 00:03:07.925 --> 00:03:09.225 And then our words. 45 00:03:10.725 --> 00:03:12.425 We may avoid the profanity. 46 00:03:15.625 --> 00:03:17.325 But sometimes, we're silent 47 00:03:19.025 --> 00:03:22.225 when we are to speak well, of somebody or build them up. 48 00:03:24.525 --> 00:03:27.825 The song begins with blessed are those who are blameless and do no 49 00:03:27.825 --> 00:03:31.425 wrong and diligently with their whole heart, but then ends with this 50 00:03:31.425 --> 00:03:34.125 little phrase, do not forsake me. 51 00:03:37.625 --> 00:03:38.725 And our Lord should. 52 00:03:40.725 --> 00:03:42.025 He should forsake us. 53 00:03:44.125 --> 00:03:48.925 But that's when we need to go back to the bigger and broader words. 54 00:03:50.225 --> 00:03:52.125 God in his steadfast love 55 00:03:54.025 --> 00:03:57.325 he's the one who keeps his word. 56 00:03:58.625 --> 00:04:03.425 He's the one who sends someone who will be blameless, who will do no 57 00:04:03.425 --> 00:04:06.525 wrong. Whose whole heart and mind 58 00:04:06.525 --> 00:04:12.825 and we'll everything diligently does exactly what his father wants him 59 00:04:12.825 --> 00:04:13.525 to do. 60 00:04:15.525 --> 00:04:16.625 And what happens? 61 00:04:18.125 --> 00:04:21.125 He's the one who's forsaken 62 00:04:22.125 --> 00:04:23.225 instead of us. 63 00:04:24.125 --> 00:04:25.525 My God, my God 64 00:04:25.525 --> 00:04:27.825 why have you forsaken me from the cross 65 00:04:27.825 --> 00:04:28.925 he cries? 66 00:04:30.625 --> 00:04:31.925 And we are blessed. 67 00:04:33.525 --> 00:04:37.725 Our Lord sees us as blameless because of Jesus. 68 00:04:40.825 --> 00:04:43.525 Our forgiveness 69 00:04:44.625 --> 00:04:47.325 so we are not seen as wrong. 70 00:04:50.825 --> 00:04:57.125 He sends his Holy Spirit into our heart and mind and will and soul and 71 00:04:57.125 --> 00:04:57.725 body. 72 00:04:59.425 --> 00:05:01.225 To diligently, keep 73 00:05:02.325 --> 00:05:03.625 his commands. 74 00:05:04.925 --> 00:05:07.325 His rules, his statutes. 75 00:05:09.325 --> 00:05:14.725 What Jesus does for us, is he changes the devastating words, the 76 00:05:14.725 --> 00:05:16.425 burdensome words 77 00:05:18.725 --> 00:05:21.325 so that we see God's law as delightful 78 00:05:22.425 --> 00:05:24.325 and even beautiful. 79 00:05:28.025 --> 00:05:32.825 This Psalm actually goes with the reading for last Sunday, if it were 80 00:05:32.825 --> 00:05:35.825 not Reformation. 81 00:05:37.325 --> 00:05:42.125 So the pericope for that Sunday include an Old Testament 82 00:05:42.125 --> 00:05:48.425 reading from Deuteronomy chapter 6, here's a portion of that reading 83 00:05:48.425 --> 00:05:53.925 from Deuteronomy 6. And these words that I command you today shall be 84 00:05:53.925 --> 00:05:54.825 on your heart. 85 00:05:55.725 --> 00:05:58.725 You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of 86 00:05:58.725 --> 00:06:00.625 them when you sit in your house. 87 00:06:02.025 --> 00:06:08.625 When you walk, by the way, when you lie down and when you rise. You 88 00:06:08.625 --> 00:06:11.925 shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontlets 89 00:06:11.925 --> 00:06:12.925 between your eyes. 90 00:06:13.025 --> 00:06:15.525 You should write them on the doorposts of your house and on your 91 00:06:15.525 --> 00:06:16.225 gates. 92 00:06:19.925 --> 00:06:24.025 When you're lying down, sitting, rising on your way. 93 00:06:27.925 --> 00:06:34.425 Every day not just in the big moments of decision or temptation or 94 00:06:34.625 --> 00:06:35.725 opportunity 95 00:06:36.925 --> 00:06:41.125 but in the small everyday moments of life. 96 00:06:43.925 --> 00:06:48.925 To see God's law, and commands, and rules, and statutes and precepts 97 00:06:49.725 --> 00:06:51.325 as something delightful 98 00:06:52.725 --> 00:06:53.825 and even beautiful. 99 00:06:56.325 --> 00:06:57.925 Give you a couple examples here. 100 00:06:59.325 --> 00:07:00.025 A little while back 101 00:07:00.025 --> 00:07:04.425 I was out visiting a student and I needed to stop at a gas station. 102 00:07:04.825 --> 00:07:08.425 I filled up the car with gas and then drove up to the parking spot in 103 00:07:08.425 --> 00:07:10.325 front of the convenience store went in. 104 00:07:10.525 --> 00:07:17.525 As I got out of the car there on the pavement was a one dollar bill. 105 00:07:20.825 --> 00:07:22.325 Not a 20 dollar bill. 106 00:07:23.725 --> 00:07:24.025 Dr. 107 00:07:24.025 --> 00:07:32.025 Golden, not a $10, bill Thomas, Andy he not even a five dollar bill. 108 00:07:33.225 --> 00:07:34.825 Just a dollar bill. 109 00:07:35.725 --> 00:07:37.725 So I picked it up and put it in my pocket. 110 00:07:39.225 --> 00:07:44.125 Went inside came back out, got into the car and was leaving it at the 111 00:07:44.125 --> 00:07:44.725 exit. 112 00:07:44.725 --> 00:07:48.925 There was a man sitting there asking for money. 113 00:07:50.325 --> 00:07:54.125 Now normally I don't give money in situations like that because I 114 00:07:54.125 --> 00:07:55.625 don't know what the person is going to do with it. 115 00:07:55.625 --> 00:08:00.425 But at this moment, there was this dollar bill in my pocket. 116 00:08:03.125 --> 00:08:04.425 And so, I simply stopped 117 00:08:06.225 --> 00:08:07.125 and gave it to him. 118 00:08:08.325 --> 00:08:12.925 Just a really small moment of generosity. 119 00:08:13.925 --> 00:08:18.525 We have bigger moments that come along, but for this little moment, 120 00:08:19.425 --> 00:08:21.325 God's word of generosity. 121 00:08:23.025 --> 00:08:24.325 Well, that's delightful 122 00:08:25.925 --> 00:08:29.225 and even something beautiful in our lives. 123 00:08:33.325 --> 00:08:37.825 My wife and I were at a restaurant, sit-down restaurant, 124 00:08:38.225 --> 00:08:41.325 and if you know, right now they're having trouble getting enough 125 00:08:41.525 --> 00:08:47.125 wait staff. Only two servers for the whole dining room. 126 00:08:49.425 --> 00:08:51.225 They had curbside service 127 00:08:51.225 --> 00:08:55.525 so the cooks had all the orders lined up there as well. 128 00:08:56.125 --> 00:09:00.525 Well, we got seated, we had our menus and then we waited 129 00:09:01.925 --> 00:09:06.025 and waited and waited. Something 130 00:09:06.025 --> 00:09:07.625 our Lord says about patience. 131 00:09:09.025 --> 00:09:13.425 Well, they finally came and took our order, and then we waited and we 132 00:09:13.425 --> 00:09:16.825 waited some more, and we waited, and finally got our food. 133 00:09:16.925 --> 00:09:17.925 It was very good. 134 00:09:18.225 --> 00:09:20.925 And then we waited and waited some more 135 00:09:20.925 --> 00:09:23.625 until I finally stopped our server to ask for our check. 136 00:09:25.425 --> 00:09:29.825 And after we had paid it, and they came back with the slip. 137 00:09:30.825 --> 00:09:31.625 We got up to leave. 138 00:09:31.625 --> 00:09:33.325 We as do the verses 139 00:09:33.325 --> 00:09:34.325 when we rise. 140 00:09:35.325 --> 00:09:38.125 I saw both of the server's over at the computer. 141 00:09:38.825 --> 00:09:39.425 I don't know 142 00:09:39.925 --> 00:09:43.825 printing out a check swiping, their credit card, whatever. 143 00:09:45.125 --> 00:09:49.225 And then I said, well, I just was going to go over there. 144 00:09:50.725 --> 00:09:52.525 And I interrupted my simply said, 145 00:09:53.525 --> 00:09:55.725 my wife and I see how busy you are. 146 00:09:56.525 --> 00:10:00.625 We really appreciate the service that you did for this evening and 147 00:10:00.625 --> 00:10:01.825 just say, thank you. 148 00:10:03.025 --> 00:10:04.925 Now, what was that 149 00:10:04.925 --> 00:10:09.825 30 seconds, very small, but in the rising, and on the way. 150 00:10:11.525 --> 00:10:15.225 A few words of encouragement building somebody up 151 00:10:16.525 --> 00:10:17.925 at the moment when they need it. 152 00:10:20.525 --> 00:10:24.325 God's words about encouraging words are delightful 153 00:10:25.525 --> 00:10:26.525 and beautiful. 154 00:10:29.525 --> 00:10:34.025 My kids were teenage, that's a ways back now 155 00:10:34.025 --> 00:10:39.025 because they're in their 30s, but my younger son, was with the youth 156 00:10:39.025 --> 00:10:42.525 group early teenage years down in St. 157 00:10:42.525 --> 00:10:43.025 Louis. 158 00:10:43.725 --> 00:10:48.625 And we were walking along with our pastor and we came across a bus 159 00:10:48.625 --> 00:10:53.525 stop and there was an advertisement inside the bus stop. 160 00:10:54.325 --> 00:10:58.025 Which was using the old adage sex sells. 161 00:11:01.425 --> 00:11:05.525 And my son, and I watched our pastor as he came to that, he saw what 162 00:11:05.525 --> 00:11:08.325 it was and he turned his head away. 163 00:11:11.225 --> 00:11:12.425 And as a dad 164 00:11:13.425 --> 00:11:18.925 that was delightful to see and it was a beautiful moment for my son to 165 00:11:18.925 --> 00:11:19.725 watch. 166 00:11:20.825 --> 00:11:22.525 A little purity of heart. 167 00:11:25.625 --> 00:11:26.425 And a couple weeks ago 168 00:11:26.425 --> 00:11:28.425 I got an email saying that 169 00:11:29.725 --> 00:11:34.625 a car accident, took the life of a young boy and put his brother in 170 00:11:34.625 --> 00:11:40.025 the hospital and they were at the after-school program at Bethlehem 171 00:11:40.025 --> 00:11:41.525 Lutheran Church down in the city. 172 00:11:43.025 --> 00:11:46.625 And they wanted to know if I could bring Noah down. 173 00:11:47.825 --> 00:11:50.025 Well that afternoon 174 00:11:50.025 --> 00:11:54.125 I actually had Noah in the office with me and then I looked at my 175 00:11:54.125 --> 00:11:58.225 schedule the after-school program 3:30 to 5:00. 176 00:11:58.425 --> 00:12:00.125 Nothing on my schedule. 177 00:12:03.025 --> 00:12:04.225 So I took Noah down 178 00:12:05.725 --> 00:12:07.425 and then stood in the back 179 00:12:07.525 --> 00:12:13.425 so the kids could pet him. Had Noah do a what's called a laugh 180 00:12:13.425 --> 00:12:17.225 and put his front legs on one of the teachers lap so she could give 181 00:12:17.225 --> 00:12:18.225 him a big hug. 182 00:12:19.825 --> 00:12:23.625 But the delightful moment came when Pastor bowling stood in front of 183 00:12:23.625 --> 00:12:28.325 the class and simply talked about Lazarus and Jesus bringing people 184 00:12:28.325 --> 00:12:30.825 back to life and the hope we have. 185 00:12:33.125 --> 00:12:34.125 It took some time 186 00:12:36.525 --> 00:12:37.725 to go down to the city 187 00:12:40.325 --> 00:12:42.125 but time needed by these students 188 00:12:43.225 --> 00:12:47.225 by the staff and the beautiful opportunity. 189 00:12:48.925 --> 00:12:50.225 A beautiful opportunity 190 00:12:52.425 --> 00:12:53.525 when the law was kept. 191 00:12:55.125 --> 00:12:58.625 From devastating and burdensome to delightful and beautiful. 192 00:12:59.125 --> 00:13:02.525 And in the middle of this Psalm in the middle of the psalm is a 193 00:13:02.525 --> 00:13:05.525 wonderful verse, a prayer. 194 00:13:07.025 --> 00:13:08.825 Oh, may my ways. 195 00:13:11.725 --> 00:13:14.925 Oh that, my ways may be steadfast. 196 00:13:16.225 --> 00:13:18.225 In keeping your statutes. 197 00:13:20.325 --> 00:13:26.525 Oh, that my ways may be steadfast in keeping your statutes. 198 00:13:28.125 --> 00:13:29.125 It's a wonderful prayer. 199 00:13:30.225 --> 00:13:31.725 I'm going to ask you to say it with me. 200 00:13:32.425 --> 00:13:33.725 We'll do it in three parts. 201 00:13:34.725 --> 00:13:37.025 Just repeat after me. Oh that my ways. 202 00:13:39.325 --> 00:13:40.925 May be steadfast. 203 00:13:42.825 --> 00:13:44.725 In keeping your statutes. 204 00:13:46.925 --> 00:13:48.025 Let's do it together. 205 00:13:48.525 --> 00:13:55.025 Oh, that my ways. May be steadfast in keeping your statutes. 206 00:13:57.025 --> 00:13:57.725 Amen. 207 00:13:59.125 --> 00:14:00.225 We stand for the Te Deum.