WEBVTT
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The following is a message from Trinity Grace Church in San Antonio, Texas.
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For more information, please visit Trinity GraceSA.org.
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Good morning, y'all.
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Um, Joe, most of you know me.
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I'm Adam.
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Uh, been here for a couple of years now.
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Most recently, a pastor here.
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Um, just want to give you guys a brief update about what we're doing on our side of town and um just invite you into it in whatever way the Lord would see fit.
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Um, as Ben was saying, this has been a summer of transition for the congregation here and transition for us coming up.
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Our family will be out a lot.
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Um, mainly me.
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I'll be gone a lot this coming fall.
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But we're still gonna be out and around.
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We'll still be with you sometimes on Sunday mornings.
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So we're not gone.
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We're still friends, still connected.
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Um, we still want to hear from you.
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So very much want to still be connected with you guys.
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Um, the Lord's been doing a lot of stuff over the summer and getting us prepared for the fall.
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And in the fall, we're moving to a weekly gathering on Sunday evenings at our house.
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And so it's gonna be pretty cool to meet weekly and build that rhythm as a core group looking toward a January launch of our church plant.
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So really excited about those things and really trying to be a congregation that is about being rooted in grace, reaching into our community, and living missionally.
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Those are our core values.
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They're on the website.
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And this fall is all kind of geared towards our core commitments, how we live those things out.
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Things like prayer, evangelism, being outward-facing with our ministries, being warm and welcoming, participating, being a community that worships and sings together, things like that.
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So we're gonna be talking about those things in preparation for the fall, the spring whenever we launch public worship in January.
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And uh we've got a lot of things happening.
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We're adding prayer gatherings monthly this fall.
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It's gonna be really cool.
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We've got two women's Bible studies, one in the morning, one in the evening.
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Um, almost 20 women attending both of those.
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So really cool.
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And our men's Bible study continues.
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Uh, we're gonna be looking at outreach events this fall as well.
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So there's a lot of stuff happening.
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So if you guys want to know more, maybe you've been thinking about it for a while and just haven't connected with me, I'd love to talk to you after the service.
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I'd love to let you know what the Lord's been doing in our midst, give you more details about it.
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If you want to pray for us, can sign you up for our prayer newsletter if you haven't already.
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If you want to know more about financial support, we'd love to talk to you about that as well.
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There's still some needs going into the next few years, and we would love to meet that need.
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And if you are interested potentially in joining, even see me, talk to me at the end.
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But uh, that's just a little update about us, and now to the order of the day.
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Um, I'm Adam, of course, right?
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And we welcome you this morning to Trinity Grace.
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Um, some of you guys may not know this about me because maybe you haven't been around me enough, but I'm a real passionate sports fan.
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I really like sports, and I really like to cheer my kids on at their sports events.
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Very passionate.
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We are very robust people at our children's sports games.
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And as a supported parent, I'm vested in and I have an interest in what goes on with the rules on the field.
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And it can best be described as a passion I have for sideline referee work, right?
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I'm not talking about, you know, really getting on the field and doing referee work.
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I'm talking about, you know, heckling or maybe not the right word, right?
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Pointing out gently and as Christianly as possible why the man or woman running up and down the field either missed something or got something wrong, right?
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So anybody else bothered by things like offsides or balks or backcourt violations or safeties?
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Anybody else bothered by stuff like that?
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That's that's me.
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But I'm not a professional.
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And I don't know every rule.
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But uncannily, I always know whenever something has been missed or when there's a bad call.
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Is anybody else able to pick up on these things?
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There's one thing that makes me even more frustrated than getting a bad call on the field, though, and it's when a referee or an umpire or somebody completely misses one.
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Whenever your team is egregiously fouled, I mean it's it's hideous.
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And there's no whistle, no yellow, no red, no penalty, right?
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Frustration mounts, blood pressure rises, our voices raise, as you talk try to tactfully explain what went wrong and why it should have been different.
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To get a bad call on the field when you're playing a game, it might be livable, but no call, that's injustice.
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This morning we're going to be looking at a prayer of King David from a time whenever he felt like God did not see what was going on in his life.
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God didn't notice.
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Scholars believe that this psalm was likely written at a time when he was on the run from King Saul.
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And though the text doesn't tell us this, there's any number of events from David's life that could have played into the writing of this psalm.
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So it's really great for us.
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It allows us to be able to pray this psalm today, to cry out to our God when it feels like no one sees what's happening to us, to raise our voice and lament over the injustice that we experience.
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And so we're going to consider this prayer under three headings this morning.
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The first is proclaiming innocence.
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The second is seeking protection.
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And the last is receiving reward.
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That's three points this morning.
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Kids, as I'm preaching this morning, I want you to be thinking about a time whenever someone saw you and protected you and met your needs.
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I want you to listen for a story about an injustice, and on the way home or over lunch, I want you to be able to tell your parents what your greatest reward is.
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So with that, please listen or follow along as I read from Psalm 17.
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A prayer of David.
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Hear a just cause, O Lord.
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Attend to my cry, give ear to my prayer from lips free of deceit.
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From your presence let my vindication come.
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Let your eyes behold the right.
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You have tried my heart, you have visited me by night, you have tested me, and you will find nothing.
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I have purposed that my mouth will not transgress.
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With regard to the works of man, by the word of your lips I have avoided the ways of the violent.
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My steps have held fast to your paths, my feet have not slipped.
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I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God.
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Incline your ear to me, hear my words.
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Wondrously show your steadfast love, O Savior of those who seek refuge from their adversaries at your right hand.
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Keep me as the apple of your eye, hide me in the shadow of your wings from the wicked who do me violence, my deadly enemies who surround me.
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They close their hearts to pity.
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With their mouths they speak arrogantly.
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They have now surrounded our steps, they set their eyes to cast us to the ground.
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He is like a lion eager to tear, as a young lion lurking in ambush.
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Arise, O Lord, confront him, subdue him.
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Deliver my soul from the wicked by your sword, from men by your hand, O Lord, from men of the world whose portion is in this life.
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You fill their womb with treasure.
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They are satisfied with children, and they leave their abundance to their infants.
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As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness.
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When I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness.
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This is God's word.
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Thanks be to God.
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Let's pray.
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Heavenly Father, thank you for your word which brings light and life.
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Help us this morning.
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Give us eyes to see, ears to hear what your spirit says to your church.
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In Christ's name we pray.
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Amen.
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First up this morning, proclaiming innocence.
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Back in 2017, a little story might help us here.
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A local man was arrested for stealing from a local Walmart on Bandera Road and then stabbing an employee in the process of escape.
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He was arrested, he was convicted of ag robbery.
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He was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
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And he was incarcerated.
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Now that might seem like an uneventful kind of thing in a big city like ours.
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However, the problem was that the man that was arrested, convicted, and incarcerated didn't do it.
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He didn't do it.
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So imagine being picked up by the police, being misidentified, falsely accused, and imprisoned for six years having done nothing.
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Sitting in prison day after day, knowing that you've been put there for something that you didn't do.
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What must that be like?
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What must it have been like?
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Days turning into weeks, weeks into months, months to years.
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And eventually, about the start of this year, new DNA evidence came to light which proved that this man that was in prison was not the guy who did it.
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So imagine being put on trial and going through all of that stuff.
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Imagine constantly telling people that it wasn't me, I didn't do it.
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And no one believed you.
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Imagine the sorrow that would come from listening to lies about yourself and yet being powerless to change the outcome of your circumstances.
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Imagine living under the crushing weight of such a situation.
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You know, David knew a thing or two about being falsely accused.
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And he lived through some pretty dark times as well.
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Chosen by God, hailed as a champion from a young age, hunted for years, pursued into the wilderness through danger and exhaustion, driven to his enemies, despised by the authorities.
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That's what gives this prayer this morning such real grit.
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David knew about this kind of stuff.
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Hear me, he says, attend to my cry, give ear to my prayer.
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Small grammar lesson this morning, but in the Hebrew, those are causative imperatives.
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Those are forceful commands to bring about something on behalf of the subject.
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What that means is David is commanding God, saying, Listen to me.
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Hear what I have to say.
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And he appeals to his blamelessness here because God has looked into his heart and he has known him.
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That's why David can do this.
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God, he says, tried his heart and tested him.
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He visited him by night, the time when our hearts are most vulnerable to spiraling, right?
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When we're most prone to anxiety from the unmet needs and disappointed expectations we have.
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When we're susceptible to further wounding from the sins of others or from our own sins.
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And maybe you've been there before.
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Odds are I think most of us have.
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Moments of sorrow and fear when our world is melting and crumbling away, when it's been upended and everything we knew and loved has been taken away.
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And it's not our fault.
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We're without blame.
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But friends, the world is intimidating.
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Our flesh is weak, and the enemy of our souls is a whisperer in the dark.
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Especially in those darkest hours, through a crisis that has you up all night, thinking through all the ways that something could go.
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All the way that things haven't gone right.
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What you'll say or do in response to something that recently happened to you.
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All of those worries that seem to engulf us at the times when we should be resting, stealing our trust, unsettling our affections, and placing them on the fleeting things of the present rather than the unfailing promises of our God.
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It's there, David says, it's during those times of questioning and hopelessness that God examined and scrutinized his heart.
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When he was most vulnerable to crying out in anger against the Lord, and his apparent delay on his behalf.
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When the sure words that he confessed about God's good plans to prosper him and make his name great seemed a distant reality.
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It's in that space, David says, by God's grace, that he kept his head, heart, and hands pure.
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And now it's important to pause here for just a brief moment and say that David is not claiming sinlessness.
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We see from Scripture that David was a man after God's own heart, yes.
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But we also see in page after page of the Old Testament how David was a deeply flawed man.
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One who, like us, suffered from the effects of the fall, whether intemperate anger at an enemy or a fool, the use of power to arguably rape, murder, and lie to cover it up, the lack of discipline in his own household, his softness toward the sins of his children, even allowing one of his daughters to be raped without punishment, or his misplaced trust in numbering his fighting forces, not to mention that really embarrassing moment near the end of his life when he couldn't keep warm.
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We don't want to talk about that.
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We don't want to see those things, friends.
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David is a sinner.
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Proclaiming innocence here is not sinlessness.
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Big point.
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David boldly proclaimed his innocence regarding specific accusations against him.
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He cried to God with conscience-clearing knowledge that he had been examined by the Lord above in his weakness and fear and inadequacy, by the one who is all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-sufficient.
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And he knew he was right.
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And because of the general nature of this psalm that we've read, this is a prayer that every earnest Christian can call out to God with.
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Because he can do this because a just cause comes from walking in the paths of life, from being rooted in God's grace, from flourishing from living water that comes not from within himself, but it comes from another source that is unending and undying and can never fail.
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It's Psalm 1 faith, friends.
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That's what David is using here.
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Refreshment that comes even through seasons of drought and desolation when we struggle with pain and exhaustion with no end in sight.
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From the frigid winters of our soul when ice cakes to our hearts and we retract from community and friendships and health.
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Through rainy seasons where flood or tempests threaten to drown us out or wash us away, or the scorching heat that threatens to wither us and take away our resolve.
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It's a recognition, friends, that God's word is what keeps us from walking in the works of man.
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The paths of violence, David calls them, those slippery places, guarding the tongue from setting things ablaze.
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David says, You know this, Lord.
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You see into my heart.
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You already know that I have not transgressed your law.
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You know I have kept my lips free from deceit, from unbelief.
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You know that I have kept myself from cursing you and your people because things haven't worked out for me.
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You know that I have not fallen into league with men of violence whose ways lead to destruction.
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Can we honestly say that as Christians, friends?
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Can we do the same thing?
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Are we able to proclaim innocence in truth when the world assails us?
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While the enemy speaks lies into our hearts and minds when we're weak, while we doubt the goodness of the Lord, we must make every effort, as the New Testament tells us, to confirm our calling and election, being holy as He is holy, purposing our lives to avoid sin, for our mouths to speak truthfully and graciously to avoid the paths of violence, aligning our internal moral dispositions with our external actions.
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We too can be innocent.
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But it's only if, friends, our lives are characterized by God's word, shaped by it, soaked in it, directed from it.
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David has maintained his innocence and he prays for God's protection next, which is our second point this morning, seeking protection.
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God, I am innocence, now act to prove it.
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David calls on the Lord to display his innocence by protecting him from his enemies.
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Verse 6 wondrously show your steadfast love toward those who seek refuge from their adversaries at your right hand.
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That's another one of those causative imperatives.
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Sorry for more grammar, but we don't get to see that in English.
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David says, God, cause your love for me to be wonderful and unmistakable.
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How would God do that?
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By keeping David from wicked men who do violence.
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Those who surround him with evil intent, who scheme to take his life.
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You know, these aren't just a bunch of misguided dudes who got swept up and now they're trying to hurt David.
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These are men whose hearts are hardened, whose speech is arrogant, who disregard mercy and they scheme destruction.
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They've surrounded our steps, David says, like a lion, eager to tear.
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I wonder if you've ever found yourselves in the crosshairs of hostility because maybe you are connected to someone else.
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Maybe you're a friend of someone else.
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Maybe you like a different candidate.
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Maybe you go to a different restaurant.
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Maybe it's being a Christian alone that has opened you up to abuse or mistrust, despite your best efforts to live for Jesus and to love your neighbors and serve your city.
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You know, it's hard in those situations not to feel like we're all alone.
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Like we've got no one on our side.
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Like God is absent in our suffering.
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God, it seems like you're not with me.
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People speak falsely about me.
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They're coming after me.
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They're canceling me, they're destroying my character, my credibility.
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My motives are being questioned.
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They are condemning me.
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God, where are you?
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Friends, when the trials continue to mount upon us, it is so easy to turn God into another one of our enemies.
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And we must not do that.
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It's also easy to view those who oppose us as the ultimate threat.
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And that's not true either.
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Sure, we can be receiving harm from people or other institutions, but Scripture tells us in the New Testament that we do not wrestle with flesh and blood, but against rulers and authorities, cosmic powers over this present darkness against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places, it says.
00:20:45.279 --> 00:20:57.200
At heart, David desires people to see God's opinion of him, for God to show him righteous and for his opposition to be stopped.
00:20:58.720 --> 00:21:01.920
But he does it by appealing for God's mercy.
00:21:03.039 --> 00:21:07.920
Keep me as the apple of your eye, hide me in the shadow of your wings, verse 8.
00:21:08.880 --> 00:21:17.039
A more straightforward wooden translation of this would be guard me as the pupil, pupil, the daughter of the eye.
00:21:17.279 --> 00:21:20.000
That's what the text actually says in Hebrew.
00:21:20.240 --> 00:21:27.279
Our eyes, you know, they're one of the most telling and powerful and sensitive parts of our body.
00:21:27.599 --> 00:21:34.640
Jesus told us in the New Testament that the eye is the lamp of the body, so if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light.
00:21:34.960 --> 00:21:39.359
But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.
00:21:40.160 --> 00:21:44.559
If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness?
00:21:45.440 --> 00:21:51.599
Our eyes are capable of letting in, and they're also capable of shutting out.
00:21:52.880 --> 00:22:01.119
In another psalm, David wrote that he would not set anything worthless before his eyes, that he wouldn't allow Filth to cling to him.
00:22:01.279 --> 00:22:07.200
Likewise, Job in the book of Job covenanted with his eyes, not to lust in his heart.
00:22:07.599 --> 00:22:17.279
It's only with eyes that are enlightened, Paul says in the New Testament, that we may know the hope to which we've been called and the riches of our inheritance as God's children.
00:22:17.599 --> 00:22:21.599
The eyes are the opening of our hearts, friends.
00:22:21.839 --> 00:22:25.119
They are vulnerable yet powerful.
00:22:26.240 --> 00:22:34.160
And what we gaze upon is what our affections are drawn toward, what is central to our hearts' desires.
00:22:34.319 --> 00:22:36.559
And that's why we must guard our eyes.
00:22:36.799 --> 00:22:41.279
With them we allow others into our hearts, and without them we cannot discern the paths of life.
00:22:41.359 --> 00:22:42.640
They must be protected.
00:22:42.880 --> 00:22:50.720
The thing about our eyes, though, is that we always place them on the things that are most precious to us at any given moment.
00:22:51.440 --> 00:23:05.119
And David is saying here, God, love me so passionately that you keep me in the middle of your sight, foremost in your thoughts, and prove it to me and the world.
00:23:05.839 --> 00:23:14.319
David's words evoke the heart of a loving, protective father whose affections rest on a precious daughter.
00:23:15.599 --> 00:23:18.160
Ever experience God like that, friends?
00:23:19.599 --> 00:23:30.400
I know this explanation could be difficult for some of us in this room because our fathers were absent, disinterested, disconnected, maybe even abusive.
00:23:31.680 --> 00:23:39.440
But this psalm gives us words to pray to our Heavenly Father, who does not change like us.
00:23:40.400 --> 00:23:44.559
He remains steadfast in his affections.
00:23:45.119 --> 00:23:48.559
He delights in those who come to him for refuge.
00:23:50.720 --> 00:23:54.400
He hears our cries and he will act.
00:23:55.920 --> 00:24:00.960
God protects our innocence, he listens to our sorrows, and he acts to save us.
00:24:01.279 --> 00:24:02.480
Call upon him alone.
00:24:03.440 --> 00:24:05.440
Have you done this this morning, friends?
00:24:05.759 --> 00:24:14.160
If you're here this morning and you've struggled to feel valuable to God, have you repeatedly felt outside of God's reach?
00:24:14.720 --> 00:24:16.880
Maybe you don't even know if he's real.
00:24:17.519 --> 00:24:19.359
This prayer is for you.
00:24:20.079 --> 00:24:21.440
Psalm 17.
00:24:21.680 --> 00:24:41.359
If you're here this morning and you want refuge, you're hurt and you need rescue from adversaries, whether that originates in your own mind and it imprisons you, a body that steadily breaks down, whether it's an angry child that's walked away from you in the faith, whether your marriage is evaporating before your eyes.
00:24:41.839 --> 00:24:48.319
Maybe it's just the difficulty of your life story mounted on top of each other over and over again.
00:24:48.480 --> 00:24:58.240
And because of that, you have sought refuge in every other person, experience, or thing other than their source in Jesus Christ.
00:24:58.400 --> 00:25:00.880
This psalm is for you to sing, friends.
00:25:03.039 --> 00:25:12.480
God keeps his children and he works to undo the plans of the wicked, though our full deliverance comes later.
00:25:12.720 --> 00:25:16.400
And that brings us to our final point this morning: receiving reward.
00:25:17.119 --> 00:25:22.640
David appeals for God to act not only to protect him from enemies and to stop them.
00:25:23.839 --> 00:25:27.680
But he doesn't do it in a macho man-centered kind of way, right?
00:25:27.839 --> 00:25:29.279
I mean, David was a mighty man.
00:25:29.359 --> 00:25:31.279
He was skilled at killing people.
00:25:32.480 --> 00:25:36.720
He had slain a giant as a boy, he had led successful military campaigns.
00:25:36.960 --> 00:25:39.839
People sang of him killing his tens of thousands.
00:25:40.079 --> 00:25:45.359
And yet, David doesn't ask for victory over his enemies here.
00:25:45.839 --> 00:25:49.039
He doesn't ask for their blood or their lives.
00:25:49.359 --> 00:25:52.640
He doesn't ask for revenge or seek it.
00:25:53.119 --> 00:25:56.960
He appeals to God's hand to save him.
00:25:57.599 --> 00:26:08.160
Verse 13 Deliver my soul from the wicked by your sword, from men by your hand, O Lord, from men of the world whose portion is in this life.
00:26:08.799 --> 00:26:15.039
You fill their womb with treasure, they are satisfied with children, and they leave their abundance to their infants.
00:26:16.880 --> 00:26:22.880
On the surface, this presents a difficulty for those who follow Christ here in this text.
00:26:23.920 --> 00:26:25.920
The wicked are filled.
00:26:26.960 --> 00:26:29.839
They are given abundance, children satisfaction.
00:26:30.000 --> 00:26:32.000
That's what the text is saying right here.
00:26:32.240 --> 00:26:37.759
And we sometimes, as God's children, don't seem to be given any of those things.
00:26:38.319 --> 00:26:40.079
It's really challenging.
00:26:40.559 --> 00:26:49.119
It seems unfair that the innocent people should suffer while the wicked just continue to receive what they want.
00:26:50.480 --> 00:26:56.400
But the point is not in what David lacks and what his enemies have.
00:27:03.039 --> 00:27:08.240
The point is that God ultimately gives everyone exactly what they want.
00:27:10.720 --> 00:27:14.319
God gives everyone what they want.
00:27:14.559 --> 00:27:32.400
Those whose portion is in this life, friends, whose treasure is not in Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but whose security and source of refuge is in their own abundance, their own name, their own authority.
00:27:32.720 --> 00:27:36.319
David says, Give it to them, Lord.
00:27:37.359 --> 00:27:45.759
One writer translates this text like this And what you have stored away, oh fill their belly with it.
00:27:46.079 --> 00:27:48.880
May their sons have more than enough.
00:27:49.119 --> 00:27:52.319
May they leave their surplus for their children.
00:27:53.599 --> 00:27:55.759
Pretty frightening when you hear it that way.
00:27:56.559 --> 00:28:09.200
Because the wicked have hard and impenitent hearts closed to pity, they are storing up wrath for themselves on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed.
00:28:09.839 --> 00:28:24.799
Every word spoken in self-righteous deceit, every sinful thought we utter, every evil path we walk to gain treasure in this world, every time we gang up on someone like lions waiting to pounce.
00:28:26.480 --> 00:28:38.640
Every arrogant posture we take toward God and others just to strengthen our own selves, every wicked end we pursue to pat our resumes, fill our bank accounts, improve our social connections.
00:28:38.960 --> 00:28:44.400
All of those sins, the Bible tells us, are actually gathering something for us.
00:28:45.680 --> 00:28:48.079
You see, sins must be paid for.
00:28:49.200 --> 00:28:52.480
Our sin accumulates wrath.
00:28:52.960 --> 00:28:56.559
Wrath, God says, which will be paid for at the end.
00:28:56.799 --> 00:29:03.599
Like treasure being stored away, David asks God to let them have what they seek.
00:29:03.920 --> 00:29:05.200
Give it to them.
00:29:06.000 --> 00:29:14.319
But on the contrary, those who are found in the shadow of God's protective wings will receive a wholly different reward.
00:29:14.880 --> 00:29:20.400
David says, As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness.
00:29:20.640 --> 00:29:24.160
When I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness.
00:29:25.039 --> 00:29:29.759
Give the wicked what they want, but give me what I want.
00:29:31.680 --> 00:29:34.799
David is talking about resurrection, friends.
00:29:35.119 --> 00:29:43.839
In the final analysis, when David dies and awakes to eternal glory in the presence of God, he will finally get what he wants most.
00:29:44.720 --> 00:29:49.680
David's reward is not here, it's the person waiting on the other side of this life.
00:29:50.480 --> 00:29:51.920
Who could this be?
00:29:52.559 --> 00:29:56.799
How could David be okay with people out for his blood?
00:29:57.200 --> 00:30:01.039
You know, he trusted in God's promises rather than what he could see.
00:30:02.160 --> 00:30:06.240
Reminds us of the words, not my will, but thy will be done, right?
00:30:07.200 --> 00:30:17.200
He believed, along with the balance of Scripture, that no matter what might come when he breathed his last, he would pass from this life through death to stand in the presence of God.
00:30:18.319 --> 00:30:22.160
Reminds us of the words, Father, glorify your servant.
00:30:23.359 --> 00:30:26.640
You see, made right, kept secure.
00:30:26.880 --> 00:30:30.079
This is what the temple was always meant to symbolize, friends.
00:30:30.319 --> 00:30:34.160
Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up, Jesus said.
00:30:34.799 --> 00:30:55.279
Access for sinful people into the presence of God through blood sacrifice, being made right with him, refuge in his presence, washed clean, restored to relationship, as a parent forgives and embraces a child who has run away far from home.
00:30:56.720 --> 00:31:05.039
This is why Moses, way back at the founding of the nation of Israel, after being given God's law, he was just in awe of the magnificence of God.
00:31:05.200 --> 00:31:07.440
You remember that story, some of you?
00:31:08.000 --> 00:31:10.319
He asked to see God's glory.
00:31:10.559 --> 00:31:11.920
That's what he wanted to see.
00:31:12.079 --> 00:31:15.279
And God told him, Nobody can see me face to face and live.
00:31:15.440 --> 00:31:16.559
But I'll tell you what I'll do.
00:31:16.640 --> 00:31:18.160
I'll put you in the cleft of the rock.
00:31:18.400 --> 00:31:22.079
I'm going to cause all my glory to pass by, and you'll see the back part of me.
00:31:22.319 --> 00:31:23.920
But you can't see my face.
00:31:24.880 --> 00:31:42.960
And after that happened on the mountain, Moses returned to the people, and his face shone with heavenly light, an unearthly glory that was coming from simply being in the presence of God and then lighting up, so stunning that Moses would put a veil over his face.
00:31:44.319 --> 00:31:50.400
Do we as Christians today long for a glimpse of God like that?
00:31:51.759 --> 00:31:54.160
Do we long to be in his presence?
00:31:54.880 --> 00:31:56.720
To know his greatness?
00:31:58.000 --> 00:32:02.319
Are we the kind of people who have an intimate relationship with our Maker?
00:32:02.960 --> 00:32:08.400
Are we the kind of people who others look at and they know we have been with Jesus?
00:32:11.200 --> 00:32:14.240
That his glory is shown in the works of our hands.
00:32:14.640 --> 00:32:17.519
Is that the desire of our hearts to be people like that?
00:32:18.559 --> 00:32:37.440
Paul writes in Second Corinthians that as glorious as Moses was, after standing with God, we all this means us, with unveiled face, behold the glory of the Lord, and are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.
00:32:37.759 --> 00:32:51.680
For God, who said, Let light shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, friends, the very Word of God.
00:32:52.559 --> 00:32:57.920
And because Christ has been raised from the dead, he is the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.
00:32:58.079 --> 00:33:03.279
For as by one man came death, by a man also has come the resurrection of the dead.
00:33:03.519 --> 00:33:10.319
We were dead in our first Father, Adam, but in Christ we are made alive at his coming.
00:33:10.480 --> 00:33:13.920
You see, God knew that human beings couldn't be perfectly innocent.
00:33:14.240 --> 00:33:15.359
He knew that.
00:33:15.839 --> 00:33:20.079
God meant for us to live in a state of perfection without lack, without want.
00:33:20.319 --> 00:33:22.559
He created the world that way for us.
00:33:23.119 --> 00:33:31.680
And he placed people in a garden filled with every need met and every desire satisfied, a paradise for us, a place to walk and talk together.
00:33:32.000 --> 00:33:37.759
But even our first parents could not trust God and follow him without messing it up.
00:33:38.079 --> 00:33:46.960
Even all our heroes in the faith in the Old Testament, Abraham, Moses, David, just to name a few, not innocent guys, full of sin.
00:33:48.720 --> 00:34:00.160
The father of the nation, a coward and a liar, a prophet and miracle worker, yet fearful and distrusting, a passionate and courageous king, yet an adulterer and a murderer.
00:34:00.400 --> 00:34:04.799
Unfaithfulness after unfaithfulness, leading God's people to destruction and exile.
00:34:05.519 --> 00:34:11.199
The Bible shows in living color that none of us is righteous.
00:34:11.440 --> 00:34:12.559
None of us.
00:34:12.719 --> 00:34:13.679
Even our heroes.
00:34:13.840 --> 00:34:15.840
In other words, we have a problem.
00:34:16.159 --> 00:34:17.519
We're not innocent.
00:34:18.639 --> 00:34:21.119
Our problem is called sin, friends.
00:34:22.400 --> 00:34:26.639
And our sin makes us enemies of God, and that's bad news.
00:34:28.079 --> 00:34:31.840
The presence of sin in our life means that we can never be just.
00:34:33.039 --> 00:34:36.400
So how can we be the just cause that God will listen to?
00:34:36.559 --> 00:34:39.519
And that's the main point of this whole text right here.
00:34:39.760 --> 00:34:45.760
The New Testament tells us the story of Jesus, whom Christians believe to be the Son of God in human flesh.
00:34:46.239 --> 00:34:53.119
Born of a virgin, lived a life of suffering and service, who did it perfectly, though.
00:34:53.440 --> 00:34:54.079
No sin.
00:34:54.320 --> 00:34:58.079
Tempted in every way as we are, yet he never gave in.
00:34:58.639 --> 00:35:03.280
Though he could have dropped out of the race, taken an easier path, for sure, he had the opportunities.
00:35:03.519 --> 00:35:12.559
And at the end of his life, when Jesus had been arrested, accused on trumped-up charges, because his enemies couldn't stand him calling them to repent.
00:35:12.960 --> 00:35:24.880
When the authorities who could have set him free caved to political pressure to save their own skin, they condemned the only innocent man in the history of the world to death on a Roman cross.
00:35:25.280 --> 00:35:31.360
And as he hung there, tortured and shamed, it wasn't a mistaken case of identity.
00:35:32.000 --> 00:35:35.360
He wasn't a casualty in the flow of history, friends.
00:35:35.599 --> 00:35:46.320
Jesus went to the cross with purpose and resolve to defeat sin and all of its suffering, and to seal the death of death as he experienced his own.
00:35:46.800 --> 00:35:52.079
God's curse on sin, taken out on Jesus Christ for you.
00:35:52.880 --> 00:35:58.960
And when you see Jesus doing that for you, it throws the rest of Scripture into fresh light.
00:35:59.920 --> 00:36:03.760
You begin to comprehend the magnitude of his sacrifice for you.
00:36:06.000 --> 00:36:14.000
The innocent man pleading in the garden for mercy, but submitting to the Father's will, even when it cost him everything.
00:36:14.320 --> 00:36:29.519
When you see Jesus as the beloved of the Father, with whom he was well pleased, sustaining him and protecting him, keeping his bones from being broken, even as his spirit was ravaged by the wrath of sin on the cross.
00:36:30.639 --> 00:36:50.960
When you see Jesus nailed to a tree and surrounded by enemies, calling for his death, jeering at him as he hung naked and shamed before their eyes, when you see Jesus trusting in God to bring justice, praying that he will be glorified once again and receiving that promise, a promise which sustained him through that trial.
00:36:51.360 --> 00:37:00.079
When you see Jesus, friends, risen from death and no longer in the grave, this is what changes you as a human being.
00:37:00.480 --> 00:37:04.079
Real and lasting transformation in your life.
00:37:04.639 --> 00:37:12.960
Hearing the good news and trusting this Jesus as your Lord and Savior is what brings cosmic reconciliation between you and God.
00:37:14.079 --> 00:37:15.760
And it makes you just.
00:37:29.119 --> 00:37:32.480
And in Christ, his final ruling is for you.
00:37:35.599 --> 00:37:44.320
Our final vindication is sure, not because we've lived blamelessly, but because Christ has already done it for us.
00:37:44.960 --> 00:37:46.559
And it's given to us as a gift.
00:37:46.719 --> 00:38:04.000
And if we are in him, we have the confidence to pray boldly, like this prayer, to live courageously with open hands and open hearts, no matter what may come, and to look with hope to the day when we will see him face to face and be satisfied forever.
00:38:04.239 --> 00:38:06.559
That is real confidence, friends.
00:38:06.880 --> 00:38:08.320
That is real comfort.
00:38:08.400 --> 00:38:09.760
That is refuge.
00:38:10.079 --> 00:38:11.840
Do you know him like this?
00:38:13.360 --> 00:38:15.920
Have you trusted in him's salvation for you?
00:38:16.159 --> 00:38:18.719
Jesus Christ waits for you today.
00:38:19.039 --> 00:38:21.199
Come and get him and take refuge.
00:38:21.440 --> 00:38:22.719
Let's pray.
00:38:23.519 --> 00:38:27.280
Father, thank you so much for your son Jesus.
00:38:27.679 --> 00:38:31.119
Thank you so much for who you are and what you've done for us.
00:38:31.440 --> 00:38:33.440
Thank you for calling us to yourself.
00:38:34.159 --> 00:38:39.760
We ask that you would be with us this morning as we take all these things and treasure them up in our hearts.
00:38:40.000 --> 00:38:42.320
Help us to not sin against you, Father.
00:38:42.559 --> 00:38:48.400
Help us to live open lives of graciousness toward those who don't know you and toward each other.
00:38:48.880 --> 00:38:51.199
We ask that you would go before us this day.
00:38:51.280 --> 00:38:52.880
It's in Christ's name we pray.
00:38:53.199 --> 00:38:53.840
Amen.
00:00:08.640 --> 00:00:13.599
The following is a message from Trinity Grace Church in San Antonio, Texas.
00:00:13.759 --> 00:00:18.800
For more information, please visit Trinity GraceSA.org.
00:00:22.960 --> 00:00:24.559
Good morning, y'all.
00:00:26.079 --> 00:00:28.960
Um, Joe, most of you know me.
00:00:29.039 --> 00:00:29.839
I'm Adam.
00:00:29.920 --> 00:00:31.839
Uh, been here for a couple of years now.
00:00:32.079 --> 00:00:33.840
Most recently, a pastor here.
00:00:34.079 --> 00:00:43.280
Um, just want to give you guys a brief update about what we're doing on our side of town and um just invite you into it in whatever way the Lord would see fit.
00:00:43.439 --> 00:00:50.320
Um, as Ben was saying, this has been a summer of transition for the congregation here and transition for us coming up.
00:00:50.479 --> 00:00:52.479
Our family will be out a lot.
00:00:52.560 --> 00:00:53.520
Um, mainly me.
00:00:53.600 --> 00:00:55.439
I'll be gone a lot this coming fall.
00:00:55.600 --> 00:00:56.880
But we're still gonna be out and around.
00:00:57.039 --> 00:00:59.119
We'll still be with you sometimes on Sunday mornings.
00:00:59.280 --> 00:01:00.640
So we're not gone.
00:01:00.799 --> 00:01:02.880
We're still friends, still connected.
00:01:02.960 --> 00:01:04.959
Um, we still want to hear from you.
00:01:05.120 --> 00:01:08.079
So very much want to still be connected with you guys.
00:01:08.239 --> 00:01:12.879
Um, the Lord's been doing a lot of stuff over the summer and getting us prepared for the fall.
00:01:12.959 --> 00:01:17.120
And in the fall, we're moving to a weekly gathering on Sunday evenings at our house.
00:01:17.359 --> 00:01:25.920
And so it's gonna be pretty cool to meet weekly and build that rhythm as a core group looking toward a January launch of our church plant.
00:01:26.000 --> 00:01:36.000
So really excited about those things and really trying to be a congregation that is about being rooted in grace, reaching into our community, and living missionally.
00:01:36.079 --> 00:01:36.959
Those are our core values.
00:01:37.120 --> 00:01:38.159
They're on the website.
00:01:38.319 --> 00:01:44.319
And this fall is all kind of geared towards our core commitments, how we live those things out.
00:01:44.480 --> 00:01:56.239
Things like prayer, evangelism, being outward-facing with our ministries, being warm and welcoming, participating, being a community that worships and sings together, things like that.
00:01:56.480 --> 00:02:03.920
So we're gonna be talking about those things in preparation for the fall, the spring whenever we launch public worship in January.
00:02:04.400 --> 00:02:06.560
And uh we've got a lot of things happening.
00:02:06.719 --> 00:02:10.159
We're adding prayer gatherings monthly this fall.
00:02:10.240 --> 00:02:11.360
It's gonna be really cool.
00:02:11.520 --> 00:02:15.199
We've got two women's Bible studies, one in the morning, one in the evening.
00:02:15.360 --> 00:02:18.319
Um, almost 20 women attending both of those.
00:02:18.560 --> 00:02:19.840
So really cool.
00:02:20.080 --> 00:02:22.479
And our men's Bible study continues.
00:02:22.719 --> 00:02:25.680
Uh, we're gonna be looking at outreach events this fall as well.
00:02:25.759 --> 00:02:27.360
So there's a lot of stuff happening.
00:02:27.520 --> 00:02:34.400
So if you guys want to know more, maybe you've been thinking about it for a while and just haven't connected with me, I'd love to talk to you after the service.
00:02:34.479 --> 00:02:38.719
I'd love to let you know what the Lord's been doing in our midst, give you more details about it.
00:02:38.960 --> 00:02:43.120
If you want to pray for us, can sign you up for our prayer newsletter if you haven't already.
00:02:43.360 --> 00:02:47.439
If you want to know more about financial support, we'd love to talk to you about that as well.
00:02:47.520 --> 00:02:51.439
There's still some needs going into the next few years, and we would love to meet that need.
00:02:51.680 --> 00:02:57.199
And if you are interested potentially in joining, even see me, talk to me at the end.
00:02:57.520 --> 00:03:03.039
But uh, that's just a little update about us, and now to the order of the day.
00:03:03.280 --> 00:03:05.919
Um, I'm Adam, of course, right?
00:03:06.080 --> 00:03:08.879
And we welcome you this morning to Trinity Grace.
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Um, some of you guys may not know this about me because maybe you haven't been around me enough, but I'm a real passionate sports fan.
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I really like sports, and I really like to cheer my kids on at their sports events.
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Very passionate.
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We are very robust people at our children's sports games.
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And as a supported parent, I'm vested in and I have an interest in what goes on with the rules on the field.
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And it can best be described as a passion I have for sideline referee work, right?
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I'm not talking about, you know, really getting on the field and doing referee work.
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I'm talking about, you know, heckling or maybe not the right word, right?
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Pointing out gently and as Christianly as possible why the man or woman running up and down the field either missed something or got something wrong, right?
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So anybody else bothered by things like offsides or balks or backcourt violations or safeties?
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Anybody else bothered by stuff like that?
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That's that's me.
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But I'm not a professional.
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And I don't know every rule.
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But uncannily, I always know whenever something has been missed or when there's a bad call.
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Is anybody else able to pick up on these things?
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There's one thing that makes me even more frustrated than getting a bad call on the field, though, and it's when a referee or an umpire or somebody completely misses one.
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Whenever your team is egregiously fouled, I mean it's it's hideous.
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And there's no whistle, no yellow, no red, no penalty, right?
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Frustration mounts, blood pressure rises, our voices raise, as you talk try to tactfully explain what went wrong and why it should have been different.
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To get a bad call on the field when you're playing a game, it might be livable, but no call, that's injustice.
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This morning we're going to be looking at a prayer of King David from a time whenever he felt like God did not see what was going on in his life.
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God didn't notice.
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Scholars believe that this psalm was likely written at a time when he was on the run from King Saul.
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And though the text doesn't tell us this, there's any number of events from David's life that could have played into the writing of this psalm.
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So it's really great for us.
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It allows us to be able to pray this psalm today, to cry out to our God when it feels like no one sees what's happening to us, to raise our voice and lament over the injustice that we experience.
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And so we're going to consider this prayer under three headings this morning.
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The first is proclaiming innocence.
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The second is seeking protection.
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And the last is receiving reward.
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That's three points this morning.
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Kids, as I'm preaching this morning, I want you to be thinking about a time whenever someone saw you and protected you and met your needs.
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I want you to listen for a story about an injustice, and on the way home or over lunch, I want you to be able to tell your parents what your greatest reward is.
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So with that, please listen or follow along as I read from Psalm 17.
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A prayer of David.
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Hear a just cause, O Lord.
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Attend to my cry, give ear to my prayer from lips free of deceit.
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From your presence let my vindication come.
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Let your eyes behold the right.
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You have tried my heart, you have visited me by night, you have tested me, and you will find nothing.
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I have purposed that my mouth will not transgress.
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With regard to the works of man, by the word of your lips I have avoided the ways of the violent.
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My steps have held fast to your paths, my feet have not slipped.
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I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God.
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Incline your ear to me, hear my words.
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Wondrously show your steadfast love, O Savior of those who seek refuge from their adversaries at your right hand.
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Keep me as the apple of your eye, hide me in the shadow of your wings from the wicked who do me violence, my deadly enemies who surround me.
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They close their hearts to pity.
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With their mouths they speak arrogantly.
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They have now surrounded our steps, they set their eyes to cast us to the ground.
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He is like a lion eager to tear, as a young lion lurking in ambush.
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Arise, O Lord, confront him, subdue him.
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Deliver my soul from the wicked by your sword, from men by your hand, O Lord, from men of the world whose portion is in this life.
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You fill their womb with treasure.
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They are satisfied with children, and they leave their abundance to their infants.
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As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness.
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When I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness.
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This is God's word.
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Thanks be to God.
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Let's pray.
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Heavenly Father, thank you for your word which brings light and life.
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Help us this morning.
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Give us eyes to see, ears to hear what your spirit says to your church.
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In Christ's name we pray.
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Amen.
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First up this morning, proclaiming innocence.
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Back in 2017, a little story might help us here.
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A local man was arrested for stealing from a local Walmart on Bandera Road and then stabbing an employee in the process of escape.
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He was arrested, he was convicted of ag robbery.
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He was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
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And he was incarcerated.
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Now that might seem like an uneventful kind of thing in a big city like ours.
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However, the problem was that the man that was arrested, convicted, and incarcerated didn't do it.
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He didn't do it.
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So imagine being picked up by the police, being misidentified, falsely accused, and imprisoned for six years having done nothing.
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Sitting in prison day after day, knowing that you've been put there for something that you didn't do.
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What must that be like?
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What must it have been like?
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Days turning into weeks, weeks into months, months to years.
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And eventually, about the start of this year, new DNA evidence came to light which proved that this man that was in prison was not the guy who did it.
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So imagine being put on trial and going through all of that stuff.
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Imagine constantly telling people that it wasn't me, I didn't do it.
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And no one believed you.
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Imagine the sorrow that would come from listening to lies about yourself and yet being powerless to change the outcome of your circumstances.
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Imagine living under the crushing weight of such a situation.
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You know, David knew a thing or two about being falsely accused.
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And he lived through some pretty dark times as well.
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Chosen by God, hailed as a champion from a young age, hunted for years, pursued into the wilderness through danger and exhaustion, driven to his enemies, despised by the authorities.
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That's what gives this prayer this morning such real grit.
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David knew about this kind of stuff.
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Hear me, he says, attend to my cry, give ear to my prayer.
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Small grammar lesson this morning, but in the Hebrew, those are causative imperatives.
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Those are forceful commands to bring about something on behalf of the subject.
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What that means is David is commanding God, saying, Listen to me.
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Hear what I have to say.
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And he appeals to his blamelessness here because God has looked into his heart and he has known him.
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That's why David can do this.
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God, he says, tried his heart and tested him.
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He visited him by night, the time when our hearts are most vulnerable to spiraling, right?
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When we're most prone to anxiety from the unmet needs and disappointed expectations we have.
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When we're susceptible to further wounding from the sins of others or from our own sins.
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And maybe you've been there before.
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Odds are I think most of us have.
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Moments of sorrow and fear when our world is melting and crumbling away, when it's been upended and everything we knew and loved has been taken away.
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And it's not our fault.
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We're without blame.
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But friends, the world is intimidating.
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Our flesh is weak, and the enemy of our souls is a whisperer in the dark.
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Especially in those darkest hours, through a crisis that has you up all night, thinking through all the ways that something could go.
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All the way that things haven't gone right.
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What you'll say or do in response to something that recently happened to you.
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All of those worries that seem to engulf us at the times when we should be resting, stealing our trust, unsettling our affections, and placing them on the fleeting things of the present rather than the unfailing promises of our God.
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It's there, David says, it's during those times of questioning and hopelessness that God examined and scrutinized his heart.
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When he was most vulnerable to crying out in anger against the Lord, and his apparent delay on his behalf.
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When the sure words that he confessed about God's good plans to prosper him and make his name great seemed a distant reality.
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It's in that space, David says, by God's grace, that he kept his head, heart, and hands pure.
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And now it's important to pause here for just a brief moment and say that David is not claiming sinlessness.
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We see from Scripture that David was a man after God's own heart, yes.
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But we also see in page after page of the Old Testament how David was a deeply flawed man.
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One who, like us, suffered from the effects of the fall, whether intemperate anger at an enemy or a fool, the use of power to arguably rape, murder, and lie to cover it up, the lack of discipline in his own household, his softness toward the sins of his children, even allowing one of his daughters to be raped without punishment, or his misplaced trust in numbering his fighting forces, not to mention that really embarrassing moment near the end of his life when he couldn't keep warm.
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We don't want to talk about that.
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We don't want to see those things, friends.
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David is a sinner.
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Proclaiming innocence here is not sinlessness.
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Big point.
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David boldly proclaimed his innocence regarding specific accusations against him.
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He cried to God with conscience-clearing knowledge that he had been examined by the Lord above in his weakness and fear and inadequacy, by the one who is all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-sufficient.
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And he knew he was right.
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And because of the general nature of this psalm that we've read, this is a prayer that every earnest Christian can call out to God with.
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Because he can do this because a just cause comes from walking in the paths of life, from being rooted in God's grace, from flourishing from living water that comes not from within himself, but it comes from another source that is unending and undying and can never fail.
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It's Psalm 1 faith, friends.
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That's what David is using here.
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Refreshment that comes even through seasons of drought and desolation when we struggle with pain and exhaustion with no end in sight.
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From the frigid winters of our soul when ice cakes to our hearts and we retract from community and friendships and health.
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Through rainy seasons where flood or tempests threaten to drown us out or wash us away, or the scorching heat that threatens to wither us and take away our resolve.
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It's a recognition, friends, that God's word is what keeps us from walking in the works of man.
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The paths of violence, David calls them, those slippery places, guarding the tongue from setting things ablaze.
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David says, You know this, Lord.
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You see into my heart.
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You already know that I have not transgressed your law.
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You know I have kept my lips free from deceit, from unbelief.
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You know that I have kept myself from cursing you and your people because things haven't worked out for me.
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You know that I have not fallen into league with men of violence whose ways lead to destruction.
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Can we honestly say that as Christians, friends?
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Can we do the same thing?
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Are we able to proclaim innocence in truth when the world assails us?
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While the enemy speaks lies into our hearts and minds when we're weak, while we doubt the goodness of the Lord, we must make every effort, as the New Testament tells us, to confirm our calling and election, being holy as He is holy, purposing our lives to avoid sin, for our mouths to speak truthfully and graciously to avoid the paths of violence, aligning our internal moral dispositions with our external actions.
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We too can be innocent.
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But it's only if, friends, our lives are characterized by God's word, shaped by it, soaked in it, directed from it.
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David has maintained his innocence and he prays for God's protection next, which is our second point this morning, seeking protection.
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God, I am innocence, now act to prove it.
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David calls on the Lord to display his innocence by protecting him from his enemies.
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Verse 6 wondrously show your steadfast love toward those who seek refuge from their adversaries at your right hand.
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That's another one of those causative imperatives.
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Sorry for more grammar, but we don't get to see that in English.
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David says, God, cause your love for me to be wonderful and unmistakable.
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How would God do that?
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By keeping David from wicked men who do violence.
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Those who surround him with evil intent, who scheme to take his life.
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You know, these aren't just a bunch of misguided dudes who got swept up and now they're trying to hurt David.
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These are men whose hearts are hardened, whose speech is arrogant, who disregard mercy and they scheme destruction.
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They've surrounded our steps, David says, like a lion, eager to tear.
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I wonder if you've ever found yourselves in the crosshairs of hostility because maybe you are connected to someone else.
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Maybe you're a friend of someone else.
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Maybe you like a different candidate.
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Maybe you go to a different restaurant.
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Maybe it's being a Christian alone that has opened you up to abuse or mistrust, despite your best efforts to live for Jesus and to love your neighbors and serve your city.
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You know, it's hard in those situations not to feel like we're all alone.
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Like we've got no one on our side.
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Like God is absent in our suffering.
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God, it seems like you're not with me.
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People speak falsely about me.
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They're coming after me.
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They're canceling me, they're destroying my character, my credibility.
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My motives are being questioned.
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They are condemning me.
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God, where are you?
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Friends, when the trials continue to mount upon us, it is so easy to turn God into another one of our enemies.
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And we must not do that.
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It's also easy to view those who oppose us as the ultimate threat.
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And that's not true either.
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Sure, we can be receiving harm from people or other institutions, but Scripture tells us in the New Testament that we do not wrestle with flesh and blood, but against rulers and authorities, cosmic powers over this present darkness against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places, it says.
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At heart, David desires people to see God's opinion of him, for God to show him righteous and for his opposition to be stopped.
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But he does it by appealing for God's mercy.
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Keep me as the apple of your eye, hide me in the shadow of your wings, verse 8.
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A more straightforward wooden translation of this would be guard me as the pupil, pupil, the daughter of the eye.
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That's what the text actually says in Hebrew.
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Our eyes, you know, they're one of the most telling and powerful and sensitive parts of our body.
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Jesus told us in the New Testament that the eye is the lamp of the body, so if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light.
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But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.
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If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness?
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Our eyes are capable of letting in, and they're also capable of shutting out.
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In another psalm, David wrote that he would not set anything worthless before his eyes, that he wouldn't allow Filth to cling to him.
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Likewise, Job in the book of Job covenanted with his eyes, not to lust in his heart.
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It's only with eyes that are enlightened, Paul says in the New Testament, that we may know the hope to which we've been called and the riches of our inheritance as God's children.
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The eyes are the opening of our hearts, friends.
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They are vulnerable yet powerful.
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And what we gaze upon is what our affections are drawn toward, what is central to our hearts' desires.
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And that's why we must guard our eyes.
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With them we allow others into our hearts, and without them we cannot discern the paths of life.
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They must be protected.
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The thing about our eyes, though, is that we always place them on the things that are most precious to us at any given moment.
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And David is saying here, God, love me so passionately that you keep me in the middle of your sight, foremost in your thoughts, and prove it to me and the world.
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David's words evoke the heart of a loving, protective father whose affections rest on a precious daughter.
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Ever experience God like that, friends?
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I know this explanation could be difficult for some of us in this room because our fathers were absent, disinterested, disconnected, maybe even abusive.
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But this psalm gives us words to pray to our Heavenly Father, who does not change like us.
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He remains steadfast in his affections.
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He delights in those who come to him for refuge.
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He hears our cries and he will act.
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God protects our innocence, he listens to our sorrows, and he acts to save us.
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Call upon him alone.
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Have you done this this morning, friends?
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If you're here this morning and you've struggled to feel valuable to God, have you repeatedly felt outside of God's reach?
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Maybe you don't even know if he's real.
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This prayer is for you.
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Psalm 17.
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If you're here this morning and you want refuge, you're hurt and you need rescue from adversaries, whether that originates in your own mind and it imprisons you, a body that steadily breaks down, whether it's an angry child that's walked away from you in the faith, whether your marriage is evaporating before your eyes.
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Maybe it's just the difficulty of your life story mounted on top of each other over and over again.
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And because of that, you have sought refuge in every other person, experience, or thing other than their source in Jesus Christ.
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This psalm is for you to sing, friends.
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God keeps his children and he works to undo the plans of the wicked, though our full deliverance comes later.
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And that brings us to our final point this morning: receiving reward.
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David appeals for God to act not only to protect him from enemies and to stop them.
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But he doesn't do it in a macho man-centered kind of way, right?
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I mean, David was a mighty man.
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He was skilled at killing people.
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He had slain a giant as a boy, he had led successful military campaigns.
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People sang of him killing his tens of thousands.
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And yet, David doesn't ask for victory over his enemies here.
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He doesn't ask for their blood or their lives.
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He doesn't ask for revenge or seek it.
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He appeals to God's hand to save him.
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Verse 13 Deliver my soul from the wicked by your sword, from men by your hand, O Lord, from men of the world whose portion is in this life.
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You fill their womb with treasure, they are satisfied with children, and they leave their abundance to their infants.
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On the surface, this presents a difficulty for those who follow Christ here in this text.
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The wicked are filled.
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They are given abundance, children satisfaction.
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That's what the text is saying right here.
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And we sometimes, as God's children, don't seem to be given any of those things.
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It's really challenging.
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It seems unfair that the innocent people should suffer while the wicked just continue to receive what they want.
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But the point is not in what David lacks and what his enemies have.
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The point is that God ultimately gives everyone exactly what they want.
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God gives everyone what they want.
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Those whose portion is in this life, friends, whose treasure is not in Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but whose security and source of refuge is in their own abundance, their own name, their own authority.
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David says, Give it to them, Lord.
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One writer translates this text like this And what you have stored away, oh fill their belly with it.
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May their sons have more than enough.
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May they leave their surplus for their children.
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Pretty frightening when you hear it that way.
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Because the wicked have hard and impenitent hearts closed to pity, they are storing up wrath for themselves on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed.
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Every word spoken in self-righteous deceit, every sinful thought we utter, every evil path we walk to gain treasure in this world, every time we gang up on someone like lions waiting to pounce.
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Every arrogant posture we take toward God and others just to strengthen our own selves, every wicked end we pursue to pat our resumes, fill our bank accounts, improve our social connections.
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All of those sins, the Bible tells us, are actually gathering something for us.
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You see, sins must be paid for.
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Our sin accumulates wrath.
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Wrath, God says, which will be paid for at the end.
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Like treasure being stored away, David asks God to let them have what they seek.
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Give it to them.
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But on the contrary, those who are found in the shadow of God's protective wings will receive a wholly different reward.
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David says, As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness.
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When I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness.
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Give the wicked what they want, but give me what I want.
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David is talking about resurrection, friends.
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In the final analysis, when David dies and awakes to eternal glory in the presence of God, he will finally get what he wants most.
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David's reward is not here, it's the person waiting on the other side of this life.
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Who could this be?
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How could David be okay with people out for his blood?
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You know, he trusted in God's promises rather than what he could see.
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Reminds us of the words, not my will, but thy will be done, right?
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He believed, along with the balance of Scripture, that no matter what might come when he breathed his last, he would pass from this life through death to stand in the presence of God.
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Reminds us of the words, Father, glorify your servant.
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You see, made right, kept secure.
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This is what the temple was always meant to symbolize, friends.
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Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up, Jesus said.
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Access for sinful people into the presence of God through blood sacrifice, being made right with him, refuge in his presence, washed clean, restored to relationship, as a parent forgives and embraces a child who has run away far from home.
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This is why Moses, way back at the founding of the nation of Israel, after being given God's law, he was just in awe of the magnificence of God.
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You remember that story, some of you?
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He asked to see God's glory.
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That's what he wanted to see.
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And God told him, Nobody can see me face to face and live.
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But I'll tell you what I'll do.
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I'll put you in the cleft of the rock.
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I'm going to cause all my glory to pass by, and you'll see the back part of me.
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But you can't see my face.
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And after that happened on the mountain, Moses returned to the people, and his face shone with heavenly light, an unearthly glory that was coming from simply being in the presence of God and then lighting up, so stunning that Moses would put a veil over his face.
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Do we as Christians today long for a glimpse of God like that?
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Do we long to be in his presence?
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To know his greatness?
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Are we the kind of people who have an intimate relationship with our Maker?
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Are we the kind of people who others look at and they know we have been with Jesus?
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That his glory is shown in the works of our hands.
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Is that the desire of our hearts to be people like that?
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Paul writes in Second Corinthians that as glorious as Moses was, after standing with God, we all this means us, with unveiled face, behold the glory of the Lord, and are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.
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For God, who said, Let light shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, friends, the very Word of God.
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And because Christ has been raised from the dead, he is the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.
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For as by one man came death, by a man also has come the resurrection of the dead.
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We were dead in our first Father, Adam, but in Christ we are made alive at his coming.
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You see, God knew that human beings couldn't be perfectly innocent.
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He knew that.
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God meant for us to live in a state of perfection without lack, without want.
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He created the world that way for us.
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And he placed people in a garden filled with every need met and every desire satisfied, a paradise for us, a place to walk and talk together.
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But even our first parents could not trust God and follow him without messing it up.
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Even all our heroes in the faith in the Old Testament, Abraham, Moses, David, just to name a few, not innocent guys, full of sin.
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The father of the nation, a coward and a liar, a prophet and miracle worker, yet fearful and distrusting, a passionate and courageous king, yet an adulterer and a murderer.
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Unfaithfulness after unfaithfulness, leading God's people to destruction and exile.
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The Bible shows in living color that none of us is righteous.
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None of us.
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Even our heroes.
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In other words, we have a problem.
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We're not innocent.
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Our problem is called sin, friends.
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And our sin makes us enemies of God, and that's bad news.
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The presence of sin in our life means that we can never be just.
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So how can we be the just cause that God will listen to?
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And that's the main point of this whole text right here.
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The New Testament tells us the story of Jesus, whom Christians believe to be the Son of God in human flesh.
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Born of a virgin, lived a life of suffering and service, who did it perfectly, though.
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No sin.
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Tempted in every way as we are, yet he never gave in.
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Though he could have dropped out of the race, taken an easier path, for sure, he had the opportunities.
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And at the end of his life, when Jesus had been arrested, accused on trumped-up charges, because his enemies couldn't stand him calling them to repent.
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When the authorities who could have set him free caved to political pressure to save their own skin, they condemned the only innocent man in the history of the world to death on a Roman cross.
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And as he hung there, tortured and shamed, it wasn't a mistaken case of identity.
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He wasn't a casualty in the flow of history, friends.
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Jesus went to the cross with purpose and resolve to defeat sin and all of its suffering, and to seal the death of death as he experienced his own.
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God's curse on sin, taken out on Jesus Christ for you.
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And when you see Jesus doing that for you, it throws the rest of Scripture into fresh light.
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You begin to comprehend the magnitude of his sacrifice for you.
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The innocent man pleading in the garden for mercy, but submitting to the Father's will, even when it cost him everything.
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When you see Jesus as the beloved of the Father, with whom he was well pleased, sustaining him and protecting him, keeping his bones from being broken, even as his spirit was ravaged by the wrath of sin on the cross.
00:36:30.639 --> 00:36:50.960
When you see Jesus nailed to a tree and surrounded by enemies, calling for his death, jeering at him as he hung naked and shamed before their eyes, when you see Jesus trusting in God to bring justice, praying that he will be glorified once again and receiving that promise, a promise which sustained him through that trial.
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When you see Jesus, friends, risen from death and no longer in the grave, this is what changes you as a human being.
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Real and lasting transformation in your life.
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Hearing the good news and trusting this Jesus as your Lord and Savior is what brings cosmic reconciliation between you and God.
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And it makes you just.
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And in Christ, his final ruling is for you.
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Our final vindication is sure, not because we've lived blamelessly, but because Christ has already done it for us.
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And it's given to us as a gift.
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And if we are in him, we have the confidence to pray boldly, like this prayer, to live courageously with open hands and open hearts, no matter what may come, and to look with hope to the day when we will see him face to face and be satisfied forever.
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That is real confidence, friends.
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That is real comfort.
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That is refuge.
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Do you know him like this?
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Have you trusted in him's salvation for you?
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Jesus Christ waits for you today.
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Come and get him and take refuge.
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Let's pray.
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Father, thank you so much for your son Jesus.
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Thank you so much for who you are and what you've done for us.
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Thank you for calling us to yourself.
00:38:34.159 --> 00:38:39.760
We ask that you would be with us this morning as we take all these things and treasure them up in our hearts.
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Help us to not sin against you, Father.
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Help us to live open lives of graciousness toward those who don't know you and toward each other.
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We ask that you would go before us this day.
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It's in Christ's name we pray.
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Amen.
