Heed and Hide
DW Feaster
The Word of God • Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 8 viewsNotes
Transcript
Where do you keep what you value?
When it comes to the things that we value, we do our best to keep them safe. We may hide them in a safe so that no one can get to them in order to take them from us. We may keep them always with us so that they never get out of our sight. We want to make sure they are protected for any kind of harm.
One thing that should be of value to us is the word of God. Because of its great value, we are to hide or treasure it in our hearts. If we are to stand in this world, we need to learn and live the word of God.
Psalm 119 is a Psalm that helps us to see the beauty of the word of God. It is the longest chapter in the bible and it is full of talk about the word. So much so that we will be doing two different sermons in this series on the word of God.
Today we will see our need to heed and hide the word of God.
Heed the Word (9)
Heed the Word (9)
How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word.
Be Pure
Be Pure
Talk for a minute about how Psalm 119 is laid out and how each section starts with that letter in Hebrew. We are looking at the Beth section so the first word of each verse starts with Beth
This section starts out with a question. “How can a young man keep his way pure?” NASB
To be pure is to be clean, blameless that is to do our best to live our lives for Jesus
It can be hard for us at times to live our lives in a way that is pure
People know how to make us mad and push our buttons
There is so much bad stuff out there for us to look at
We all struggle with some form of sin that will tempt us to live in a way that is not pure
The world will tell us that this is ok and that is ok
With the world against us, how is it that you and I can seek to live a life that is pure in the eyes of the Lord.
Thankfully, the psalmist answers the question for us.
Take Heed
Take Heed
The Key to living for Jesus is found in His word.
When the world says that this is ok, we need to line it up with the word and see what the word says. If the word contradicts the world, then it is the word that we need to follow.
How easy is it for us to allow the ways of the world to come into our lives.
If we do not have a firm foundation upon the word of God then it becomes so much harder for us to take our stand
To heed is to watch, guard, obey
When the psalmist says take heed it is more than just hearing the word. It is in obeying the word as well.
If I were to give you a check for $1000 what good does that check do you if you never cash it?
When we are given the word of God, that is when we hear it, we need to cash it that is heed it and obey it.
Real life change comes when you and I take seriously the word of God and put into practice what it says to do
The key to living our lives for God is by taking heed to the word of God.
It is important that we allow the word to guide us and shape us.
Don’t wander from the Word (10)
Don’t wander from the Word (10)
With my whole heart I have sought You; Oh, let me not wander from Your commandments!
Seek the LORD
Seek the LORD
As we learn who God is, it builds in us a desire to do His will. We will not become perfect or sinless, but we can sin less and grow and seek do that which is right.
The psalmist is seeking the LORD with all his heart.
As we seek the Lord with our whole heart it should bring within us a desire to obey.
It is important that we seek God with our whole heart.
Often we like to compartmentalize our lives.
God, I will give you this part of my heart but I don’t want to give this other up yet.
We decide what parts of us God and have and what we keep to ourselves
The bible helps us to see that we need to give God all of us. We need to let Him move into our hearts and move out everything that does not line up with His ways.
We need to pray the pray of David in Psalm 139
Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; And see if there be any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way.
Where would you and I be if we had never found Jesus and His word?
What path would we be on?
We have the word and it is hard at times to live for Jesus. Imagine if we did not have the word to guide us
We, as humans, are prone to wander
Prone to Wander
Prone to Wander
“Let me not wander from your commandments”
Wander is to go astray
It is to get off track. Where I am from in WV there is a place called Dollie Sods. People are always getting lost up there and search parties have to go out and find them. They wandered off the path, got themselves lost, and could not find their way back.
This can easily happen to us in our walk with Christ. We get distracted by something that gets us off the path. Before we know it we find ourselves deep in the woods of the world and we have no clue how to get back. In comes the word of God to rescue us and show us once again where the path is.
The word of God is our rule book and our guide. It has been given to us by God to help us stay on the path that pleases Him. We are to be careful that we do not wander.
To help us not wander, we need to hide the word in our hearts.
Hide the Word (11)
Hide the Word (11)
Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You.
Keep it safe
Keep it safe
We are to place God's word in our heart. That is we are to treasure it and put it in a place of safe storage so that we have it when we need it.
The Word hide:
The Complete Word Study Dictionary: Old Testament 6845. צָפַן ṣāp̱an
ṣāp̱an: A verb meaning to hide, to keep secret. It is used of concealing something, often of great value,
This is the word used in Exodus 2:2 where it says the mother of Moses hid him. She hid him because he was of great value to her and she wanted to keep him safe and protected.
We are to hide the word of God in our hearts because it is of great value to us and we want to keep it safe and protected and be there for us when we need it.
NET "In my heart I store up your words so I
When we allow the word of God to be stored up in our hearts it helps us to see our incredible need for Jesus Christ.
The word needs to get beyond just a head knowledge, it needs to sink into our heart as well as change our lives.
It is important for us to treasure God's word in our hearts. We never know when we may need a verse to get us through a hard time and when we have those verses stored in our hearts they pop up when we need them most.
Verses like:
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?
I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.
And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
Yet those who wait for the Lord Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary.
for we walk by faith, not by sight—
Trust in the Lord with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight.
For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The list could go one and one about the wonderful verses that we find in the word of God that gives us strength and courage to deal with whatever the world throws at us.
Might not sin
Might not sin
Another reason that we hide the word of God in our heart is to help keep us from sinning
The Tony Evans Bible Commentary Psalm 119
By treasuring the principles of Scripture in our hearts, we train ourselves to love God’s ways. Then, when we are confronted by temptation, we are prepared to reject sin
Having the word stored up in our heart helps us not wander.
As we get ready to sin the word can speak to us and help us to know that what we are about to do is actually a sin.
How has the word of God been there to help you in your time of need?
How has the word of God convicted you of sin?
Learn the Word (12)
Learn the Word (12)
Blessed are You, O Lord! Teach me Your statutes.
In these few verses we see two prayers.
"let me not wander."
"teach me your statues".
Since the word of God has the power to transform (as we saw last week) and we are to place it in our hearts, we should be crying out to God to teach us His ways.
He is our teacher and we need to learn His statues.
The bible is God’s statues to you and me. They have been given to us to help light our path (as we will see next week)
Jesus is the one we need to teach us His ways. We need to follow Him and what He calls us to do. We are to take up our cross daily and follow Him.
When we ask God to be our teacher, we need to understand what that means.
The teacher's instructions are to be obeyed if you want to succeed (school).
Jesus is our teacher and we are to heed His instructions for our lives and we find His instructions in His book which is the Bible.
Blessed are you, O LORD Teach me your statues.
We should be crying out to the Holy Spirit to help us learn what the word of God means to our lives.
Once we understand what it means, then we are to heed or apply it to our lives and be transformed by it.
Conclusion
Conclusion
We need to be reminded of our need to heed and hide the word within our hearts so that we may be able to stand for the truth and not lean in to sin
The word is of value and we need to keep it safe and protected within our heart.
What is the word saying to you today?
Do we need to heed the word?
Do we need to not wander from the word?
Do we need to hide the word?
Do we need taught the word?
Will you come and find all that you need to cleanse your way today?
Invitation