Living The Word Filled Life

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Transcript

Let’s open our Bibles right to the middle, to the 119th Psalm.

Independence Day reminds us of the great price that our freedom and security has cost in terms of the lives of our soldiers and our patriots, and the blood that they have shed, and it reminds us that great vigilance has to be always ours to secure and to retain that freedom and that security that we have nationally.

We also have a responsibility personally. In fact, most of us exercise that and have great vigilance toward protecting those that we love. That’s why we say, lock your doors and wear your seat belts. And when we drop off those, we love, we say, watch out. Someone looks suspicious over there, and don’t talk to strangers. And that’s part of our vigilance personally.

But the 119^th Psalm tells us how we can keep vigilant spiritually. Just as there are enemies of our country and enemies that will physically do us harm, the greatest enemy we have is the power of darkness, Satan and his minions, our flesh in the world around us, which spiritually can inflict damage on us.

And this morning, the 119th Psalm is a call to what I like to call the word filled life. And I’d like to share with you Ezra’s testimony. In fact, this Psalm, the longest chapter in the Bible, is the personal testimony of Ezra, that great Old Testament giant to how he maintained a Word filled life. He tells us his habits, holy habits that he had.

In fact, as you look at this, his habits are easy to spot. I put ’em in yellow in my Bible. He says, I have done this and that, and we’ll see all these habits he has and then his holy resolves. I will do this and that. It. And then finally his special prayer requests make me, help me do this and that those are the beautiful theme of this.

I was thinking about a vigilance we need as spiritually to watch over our family by something that happened to us this week. This past Monday, Bonnie and I were, sitting on the edge of the great Huron National Forest. Now, any of you that don’t know that this is Michigan and the whole top of Michigan, 1 million acres of it, the northern third of the state is called the Huron National Forest.

Almost a million acres pristine wilderness, nine rivers flowing through 550 miles long. All these trails interconnecting. Gigantic Jack Pines that go up 60, 80, a hundred feet high and huge oak trees. And right on the edge of that forest, we were camping, and we were sitting out Monday night, our last night camping.

And I the eternal campfire. I keep it burning 24 hours a day and we were sitting, Bonnie and I, under the stars by our campfire, looking at all of our children in three little tents. It was just idyllic and picturesque. They were off in the distance under this giant towering oak tree. Three little tents.

A tent is one 64th of an inch of fabric that protects them from everything. And so, they’re out in their tent, out there in the wilderness, a million acres, and we’re under the stars.

And I said honey, it’s time to go to bed. And I said, but I’m going to just one last time, take my flashlight and check. We’re in the wilderness. Remember a million acres, the Huron National Forest, and they’ve got a 64th of an inch around them. So, dad takes his flashlight, and I was hoping I’d see deer because they come out in the dark and eat the grass and there was a meadow in front of our campsite. And so, I flicked it on, and I did a quick arc like this, no dear but just as I finished the arc, Bonnie gasped, look at that. And there were two silver dollar size glowing yellow eyes loping along. You could just tell it was doing this across the field. Guess what? Straight toward the tents. Immediately Bonnie said, I’m sure it’s a carnivore, some fierce carnivore. So, dad was dispatched with a stick and my flashlight to go and meet this creature and defend my sleeping and unprotected children.

As parents, we saw danger. We saw it coming toward them. We saw that they were entrusted to us for our care, and they were kind of ill protected from. Whatever was lurking out there in those million acres of dark shadows creatures that could harm the lives we love so much. After quite a chase, I cornered the monster.

It climbed a tree. It was 20 feet high, and I was trying to see what it was, and I had my flashlight and Bonnie said every time I went around this side of the tree, it’d come around this side and look at me and it, those big luminescent yellow eyes that were just down. And so. I thought at least it’s up in the tree, so it won’t harm them.

So, I took my flashlight once more around their three-tenths, and they’re coming out this side. Were two more sets of eyes going and they looked right at me. And fiercely looked at me. I couldn’t see their teeth, but it looked dangerous to me. And so, I grabbed this, Bonnie said it was really funny, I grabbed the stone as big as a bowling ball, and I took it and I rolled it right up into wherever they came from and they ran off and I, shined my flashlight at ’em and finally dispersed all these monsters only to find out they were just harmless raccoons.

And dad had put the tent up right next to the big trash barrel where they feed at night. And so, they were all coming in for the evening feeding and, but it was exciting.

And what it made me think about of those, have you ever seen gigantic yellow eyes? They probably were only that big, but in the night, they looked that big.

But I started thinking about spiritually, that became a picture for me because I know that there’s nothing out in the woods that could harm the kids more than scratching and scaring them. But I started thinking about in the dark world we live, there are creatures far more evil and fierce than raccoons. And whatever carnivore Bonnie thought that was, and how do we protect those we love and our own lives? And so, as I laid there, I started listening to the sounds of the forest, and my mind turned to something far more dangerous than a Huron National Forest raccoon. Those animals that just scratch and scare.

I began thinking of the spiritual forces of darkness, of creatures more lethal than any that roamed any forest. What could I do to protect and guard my life and the lives of those I love? From dangers that lurk in the spiritual darkness, from those that seek to injure the souls of each of us and those we love. God says we need to have constant vigilance to keep our freedom and safety secure spiritually.

Now, what is a person who is, nationally we’ve got the biggest army and navy and air force and bombs and everything in the world. So nationally we’ve got it. Personally, we all take measures, but how do you take spiritual measures?

That’s what the Scriptures described as the Word filled life. In fact, in the New Testament, Paul calls it walking in the fullness of the spirit, and he says, if you walk in the spirit, you’ll not have the lust of the flesh. If you walk in the spirit, you can wield the sword of the Spirit against the forces of darkness. If you walk in the spirit, you can overcome the powers of darkness, but how do you maintain that Word filled life?

That’s why we come to the longest chapter in the Bible. Because a safe and secure and liberated life, which is described in the Bible as Word filled, is described by Ezra, and he gives us his personal testimony.

In fact, in these 176 versus the longest chapter in the Bible, Ezra speaks about himself over 325 times. 325 times you see him saying, I will do this. My heart, as for me, this will happen. He talks about himself in the first person. And we see there his testimony, the secret that he under the inspiration of God wrote down the only sure protection for the dark forest of life in which we and our loved ones live and walk every day.

Ezra, let me show you just how he wrote, and I comment on this last time. But look at verse 25, and we’re going to read that in just a moment because this is an acrostic poem. 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet. 22, 8 verse stands is making up this Psalm. Each of the eight verses in each of the Psalms begins with a succeeding letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

So, the first eight verses are Alif eight times. Then the next eight verses are Bait bait, and then Gimel gi. But let me do the deli, the letter D starting in verse 25, and I’m going to read it. With the first Hebrew word that starts with the letter D at the front. It’s going to sound a little weird in English, but this is how he emphasized his testimony and just for you to see.

And this is from translation. He does it in the exact Hebrew order. It’s a fascinating thing. So let me read to you starring verse 25 and I’ll go down through verse 32 and listen to Ezra’s habits. His personal resolves, his hopes in the Lord. As he starts in verse 25, depressed to the dust is my soul.

Quicken thou me according to thy Word. Verse 26, declared have I to my ways heardest thou me teach me thy statutes. Verse 27, declare thou to me the way of thy precepts. So shall I talk thy wondrous works. Verse 28, dropping my soul is from heaviness. Strengthen me according to thy word. Verse 29, deceitful ways removed from me. Grant me thy law graciously. Verse 30, determined have I been upon the way of thy truth? Thy judgments have I laid before me? Verse 31, deliberately have I stuck unto thy testimonies? Lord, put me not to shame. Verse 32, day by day, I will run in the way of thy commandments when shalt thou enlarge my heart.

What a beautiful confession. What a beautiful expression of a Word filled life. The vigilance it takes to go through a sin darkened world in safety and security.

Let’s bow our hearts before the Lord I pray. Dear Father, that Ezra’s words from 2,500 years ago, the testimony of a man of God, a man who mastered Your Word, a man who lived in Your Word, who stuck to Your Word, who lived in the Babylonian and Persian era of such decadence and evil. He lived in the midst of a back slidden and distant people. And yet he radiated, he walked the walk, he lived the life, he talked the talk. He worshiped You. And Lord, we live in a decadent and dying world. We live among many who slumber in their faith, and we want to walk the walk. We want a Word filled life. So, I pray we’d hear the heartbeat and passion of Ezra through the 119th Psalm, and by Your Spirit. And make some holy habits like he had, and that we would have some holy, scriptural resolves like he had, and that we would have similar prayer requests that he prayed. Help us as we look into Your Word to see it, to hear it, and to do it. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.

I’m going to give you these. I have all marked in different colors in my Bible. I’d encourage you if you’ve never taken time to do the 119th Psalm. It’s as long, actually, it’s about twice as long as James, the little epistle of James? It’s one chapter, but it’s like two little New Testament books. But I just go through, each time I look for something different. Let me just show you my studies through this.

Number one, a Word filled life is a life with holy habits. Holy habits that Ezra, the author of the Psalm, had cultivated as responses to the God he loved. Habits are things we do without thinking about ’em because we’ve thought about ’em so deeply and ingrained ’em in our mind. They just are responsive.

They just are part of our life that just flows from choices we’ve made. Here are his holy habits. I found about 10 of them. There are many more, but I don’t want to do all these. Give you something to study. The first one is in verse 10, and you can find these. Because they say, I have, or I am doing something.

These are the habits. What he’s saying is, this is what I have done, or this is what I am doing. These are the habits, my responses to God, my holy habits. The first one is in verse 10 and I call it he wanted the Lord. He had a habit of wanting the Lord. We all have habits. We want things. You know what his holy habit was?

He wanted the Lord. This is what he said in verse 10, with my whole heart, I have sought this, did you catch it with my whole heart? I have sat this so that’s my habit. He says, I am wholeheartedly a seeker of the Lord. That’s all of me wants you. That’s a habit. He wanted the Lord.

Secondly, he wanted the word verse 11, thy Word I have hidden my heart. One of my children gets these special treats from a dear saint I. She’s a master co perfectionist, and she has perfected the art of making these Louisiana luscious pecan pralines. They’re just so good. They just melt in your mouth. And so, she gives those to, to one of my sons and this little Ziploc plastic bag and it’ll appear in my desk in a bag and I bring it home.

You know what I notice he likes ’em so much. He hides them. You know why there are many carnivores? Actually confection-ivores in our house and they all like pralines. And so, I saw yesterday I saw he lifted up the loaf of bread and he had found a little spot under the bread holder where he kept, and so now I know where he hides the pralines. But Look what it says here. He says, Your Word is so important. I have hidden it in my heart. Have you ever had a treasure that’s so special to you keep it locked away? You carefully guard it and put it somewhere because you don’t want anything to happen to it. You don’t want anybody to take it. It’s your special something.

He said, that’s what the Word is. He says, I want the word, and I want it so much that I have treasured it. I have put it hidden away in my heart so that I wouldn’t sin against me. I don’t want anything to dispel Your Word, which keeps me from sin. I don’t want anything to block it, and so I’m hiding it in the treasure box where I won’t lose it where no one can get it away from me. I want it in my heart. He wanted the Lord. Verse 10. He wanted the Word verse 11.

Look at verse 14. He loved God’s ways. That was a habit, a holy habit. He says, I love Your ways. Oh God, I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies as much as in all riches. And we were at the first conference the first of the two conferences I went to a couple weeks ago, we were sitting at a table with some friends.

They were just talking. We just met them, and I was just listening to ’em and they were talking, and one of them leaned across the table and they said, do you see the guy sitting over there at that table? And so naturally, all of us went like this. And we looked over at the table and I thought, yeah what are you going to tell us?

They said He has 15 bathrooms in his house. And I thought, I started thinking, what are you telling me that for? They said he doesn’t just have 15 bathrooms. And he went through and, in other words, he was very wealthy. I used to work for a neurosurgeon who had nine bathrooms, nine fireplaces, and nine cars. And I was his butler. And I had to clean nine bathrooms and nine fireplaces and nine cars. Who would want 15? It was bad enough. Cleaning nine, and everything else. But you know what? Look at the end of this verse 14. As much as in all riches. You know what I gathered from sitting at that table with them whispering and pointing at the man, sitting at that table with 15 bathrooms.

He was rich and they weren’t. And they wished they were. Did you catch that? He was rich. They weren’t. And they wished that they had what he had, and they were talking about it and they talked about all this stuff and his family just jets all over the world. And they go on these trips, and they ski and I thought that’s attractive to people.

And you know what was attractive to Ezra? I. He says, I love God’s way as much as if I had 15 bathrooms or all riches in the world. Now that should communicate to us. We look at the lives of the rich and the famous. We think, oh, it would be nice if we could do this or that. God says, I have something better for you.

He says, if you’ll get to know me, you can come to love my ways, and you’ll love them more than all riches. And that just saves us a lot of effort because we don’t have to keep striving to have more. We already have everything, and that’s what the psalmist said. My holy habit, verse 14 is, my habit is I love God’s ways more than all riches.

Look at verse 22. He didn’t just want the Lord and want the Word and love God’s ways. He obeyed the Word. Verse 22, remove from me reproach and contempt for I have kept. He said, I’ve obeyed. I obey the Word.

Look at verse 26. He didn’t just obey it. He talked about it. Verse 26 says this, I have declared my ways, thou heardest me. Teach me thy statutes. What he’s saying is, I verbalize my ways. I verbalize my, these desires in my heart. In fact, 325 times he says, I love, I seek, I this, I that, I will do this. He talked about God’s ways. Let me just discuss a little cultural matter here. America, and if you read any of the writings in the columnists these days, we really are unique in the history of the world.

There’s never been a wealthier country, a more powerful country. Our armed forces are bigger than the whole world’s many times over all the nation’s world put together. There is nothing that compares to the sheer power and wealth and might of America. But because we have so much power and wealth, we’re used to everything being done very well.

And so, what slowly happened is in the sports arena, we have professional sports because amateurs can’t do it that well. And in the media and the arts, we have professional musicians and professional actors. And what’s happened is that slid over into the church, and we have gotten into the mode of our country that just as a whole country loves to watch the professionals do it.

And they are the spectators in church. The professionals do it and everyone becomes a spectator. And so, what happens if you do that too long? We feel we couldn’t say it quite as well as a professional could say it. And so, we stop saying it. And so, we find in America there’s so many men who cannot to their families, share what they believe.

And there’s so many individuals that cannot declare to their coworkers and their classmates what they believe. And you know what the Psalmist said? He had a habit of, look at this. Verse 26, he says, I have a habit of declaring my ways, and that’s contained right here. He says, I talk about God. It should be so natural.

You should be able to talk about the Lord in a natural way to those you love, you should be able to say, I met with the Lord. This is what I received and learned from him. And this is what it’s happening in my life. And we should not become any longer spectators watching, the radio people and the writers and the people who are doing all this professionally.

And we should all. That’s how it is overseas. I, when I travel to missions, churches all over the country, they have so much participation. It is. So, in Eastern Europe, when I used to minister every week in different churches behind Iron Curtain, a whole part of the service was anybody that had a verse would get up and read it and share what God had taught them that week about that verse.

And you know what? The services would go five hours. Because the people knew what verse 26 meant. They declared the waves of the Lord because they knew God heard them and God was teaching them.

The sixth habit he had is in verse 30. I love this. He not only wanted the Lord and wanted the word and loved God and obeyed the Word and talked about God, he followed the pathway of God. This is what he says. I have chosen, this is my holy habit. The I haves are his habits his holy habits he had chosen to do. I have chosen. Look at this, the way of truth. Psalm one 19 verse 30, thy judgments I’ve laid out before me. And the idea of laying them out. And the way is that they’re kind of the map that shows me where to go.

He says your Word, god, I’ve laid before me. Kinda like the treasure map or the triptych of my life. And I’ve chosen to go the way that your maps says I should go. Now for just a minute. The next book over Proverbs 4, let me show you a little bit about the Lord’s map. Don’t lose Psalm one 19. We’ll be back there in two minutes, okay?

But look at Proverbs 4. I was just reading this with our family two days ago. We were on the fourth chapter of Proverbs, and in verse 18, I wrote my Bible, the two roads of life. And I was telling my family about this. It says in verse 18, the path of the just.

That’s like Psalm 119, verse 30. That’s the way of truth, the path of the just, is like the shining sun that shines ever brighter onto the perfect day. So that’s one road you can follow. Verse 19 has the other, contrasted the two ways. Here’s the way of the shining light, the path of the, just the way of truth. That’s verse 18.

Verse 19, the way of the wicked is like darkness. Now, I remember a minute ago I was telling you I ran out with my stick and my rock into the dark and the forest. Boy, I was just feeling along, expecting to fall in a pit, thought maybe a rattlesnake would get me at any moment. I was in the dark.

I didn’t know what was around me, and that’s what the wicked are like. They’re in the darkness. In fact, last night someone left a hose on in our house at 10:30. I had to go out around the house through the grass barefooted and trying to feel along the side of the house. There’s no light out there. And I was sure I was stepping on slugs and those giant spiders we find all the time around our house, and I was walking and I thought of Proverbs 4:19, the way of the wicked is like darkness. They don’t know what makes them stumble. Now back to Psalm 119 in verse 30.

Let me tell you something. Do you know that your pathway and my pathway either gets clearer and brighter every day or darker and harder? If we are going God’s way, the way of truth, verse 30, it gets clearer. The pathway we see further, we see more clearly what God wants. We’re more assured and confident of what he has.

If we’re going the way of wickedness, it gets darker. We feel more unsure, and we feel like we aren’t sure what’s going to happen to us. And there’s stuff lurking around us and there’s confusion and we’re cloudy. And I meet people and when they talk about their lives, I feel like they’re in the dark.

They don’t know what’s going on. They don’t know why things are happening to them. And what it’s saying here is that’s because we have to choose the way of truth. We have to lay God’s judgments before us. While we were traveling, we went 4,000 miles the last 17 days by air, land, and sea. We covered everything, air, land, and sea.

On land someone lets us borrow, they have this little box. It’s only this big and it sits right on the dash, and it talks to me all the time. Point two miles, turn right. I programmed in where I was going. It talks to me the whole time I finally turned it off. I don’t like it talking. I just look at the screen.

I don’t want it telling me what to do all the time. It’s interruptive. But you know what? It’s laid out for me, the path, and it’s got a GPS positioning thing. It even tells me how fast I’m going without the speedometer. It’s just the most amazing little box I’ve ever seen. But you know what? As I look at that thing, and it’s always readjusting and telling me where I am and where I’m supposed to go and how far to the next whatever.

I think of this 30th verse, I have chosen a way of truth. Your judgments. I have laid before me. I put that box in front of me because I know where I’m going. I know that I want to get there, and I want that thing to tell me all the right turns. And that is exactly what the Lord spiritually in our whole lives wants to put the box of His Word before us.

He wants us to lay out His Word like a map. And we should come to it and say, Lord, I want to follow Your path. I want to understand it more clearly. I want it to be brighter. It’s onto the shining sun. What a beautiful expression of how God wants us to live our lives in confidence. What the Psalmist will say, my habit is I follow God’s pathway.

Look at verse 31. He said, I’m stuck to the Word. I have stuck onto thy testimonies. What he was talking about was that he was inseparable. You couldn’t separate old Ezra from the word of God. Now, initially it was because he was copying the ancient Hebrew in the middle Hebrew into modern Hebrew.

That was his job, the as a scribe in the father of the scribes, he converted all of the Mosaic, hieroglyphic Hebrew into modern block Hebrew and all the Davidic and the early prophets with their Phoenician script Hebrew into block modern Hebrew. So, in a real sense, it began. He was stuck to the Word of God because he was copying it.

What happens if you stick to the Word of God long enough? I actually feel funny when I’m not within reach of my Bible. When I talk to people, I just think in terms of what the Bible says about it, and I just go, Uhhuh and I’ll start turning somewhere. In fact, if someone has a question or when I’m watching the news or when I’m reading about something happening, I just think in terms of what God says about it.

And that concept is what the Lord says should be our habit. We should look at verse 31. We should be stuck to thy testimonies. We are stuck on them. You ever heard, a guy is stuck on that girl, that means he can’t think about anything else. He just wants to be around her. Or they’re really stuck on that car.

They just, everywhere in the city, they see it driving by ’cause they want one of those. God says, you should be stuck on this book. Are you stuck on this Book? When I was in junior high my youth pastor told me, he said he didn’t tell me, he told the whole youth group. He says, if you’re going to be an effective Christian, you need to take your Bible to school.

So, I remember taking all my junior high school books and I took ’em all, and I put my Bible right in the bottom and I happily walked in and I felt a little bad about it. So, I remember later on I put ’em in the middle of the pile and I felt better about that, but I still felt bad about it until I finally.

The third day was willing to put my Bible on top and immediately Robert Chassis, the class bully of the eighth grade, made fun of me and drew attention and pointed out that I had a Bible and everyone all came around and was snickering and laughing and they were all throwing french fries at me at the dining common at junior high cafeteria because I was reading my Bible there because I wanted to read it. I wanted to because my youth pastor said I was supposed to, and so they were throwing french fries at me and I was reading it. And I decided I would eat outside so they wouldn’t throw french fries at me.

So, I went outside the next day and read my Bible and there were a couple kids came out and they said, do you mind if we brought our Bibles today? Could we read our Bibles with you? I said, oh, sure. Did you know before the end of the month, we had 90 kids sitting outside. The principal came out and said, would you guys come inside? You can have one of the rooms to do your little Bible reading thing inside. Instead of, he said, it looks funny to have everybody sitting on the lawn of the school eating.

Why didn’t you go inside? And you know what? That began to be my career of being stuck to the Bible. I found that it is a part of my life everywhere I go. And it’s a wonderful part and I’m stuck on it. I was just flying last Sunday to get here or two Sundays ago, and I was sitting there reading and everybody on the plane was coming by and looking and saying, you’re reading the Bible.

Why are you reading the Bible? What do you read the Bible for? What do you find in the Bible? No. And I thought, it’s so uncommon to find people stuck to the word. And the Psalm said, my holy habit is I’m stuck to the word.

Look at verse 35. He wasn’t just stuck to it. He was excited about God. He said, make me to go in the path of thy commandments for therein do I delight. He says, I want to follow your road. I want to go your way. And he said, I’m excited to do it. Now let me ask you, are you excited about God, about his word? If not, could it be that you’ve done something that’s dead in your excitement, that has dampened your fervor, that has taken away your spiritual appetite?

One of my regular prayers on Saturday is I pray for all the people that go and deaden their spiritual brainwaves by watching all the junk on the movie screens that they would be miserable on Sunday morning. If any of you are miserable because you watched all that junk on all the current movies, whatever, I was praying that you would be, you know why?

Because of this look at this, what this Psalm says. Make me to go in the path I commandments for there. And do I delight? If this book is not a delight to you, then you’re not going in the wave as commandments. And if you’re going in the wave as commandments, this book is a delight to you. What happens when it’s not? It’s because we are flattening our spiritual brainwaves and deadening our spiritual appetites and dampening our spiritual fervor, and it’s not worth it.

Now look at verse 39. He had another holy habit. He had a habit of being excited about God in verse 35 and being stuck on the word, but verse 39, he had a habit of fearing, he feared, disappointing God.

Now think about that. Look what he says. Turn away my reproach, which I fear for thy judgments are good. He feared. Disappointing God. Now, I want you to think about that in terms of God is our Father and we’re His children, because you can see this in a parent child relationship.

Listen, a teen once demonstrated the attitude of verse 39, as his friends suggested that he go to a certain place for a good time. The teen said, I’d rather go home. My parents don’t approve of that place. One of the teenagers sarcastically said to him, are you afraid your father will hurt you? He said, no, I’m not afraid. My father will hurt me. I’m afraid I might hurt him. See the difference in attitude. The attitude is, I don’t want to disappoint God.

It’s not, is God going to come and chase him and slap and carry on if I sin? No. That’s not the way of love. The way of love is learning the mature attitude that I love him so much, that as this Psalm says, verse 39, that I fear reproaching Him. I don’t want to offend God. It’s not because I’m afraid He’s going to smash me or, do something and reign on my parade. I don’t want to displease Him. Now that’s the mature way a child responds to their parents. It’s not, are they going to take something away from me and, do this. It’s, do I want to disappoint them? That is mature and that’s a holy habit he had. He feared disappointing God.

Here’s the last one in verse 40. The last of his holy habits. Behold, I have longed after thy precepts quicken me. He says, I long after your precepts and you quicken me in righteousness. And if you find that living a godly life is difficult and you’re not really quickened in that, it’s because you are not longing after God. See, it’s a little reciprocal or a response to our longing, God quickens. And when we’re quickened, it increases our longings. And this is why it became a habit in his life.

Okay, now those were his habits. One more, I just want to go through his holy resolves. And I’m not talking about New Year’s resolutions where we say we’re going to, not eat so much and we’re going to exercise.

I’m talking about holy resolves that are based on the Scripture. And these are all I wills. So, I’m only going to give you a few, they’re all the way through the Psalm, but let me show ’em to you starting in verse seven. Okay. Here’s the first one. I will praise you. Verse eight, I will keep Your statutes. Keep going to verse 15. I will meditate on Your precepts.

Do you see the difference? The first group, his habits, where I have, I’m doing that, I’m doing that. The second group is his plans, his resolves, his desires. He say, when I get into the situation, I will do this. These were his holy resolves. Verse 16. I will delight myself in thy statutes.

I will not forget Your Word, what wonderful resolves he had. Look at verse 32. I will run in the course of Your commandments when You shall enlarge my hearts. What you notice all these were including the Lord. I will run in thy commandments. I will delight myself in thy statutes. I will meditate in thy precepts.

His resolves everything in his life kind of orbited around the Lord and he looked at light. His habits were habits of the Lord. His resolves were toward the Lord what he wanted to do in light of his relationship with the Lord. Here’s another one in verse 45. I will walk at liberty. How do you walk at liberty?

How do I have liberty and how do I have freedom from the overwhelming power and the chains of sin for I seek thy precepts? Verse 45 says, my resolve is I’ll walk at liberty. How do I do that? Because I seek your precepts. That’s just like what it says in John chapter eight, whom the son sets free will be free indeed, if we follow his precepts, if we yield to the Lord, he alone can free us from the bondage of sin.

So, the psalmist said, this is my resolve. I’m going to walk at liberty. How will I do that? I’ll seek Your precepts. Look at verse 46. I will speak of thy testimonies before Kings. I’ll not be ashamed. He said, I’m going to testify of You, I’m going to tell people about You. I’m not going to be passive. I’m not going to clam up and be just in the background. I’m going to speak up for You.

Verse 47. Here’s another resolve. I will delight myself in thy commandments. Which I have loved. He says I have a scriptural resolve that I am going to this year, this day, this month. I’m going to delight myself. That’s an interesting word. Delight. Same word that’s all the way through Song of Solomon. It speaks of an intoxicating in Song of Solomon, it’s romantic, it’s of Solomon and his love for this girl from the vineyard that he had fallen in love with, which he wrote this love poem to the Song of Solomon. But here he’s saying, Lord, You are the one, You have captivated my heart.

Whenever I think of doing something, I think of doing it for you. And what he said is, my resolve is that I’m going to delight myself in your commandments ’cause I love them. Here’s the last one, verse 48. His last resolve. My hands will, I lift up unto thy commands, which I have loved, and I will meditate on thy statutes.

Literally this one says in my hands, I will carry the lift up. Isn’t lifting the hands, it’s lifting the Word in the hands. And what it was speaking of is Ezra probably was talking about picking up these scrolls and actually taking them with him. And I thought about that. I thought about a holy resolve that I will in my hands carry this book.

You have choices every day I go out to lunch too many times. That’s why I’m much more of me than Bonnie married. But you know what? I always found out that when I go to lunch, someone’s delayed, and you get all these on your cell phone, you get a little call, Hey, I’m five minutes late. I’m 10 minutes late. I’ll be there in 15.

Do you know how much of the Bible I’ve read in those 10 and 15 minutes? An immense portion of this book. Why? Because I’ve made it a purpose of my life that I will, as he said in Verse 48, I will lift up my hands unto thy commandments. I will in my hands, carry God’s Word. I’m going to keep it close in hand, and if it’s not playing on the radio or the mp3 player, it’s read in hand because I want to have as a resolve of my life to keep this Book and this Word and the God of this Word very close.

Why? Because out there lurking are these giant yellow eyed creatures of darkness. Metaphorically speaking, they are the world and all. Its alert, the flesh that is ever with each of us. We’re not eradicated. We have our flesh to death and the devil. And we’re going to see tonight, I’m going through Christ’s longest letter.

He wrote, Jesus wrote the longest letter he wrote. It was Tora and he talks about the devil visiting that church. And you know what? With the world of flesh and the devil arrayed against us in the dark forest of this world, how do we maintain a word filled life? We do it like Ezra did with holy habits. I have. I have. I have. I have. And with wholly resolved I will. I will. You want to be? Having a Word filled life victorious. Secure, then let this Word richly dwell in you have holy habits and have holy resolves.

Let bow before the Lord in prayer and ask Him to make us not merely hears of this Book, but doers. Father in Heaven, I thank you for your saints. They’re such a blessing to see their faces, to see their hearts reflected in their faces, to see their holy resolves and holy habits. I pray that we would more and more mirror the wonderful testimony of Ezra in the 119th Psalm, that we would decide that we will do everything to maintain a word filled life, and that we would watch out and be vigilant because only when we have that sword of Your Word, the sword of the Spirit in hand, can we be able to resist our adversary, the devil.

He’s a roaring lion. And he is trying to devour us. And only through Your Word can we walk securely and safely and have great spiritual success in this world. That’s what we ask for Work in our hearts. For any who have not begun, the Word of Christ hasn’t even entered their hearts. We pray that you would move, and convict and work condemn this day by Your mercy and through Your grace in the name of Jesus, we ask it.

One of our great responsibilities as individuals is to protect those we love. One of my great duties as a husband is to protect my wife and children. This duty and responsibility shows up as we lock the doors at night, listen to weather advisories, remind them to buckle up, watch for suspicious characters when we drop them off places, warn them to be careful – all because we love them and want to protect them. Constant vigilance is needed to keep our freedom and safety secure physically.

This was brought home to me vividly this week as Bonnie and I sat on the edge of the great Huron National Forest that stretches across Northern Michigan. This beautiful area has nearly one million acres of trees, with 9 pristine rivers running for 550 miles, crisscrossed by 330 miles of trails. Late Monday night, under those towering oaks and ancient jack pines we watched the stars as our children slept in three tents under one giant oak tree.

Just as we were ready to stop talking and head to bed I switched on my flashlight and made a wide arc across the rolling hillside in front of us, hoping to see a deer grazing on the lush green grass. Instead we both gasped; there in the distance loping across the hillside was a pair of glowing yellow eyes that reflected back at about the size of a half dollar. Bonnie was sure it was some fierce carnivore. So dad was dispatched with a stick and the flashlight to go out and meet the creature and to defend our sleeping and unprotected children.

As parents we saw a danger. As those entrusted with the care and protection of those small lives, we had to act. Lurking in the million acres of dark shadows of the night were creatures that could harm the lives we love so much. After quite a chase I ran the forest monster up a tree, only to turn back to find two more sets of glowing yellow eyes headed out another thicket of trees. After rolling stones, banging sticks and waving my flashlight – those next two were warded off. The good news was that these monsters turned out to be harmless coons on their way to the camp trashcan. But the memory of creatures of the night stalking our children was unforgettable.

As I lay quietly listening to the sounds of the forest that evening my mind turned to something far more dangerous than a Huron national Forest wild animal. Those animals could only scratch and scare my children. No, I began to think of the spiritual forces of darkness, of creatures for more lethal than any that roamed the forest.  What can I do to protect and guard my life and the lives of those I love from dangers that lurk in the spiritual darkness seeking to injure the souls of those loved ones? What does God say we need to do to stay safe and secure here on earth? Constant vigilance is needed to keep our freedom and safety secure spiritually.

A safe, secure, and liberated life is described in God’s Word as ‘word filled’. As Paul said, a Spirit filled believer has the Word richly dwelling or filling them. But how is that possible? To find out we need to turn our hearts to Psalm 119. There EZRA explains the secret of maintaining a Word Filled Life – the only sure protection in the dark spiritual forests of life into which we — and our loved ones, must walk each day.

Our focus this morning is again that Old Testament Giant of the Faith – EZRA. His testimony as we saw last time is the 119^th Psalm. He gives us in these 176 verses the content of his personal HABITS or RESPONSES to the Lord, and his personal resolves or HOPES in the Lord.

Remember, there are 22 stanzas of 8 verses each.

Stanza’s begin with “A” and continue with successive Hebrew alphabet lettering.

This is called an acrostic. In the Psalms there are 8 other acrostic Psalms. These are Psalms 9, 10, 25, 34, 37, 111, 112, 145

To best comprehend the acrostic concept let me read the literal Hebrew translation. In The Psalms Chronologically Arranged the compilers show ho the Psalm would look if the English alphabet were used in this way; and here is an example of Theodore Kubler’s treatment, in respect of Daleth (d) in verses 25-32.

1. 25    Depressedto the dust is my soul: Quicken Thou me according to Thy

word.

1. 26    Declaredhave I (to Thee) my ways, and Thou heardest me: Teach me

Thy statutes.

1. 27    DeclareThou to me the way of Thy precepts: So shall I talk of Thy

wondrous works.

1. 28    Droppingis my soul for heaviness: Strengthen Thou me according to Thy

word.

1. 29    Deceitfulways remove from me: And grant me Thy law graciously.
2. 30    Determinedhave I upon the way of truth: Thy judgments have I laid

before me.

1. 31    Deliberatelyhave I stuck unto Thy testimonies: Lord, put me not to

shame.

1. 32    Day by dayI will run the way of Thy commandments, When Thou shalt

enlarge my heart.

Ezra’s testimony is in two areas: his habits (the “ I haves”) and hopes (the “I wills”), or to put it differently – his spiritual responses and his Scriptural resolves!

One of the first things we notice as we look into this Psalm is the intensely personal nature of these verses seen in the overwhelming use of the 1^stperson pronoun “I”.

These 176 verses have in all 176 mentioned God.

In 173 God’s word is mentioned.

He refers to himself 325 times as “I”, “me”, and “my”.

A Word filled life is a life with habits of Scriptural responses.

First, Ezra shares in Psalm 119 a list of his Habits or SPIRITUAL RESPONSES he had cultivated toward the Lord. There are at least 10 of them.

• He wanted the Lord. Psalm 119:10 With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments.
• He wanted the Word. Psalm 119:11 Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.  (Have you ever had a treasure so precious, or a possession so fragile, or a favorite cereal, drink, cookie, etc. that you wanted so badly — that you hid it away so that no one else could take it from you?)
• He loved God’s ways.  Psalm 119:14 I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies, as much as in all riches.
• He obeyed the Word. Psalm 119:22 Remove from me reproach and contempt; for I have kept thy testimonies.
• He talked about God. Psalm 119:26 I have declared my ways, and thou heardest me: teach me thy statutes.
• 6.    He followed the pathway of God. Psalm 119:30 I have chosen the way of truth: thy judgments have I laid before me. (Did you know your pathway either gets clearer and better, or darker and harder — ever day we follow that pathway? Proverbs 4:18-19 But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. 19 The way of the wicked is as darkness: they know not at what they stumble. )
• He was stuck to the Word. Psalm 119:31 I have stuck unto thy testimonies: O LORD, put me not to shame.
• He was excited about God! Psalm 119:35 Make me to go in the path of thy commandments; for therein do I delight. (Do you know what one of my constant prayers is? That everyone who goes out on Saturday night and get fried by all the garbage in the movies would feel so miserable on the Lord’s Day that they would start figuring out that to watch things that so diametrically oppose God’s Way flattens your spiritual brain waves, deadens your spiritual appetite, and dampens your spiritual fervor. In other words – IT IS NOT WORTH IT!)
• He feared disappointing God. Psalm 119:39 Turn away my reproach which I fear: for thy judgments are good.  A teen once demonstrated this heart attitude as his friends suggested that they go to a certain restaurant for a good time.  “I’d rather go home, my parents don’t approve of that place.”  “Afraid your father will hurt you?” one of the girls asked sarcastically.  “No,” he replied, “I’m not afraid my father will hurt me, but I am afraid I might hurt him.” He understood the principle that a true child of God, who has experienced the love of God, has no desire to sin against that love.

10. He longed after the Lord. Psalm 119:40 Behold, I have longed after thy precepts: quicken me in thy righteousness.

A Word filled life is a life with habits of Scriptural Resolves.

So, First Ezra shares in Psalm 119 a list of his Habits or RESPONSES he had cultivated toward the Lord. Secondly, he records his hopes or RESOLVES

• Psalm 119:7 I will praise thee with uprightness of heart, when I shall have learned thy righteous judgments.
• Psalm 119:8 I will keep thy statutes: O forsake me not utterly.
• Psalm 119:15 I will meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways.
• Psalm 119:16 I will delight myself in thy statutes: I will not forget thy word.
• Psalm 119:32 I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart.
• Psalm 119:45 And I will walk at liberty: for I seek thy precepts.
• Psalm 119:46 I will speak of thy testimonies also before kings, and will not be ashamed.
• Psalm 119:47 And I will delight myself in thy commandments, which I have loved.
• Psalm 119:48 My hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments, which I have loved; and I will meditate in thy statutes. (Literally ‘in my hands I will carry…’ God’s Word was close at hand).

So how did Ezra do this on a consistent basis? By meditation. Remember Meditation is a soul that thirsts and drinks of God in His Word; that longs for the waters of life and drinks them of God in His Word; that drinks from an ever present oasis in the arid, sun baked, lifeless deserts of life through finding and communing with God in His Word.

Seven times Ezra confesses his secret, it is called meditation (after finding God’s Word and eating it – then we digest or meditate upon it). Here is his pathway:

• PURIFYING MEDITATION, look at v.9. Psalm 119:15 I will meditate on Your precepts, And contemplate Your ways.
• ILLUMINATING MEDITATION, look at v. 18. Psalm 119:23 Princes also sit and speak against me, But Your servant meditates on Your statutes.

• REFRESHING MEDITATION, look at v. 25. Psalm 119:27 Make me understand the way of Your precepts; So shall I meditate on Your wonderful works.
• TESTIFYING MEDITATION, look at v. 46. Psalm 119:48 My hands also I will lift up to Your commandments, Which I love, And I will meditate on Your statutes.
• REFINING MEDITATION, look at v.75. Psalm 119:78 Let the proud be ashamed, For they treated me wrongfully with falsehood; But I will meditate on Your precepts.
• focusING MEDITATION, look at v. 101. Psalm 119:99  I have more understanding than all my teachers, For Your testimonies are my meditation.
• INTERCEDING MEDITATION, look at v.147. Psalm 119:148 My eyes are awake through the night watches, That I may meditate on Your word.

A Word filled life is a life with habits of Scriptural Prayers.

Finally, mediation freed Ezra to just ask the Lord for each area he needs to live fruitfully for the Lord. Remember Ezra faced a worldly congregation, soaked in all the worldly ways of Babylon and Persia. What was his plan to bring about lasting change in those he served? He started with his own life. He learned to point his heart frequently toward doing God’s Will.

Thirty-three times with eleven phrases, Ezra cries to the Lord.

The secret of his fruitful life was his choice to invite the Lord into every part of his life, and invite Him into every part of his day.

• Teach me: 12; 26; 33; 66; 68; 108; 124;135.
• Remove from me: 22.
• Make me: 27; 35.
• Give me: 34; 73; 125; 144; 169.
• Revive me: 37; 40; 88; 107; 149; 154; 156; 159.
• Help me: 86.
• Save me: 94; 146.
• Uphold me: 116; 117.
• Redeem me: 134; 154.

10. Hear me: 145.
11. Deliver me: 153; 170.

So how do we adopt Ezra’s strategy? Here are so elements to practice getting alone with God.

• START WITH HIM: Try to spend at least 12 minutes each day in reading God’s Word and seeking to find one truth to hold on to all day long.
• SPEAK WITH HIM: From that time alone with God, think through your entire day. Ask HIM what would be the best use of your life for this day.
• STOP WITH HIM: Try to also get in the habit of a weekly time of evaluation. Just a half hour reflecting on where you are, and where you are headed in life and ministry.

STAY WITH HIM: Finally, try one time of strategic planning each month, to truly reflect on life for a couple of hours. Take a spiritual retreat. Sit with a pad of paper, your calendar, and an open Bible. List your priorities for the next month. Pray over them, change them, decide upon them and then do them!