Missing the Mark Series: Secret Faults, Highhanded Sins

Missing the Mark Series: Secret Faults, Highhanded Sins

Alright, Psalm 19, if you turn there with me, Psalm 19 this evening. We saw this morning from the book of Job about the need to, well, not charge God foolishly with our speech or in our thoughts and also to realize the devil's desire to sift us like weed or to devour, take advantage of us. And we saw even there in that passage how Job told his wife, you know, don't think like the world thinks about this situation. Think like God would have us to think about it. Remember, the Lord's given us everything we have. We've observed the Lord's Supper this morning. And we need to think with this perspective that everything that we are and everything that we have, everything that we will be is because of God's mercy and grace in our lives.

Let's not forget all the benefits the Lord has bestowed upon us. That's a sin in itself, isn't it? When we forget, you know, what does the hymn say? Though I forget him and wander away. Well, thank the Lord, he does still love me wherever I stray. But may we back to his dear loving arms would I flee when I remember that Jesus loves me. I am so glad that Jesus loves me.

That's the motive of it all, isn't it? That's why people would be willing to give their lives, to lay down their lives in the service of him because, well, they tasted that the Lord is gracious and they're willing. Even if it's an affliction, it's a light affliction. It works a far exceeding eternal weight of glory, even for those who have given their life in the service. They have laid down their lives for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ. We ought, each one of us, to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow him, even if it means a cost for us.

So tonight we're looking in Psalm 19. If you would look with me there in verse number 7, Psalm 19, verse number 7, we read, The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold. Sweeter also than the honeycomb, or honey and the honeycomb. Moreover, by them is thy servant warned. And in keeping of them there is great reward. Who can understand his errors? Cleanse thou me from secret faults. Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over me. Then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight. O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.

The first half of this psalm shows how creation, where is the glory of God? Instinctively. Continually. By design. We as human beings are made in the image of God with free will, with conscience. The ability to be creative and imaginative. We do not by instinct do God's will almost as if we were puppets or robots or whatever words you want to say. We don't just. We don't just automatically do what God wants. God gives, and all the way back to the Garden of Eden, has given man the choice to do his will or to rebel against his will. Well, nature, as we sing that hymn, this is my father's world, all nature sings and round me rings the music of the spheres. You know, we sing. All those words in that hymn and how each aspect of God's creation points to him in the natural world. It points to the creator. The visible things that we see and hear tell of the invisible creator of those things. Whether you go down into the depths of the ocean or you look up in the skies above you, you see the creator's praise being visible and audible in all the things. These are the things that God has put into his creation.

And when we hear, respond to, and gladly obey God's, well, you know, like we said recently, the good ground, right? Having heard the word of God, they keep it, right? They keep the word of God. They not just hear it and it goes in one ear and out the other. How do we know that you're heard? Well? Well, oftentimes as a child, you know, the parent can say something to the child and they hear it, but they don't do anything with what they heard. So we just say, well, evidently you didn't hear me, did you? But let me tell you again. That's what the Lord has to do with us. We need to hear it again. But when we hear and keep God's word, his love is perfected in us. We, we bring. We bring glory to him when we, when we, when our lives adorn the doctrine of grace, when our lives speak of, tell of, just like nature tells us, just when our lives reflect and tell of his glory in, in obeying. And then, then we see the light and the fruit, the good things will shine forth from our life as we trust and obey.

God's, God's word, this passage here talks about the different aspects of God's words that are, and what it is to us and how it is to be seen in our lives. We see that his word is perfect. His word is, word is sure. His word is right. It's pure. It's clean, true, righteous. In these verses that we read here tonight, this is perfect in that it's lacking nothing. If you, you know, we talk about a specimen, you know, I mean, that could refer to a person, but you know, if you, if you have a, at a dog show, for instance, you might say that dog is a perfect specimen. You know, he's the judge picks because it, it, it, that, that dog has all the, the right traits to represent that breed. We came by the gas station on the way here tonight. It was this beautiful dog. I don't, I, I can't remember how to say the name of it right now. My wife had to, she remembered what it was, but she couldn't say the name. So she had to look it up and then she brought it back to mind. But I thought, well, that is a perfect specimen of whatever that breed is. You know, it was just beautiful dog. And, and, and I think about how God's law is perfect. There's nothing missing. It's complete. It's lacking nothing. It's, it's, it's all, all that we need is there.

You know, we want, we want that when we're, when we're eating food. We want all the nutrients there. We, when we're, you know, when we're experiencing something in life, we don't, we don't want it to be, you know, what we, we leave a restaurant or we, we go on a trip somewhere and we come back and say, you know, that left something to be desired. That was lacking. That was missing something. I can't even put my finger on it. You know, you taste something in your mouth and you know what collard greens with ham hock and maybe a little pinch of sugar is supposed to taste like. Then, and you taste that, you say, oh, that, that wasn't, wasn't quite up to par. Well, God's word is not that way. God's word is perfect and, and, and it is, it is complete. There's nothing that needs to be added to it. In fact, if we try to add something to God's word, then we, or take away from God's word, then we, there's a strong, there's a strong condemnation that God places upon that when we try to alter in any way his word.

So the law of the Lord is perfect. Converting the soul. In fact, the word convert here has the idea, it's translated in Psalm 23 verse 3, he restoreth my soul. He restoreth my soul. And so the idea there, there is by even when the soul is turned to God, because you remember all we like sheep have gone astray, right? Everyone has turned to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. But if we will turn with our hearts toward God and hear what his word says, he will restore our soul. He will restore, restore us.

The things that sin has damaged, the things that going our own way and leaning to our own understanding has produced a brokenness, a lack, a want, a need in our life that God's word will restore. Well, by, by converting, turning us away from our ways to his ways. There's nothing lacking with his way. The way of the Lord is perfect. It's tried, right? Our way is, our way is broken. Our way is missing parts and pieces where it's all broken. Well, may God help us not to seek to improve his law or to change his law, but that we would be changed by his law. That we would, that which is lacking or wanting in us would be, we would find that God's word supplies everything we need. Like Psalm 23 once again says, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. It's even in the valley of the shadow. As we mentioned this morning, his rod and his staff will, will comfort me. He will restore my soul.

And then we see the testimony in verse seven as well of the Lord, the testimony, the witness of the Lord will in his word will, will make the wise or make the simple to be wise, making, wise the simple. Isn't it something that people will, people will receive the testimony of men. Some uninspired book, they'll just take it, you know, they'll just take it at face value and take that, that record to be true. And yet when it comes to God's word, question, question, question, you know, is that, this is just the words of words of men. This is just the words of men.

No, it's, the testimony of the Lord is, is sure. The, the, the word in the Hebrew for sure here, I understand that it very well could be related to, and at the root of the word, amen. Amen. So be it, truly. It speaks of certainty, firmness. And this is the way the word of the Lord is.

Um, William Tyndall said, uh, it was better to be without God's law, or, no, I'm sorry, the, the, actually when he was speaking with, uh, the, a learned man, he, uh, he was conversing with that man about religious controversies of the day. And, and, um, he said, uh, the man said to him, it was better to be without God's law than the Pope's. And William Tyndall responded to that. I, I defy the Pope and all his laws. If God spare my life here many years, I will cause a boy that driveth the plow shall know more of the scripture than thou dost. And he did. And we, we just, here we are at the 500th anniversary of that, of that man's, uh, translation of the New Testament, uh, into, into our language. But, uh, he believed a man that laid down his life, a man, a man that was willing to give his life so that we might have the scriptures in our own language. A man that believed that God's law is the testimony of the Lord is sure making wise the simple, even the plow boy, even the simple, the simpleton.

We have, uh, in verse eight, the statutes of the Lord are right. Rejoicing. The heart. These statutes are, are rules that are set down by God's words. They are all right. They're, they're fair. They're just, there's nothing in nothing partial or unfair about God's words. Oh, we, we see a lot of in our, a lot of unfair and partiality, partial, partial things that are going on in our world today. Money talks, right? And justice is perverted. If there's enough money to be had, right? Uh, you can get a crooked lawyer to do a number of things, but God's statutes, his rules are right. His, his statutes are fair and just. Uh, David would say, if you look over with me in Psalm 119 verse 54, Psalm 119 verse 54, this, thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage. Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage. I have remembered thy name, O Lord, in the night and have kept thy law. Well, and we notice in that, that, um, we notice that, that God's word is, is right. We can trust it. It's perfect. It's not lacking anything, but it's also fair, right, and just.

We see also in verse eight, in verse number eight, we read as well that the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. It's a commandment when, you know, if I'm giving a commandment or receiving a commandment, what is a commandment? A commandment is a directive or a, uh, an order. That's being made. This is not an optional thing. It's not the yellow signs. It's the black and white signs you see on the road. This is a, this is you. You better drive 45 or you better drive 55. This is, this is, this is not an option. This is a command. The commandments of the Lord is obligatory. It's not optional, but the commandments of the Lord or the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. God doesn't give us commands just to, just to, just to, just to, I guess arbitrarily. He, he gives a command with a purpose. We saw the commands this morning in the Sunday school hour. No, rejoice evermore. Why are we to rejoice evermore? Because if we're not rejoicing, what are we going to be doing? We're going to be leaning on our own understanding and we're going to be, we're going to be ho-hum and sorrowful. If, if we don't pray about everything, we're going to be worrying about it. We're going to be wringing our hands and figuring out how can, what can I do? And I can't do anything. I can't. And we're just going to be anxious over the matter.

So when we realize that all of God's commandments, the commandment as a whole, but the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. There's, there's a purpose in it. There's a reason. God isn't just, God tells us what he tells us that we ought to do, because if we will just trust and obey the commands that God gives us, it will keep us from sin. It will keep us from wrong thinking and wrong speaking and wrong, wrong acting. God's word tells us what to do and what not to do. Tells us what we ought to do and, and, and, and reproves us when we're wrong. As his words come into our hearts and minds, the entrance of those words, they give us light. They give us understanding. And then we need to, we need to keep them. We need to do them.

Look in Psalm 111, verse 10, 111, Psalm 111, verse 10. It's there in verse 10 that we read this. It says in verse 10, the, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. A good understanding have all they that do his commandments. A good understanding have all they that do his commandments. Well, we will, we will, we, we must be, how can I put it? We must be, we must live in the black and the white. We must live in, we must see things black and white. If God says it, I believe it and I'm going to do it. His, his word is pure and his word keeps us from trouble. Keeps us from not only trouble with him, but trouble with, with others. If we will heed his commandments and obey them, it will, it will keep us. It will guard us.

The fear of the Lord in verse nine is clean. The commandment is pure, but the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. I know I've mentioned before this, but in Deuteronomy chapter 17, there's that, that directive that's given there that every king, every king that would sit upon the throne in Israel was to write out his own copy of the law of God. He was to have for him in his own possession, a copy of God's law. And it says, look in Deuteronomy 17, verse, verse 19, Deuteronomy 17 and verse number, verse number 19. What does it say there? It says in verse number 19, and it shall be with him. He, he, he shall write him a copy of this law and a book out of that, which is before the priests, the Levites, and it shall be with him and he shall read there in all the days of his life that he may learn to fear the Lord as God. By reading the law, he will learn to fear the Lord. He'll learn to fear the Lord. To keep all the words of this law and these statutes to do them.

There's a need to, to personalize the word to personally. Well, he was to write out the law and he was to read it all the days of his life that he might fear the Lord. That his heart be not lifted up when he thinks of doing something he ought not to do, like marrying strange wives, marrying, like multiplying wives and concubines, because he might remember what the Bible says about that. Don't do that. Thou shalt not do that. Do not do that. Do this. But don't lean to your own understanding. Well, I'm, I'm the king. Well, you're not above the law. You're going to answer to God. His heart be not lifted up above his brethren. Just because he's the leader doesn't mean he's not going to answer to God just like everybody else.

And that he turn not his head, side from the commandment. What did Joshua say? Or what said to Joshua, right? This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night that thou mayest prosper. You know, uh, thou mayest have good success. Turn not to the right hand, turn not to the left hand from this book of the law. Turn not aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom. He and his children in the midst of Israel. God will bless the obedience of the king who fears the Lord, who delights in and daily is in that word. He'll prolong his days and bless his seed.

Well, the judgments we see back in our text in verse nine, the judgments, that's, uh, a verdict pronounced judicially. It's a, a ruling, the rulings of the Lord, the verdicts of the Lord concerning whatever he's speaking about are, are right and true. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. God, the judge of all the earth is omniscient. He's all wise. And when he says something, it's just as true. So, well, well, when it was written down and recorded, it's just as true now in 2026 as it was then because the judgments of the Lord have no expiration date. They are true today as they were when they were written.

I hear a lot of people say things like, you know, you act like we're living in 19 whatever year it is. The year doesn't matter what year we're in. If, if God says something about it, we need to hear what and thank God's thoughts after him about the matter. We need to find out what's the verdict of God about this. What's the, not, not what does the culture say? Not what is the, what is the verdict of popular opinion in the court of popular opinion? No. What is the verdict of the Lord about this? It doesn't matter how popular or unpopular it may be at a given moment in time. This is a, this is a foolish world that we're in. This is the world that we're living in. Not even what is popular in, you know, the mainstream of Christianity or Christendom because it could be completely wrong. I mean, we've, we've done a lot of atrocious things that have been in history that have been approved by the majority. And the majority was wrong.

Well, verse 10 says more to be desired. Desired. Are they then gold? Yea, the much fine gold. Remember the psalmist says that he esteemed all the Lord's precepts concerning all things to be right. He hated every false way. He, he, he, he counted the judgments of God to be true. And now he desired these things that would be desired much more than fine gold. Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. The words of God are desirable. They're desirable. They're valuable. They're sweet. And so they are to be taken in personal. They must be taken to heart by each and every individual to be fully appreciated. Once again, I can tell you how good something is, but you need to taste it. Just like the woman at the well could tell the people in her town how wonderful this man of the well that she met was. But they needed to come and hear him for themselves and see for themselves and taste for themselves the trueness, the perfection, the rightness, the fairness, the desirableness of his truth. Um, and so we see that it's, uh, it's something that we must individually taste and see.

In verse number 11, let's look on. Look back in our text here. Moreover, by them is I servant warned if we don't take heed to God's warnings in the world, certainly not going to is not going to take heed to the warnings. The word of God is part of part of its role was to warn us against sin to warn us against our own tendencies by them. Thy servant is warned. And in keeping of them, there is great reward.

You ever, have you ever not been obeying the Lord and something that you ought to have been obeying him in. And when, when you receive that warning and you take it to heart and you say, yes, I agree. I, I have failed in that thing, Lord, and I have forgotten what your word said, but, but I take the warning. I take heed to your word. And I help me. Obey it. There is a reward even in just responding. There's a reward in responding to God's word. The reward is that inner peace and joy that floods our soul. And we know is well with our soul. We know that in our heart of hearts before God, not needing any, any affirmation, for some someone else, but the Holy spirit bearing witness in our hearts that, that we have responded in an obedient way to our heavenly father. There is, there is a reward.

And then certainly there's an eternal reward. When we, when we put aside, put aside those fleshly things or those things of pride or those things of self that would, would hinder the Lord working in our lives. And we received the warning. And we, and we let God's word change our, our thinking and our, our speaking and our acting in some way. And we say yes to the Lord. And we say no to the old flesh. And, and there's, there is reward, not only immediately in our hearts, but there's the reward of how God will, will bless us in our interactions with people. And there's ultimately the, the reward of, of Christ, of crowns that we will receive for, of gold, silver, precious stones, not, not building with the wood, hay and stubble, but building with those things that will last. We know it's often been said only what's done for Christ will last. And so may we, may we desire and, and seek this reward, not, not the rewards that man give, men give. What does it say? We do what we do to be, seen and heard of men when we have our reward, right? We have our earthly reward from men, but that's not the kind of reward we're seeing here. This reward is when we hear God and when we take heed and we fear God rather than men, and God's blessing comes to our lives. In keeping of them, there is great reward.

Thomas Watson said, holiness is its own reward. While a Christian is in the very exercise of holiness, oh, what blessed sights, what sweet tastes, what glorious incomings from heaven has he. Oh, the secret visits, the secret whispers, the secret joggings, the secret love tokens which Christians meet with in the very practice of holiness. In so many words, blessed assurance, Jesus. Jesus is mine. Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine. Heir of salvation, purchase of God, born of his spirit, washed in his blood. That's that assurance and that confidence that comes from being right with the Lord and knowing him.

In verse 12, we read this. Who can understand his errors? Who can understand his errors? Cleanse thou me from secret faults. It's kind of like saying, like James said, we come to the word of God like a glass and behold, like a man beholds his natural face in a glass, right? And the word of God helps us to see, kind of like the glass or the mirror helps us to see what's on our face. Oftentimes, we can walk around, we can walk around all day and not know something. We can walk around all day and not know something. We can walk around all day and not know something unless we saw ourself in a mirror or, you know, now we, you know, maybe we talk to someone and they point out, oh, what's that on your face? Or what's that on your, you know, on your shoulder, on your head, on your back? You know, you don't see those things. We talk about blind spots, don't we? Well, God's word will help us to understand, especially when we take heed to it, right? When we listen. Listen to it with an intent to learn and with a desire that those words will bring light to us so that we can understand what we need to know. Well, God will help us to see our needs, won't he? He does help us to see our needs, the way that we should, not only the way we should go, but when we are going the wrong way or when we're thinking the wrong way and how we need to turn to the right way.

Now, who can understand his errors? You're driving along down the road and you see someone with their gas cap flapping around, you know. Hey, honk on the horn. Hey, you got your, your gas cap is hanging open or, you know, your gas tank is open. Well, when we, when we read things and the Holy Spirit prompts us in those ways to see our errors, to see sins that we may not even be realizing that we have committed inadvertently through error, what do we do then? Do we, do we hold our faces in a, in a glass and just keep on going the way we are? We say, well, that's just the way I am. That's just the way I am. Well, why did somebody put that mirror there? Why do we put the mirror on the wall? So we can see what's there and what needs to be changed rather than just beholding ourself and going on the same manner of man we were, but no, to, to see in the mirror that God has granted me sight of this need so that now I can understand the error that otherwise I would not have been able to understand.

It might just be a little thing here and a little thing there, but how is my heart responding to God when he shows me that? We might say, well, it's just a little sin, you know. It's just, it's just a little, uh, failing or falling when I should have stood. It's just this little habit in my life that really shouldn't be there. How do I, how do I think about that?

Uh, look in Psalm 94, verse 12, Psalm 94 and verse number 12. Are we, are we tender? Are we sensitive towards God in, when he does? That's Psalm 94, verse 12 says, blessed, real happiness. Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O Lord, and teachest him out of thy law. The Lord will promise us to guide the meek in judgment.

What kind of conclusion do we come to about the needs in our lives, about the Lord when we, when he shows us things in his word? Do we come to the conclusion, Lord, I, I need to love you more, Lord. I need to, I need to lay aside some, some error in my life that is, shouldn't be there in my thinking. I've erred. I've erred to the right hand. I've erred to the left hand in this thing. And I, I need, I need you to straighten me out, Lord. I need you to straighten out my thinking about this.

Isn't it something how quickly we can get out of line and our, how, how easily we can get out of line. And I, I, I need to be affected by the spirit of the world that we're living in our thinking. And we can get out of line and, you know, we, we, or we can just hear something or see something. And, and, and, and we begin like Asaph, we begin to start thinking in a way we shouldn't think like envying the wicked. And we get foolish in our thinking. We get foolish in the way we're acting about something because we got our eyes off the Lord and we got our eyes on somebody or something. We can get out of, we can get out of sorts. And not even realize we, and not even realize I'm, I'm, I'm off on this other bypass metal over here. And I didn't even realize it. I'm off over here on some tangent, some, some way that I shouldn't be.

Thank God when he, when he, when he shakes us and gets ahold of us and says, may even just be a gentle rebuke. You shouldn't think that way.

Well, verse 13 says, keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over me. Then shall I be upright and I shall be innocent from the great transgression. All these things we've been saying about God's word, we have the gamut from secret faults that we may not until, and will not really, until God points them out to us, really even realize that's not right. All the way from that to presumptuous sins, like high handed sins against the Lord. Things that we are now, we're just willfully doing things that are not right. And we even know better. We know that we ought not to do those things, right? But we do them anyway. They're willful. We're, we're, we're just having our way with it. David cries, keep me from these presumptuous sins, these high handed sins, not omissions merely, but, but blatant commissions, commission, commissions, commission of sins against thee. And he says, then shall I be upright? I'll be upright in my walk, in my thinking.

Do you remember what Habakkuk said about the, the soul that is upright in him? What it says, the soul that is lifted up in him is not upright, right? The soul that's lifted up in pride, my way, it's going to be my way. No, that's the, that's a proud soul. The, the humble says, Lord, show me your way. Lord, teach me your way. Lord, teach me how I shouldn't be thinking. I need wisdom. I need wisdom. I need wisdom. I need wisdom. I need wisdom. I need wisdom. And God will give it to the humble. He will give light. He will guide steps. His word will be that lamp to our feet. It will be that light to our, our path. David has a humility in his words here. I think of what Asaph said at the beginning of that Psalm 73, when he said, remember the end, he said, I was foolish. We mentioned it this morning. I was foolish. I was envious. I was envious of the wicked. But he said at the beginning of that Psalm, he said that my feet were almost gone. My steps had well nigh slipped. This is why the Psalmist David would say, order my steps in thy word, according to thy word. Let not any iniquity have dominion over me.

If, if we're living for the approval of men or living according to whatever, everybody else is doing it, you know, everybody else is getting away with it, but that doesn't matter. You're not going to answer to everybody else. You're going to answer to God. You have his word. You have no excuse. I have no excuse not to respond to the Lord when he shows me secret faults. And, and, and I believe it's that heart that David had, you know, search me, try me here in this last passage, the last verse of this passage, see if there'd be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. It's that desire that he had for God to show him even secret faults, things that, that he wasn't even aware of. The Lord is able to keep us from falling, Jude says, even stumbling. We should, we should, we should desire that even if we begin to turn to the right hand or turn to the left hand, the Lord would show us that. Don't let me get way over here in left field somewhere before I wake up. Wake up to, you know, the, the, the sin that's going on in my life. Help me to stay humble and help me to stay close by your side.

The more, the more we lean to our own understanding, the farther we get away from the Lord when I walk. Saw that bumper sticker the other day. It says, are you, do you follow Jesus this closely? You know, for tailgating, do you follow Jesus this closely? Well, is that our desire that we would be as close as we possibly can be to the Lord? Close that we could hear what the choir sang this morning, the whispers of love from the Lord. That's the reward in itself to, to just be in close communion with the Lord. We can't be in close communion if we're harboring iniquity in our hearts, if we have pride in our hearts. But if we hide God's word in our hearts, we can't be in close communion with the Lord. If we hide God's word in our hearts, if we hide his word in our hearts, and if we, that we might not sin against him, he is going, he's going to lead us in the way that we should go. He's going to give us victory. He's able to keep us from, from stumbling, from falling. And if we do fall, get up and go forward. May we not, may we not, have to go through nine months of, like David did with the, and thank God for his recovery. But what, what could David have even avoided that if he would have responded to God in the little things that God was dealing with him about? I believe that was very much in his heart when he says some of these things.

Look at those months I wasted after that sin with Bathsheba because I kept trying to cover, I kept trying to avoid. God's dealings with me, and yet finally we see here this humbling of his heart before God. May we have, may we realize, not only do we, we miss out on the fellowship with the Lord that we ought to have, but also think about nature. Nature is always every day. We're living in this world, and we look around us, you know, you're living in this world, and you're living in this world, and you're living in this world, and you're living in this world, and you're living in this world. You look at the news, and I hear people all the time saying, I get so tired of the vicious news cycle, I just want to go out into the natural area and just, just know the peace and the still and the calmness that I find there. That's a reflection of God's goodness, even in the creation. It speaks of the, that God's in control. There's order, and there's beauty, and there's design in the natural world.

And when people look at our lives, may they not see that we're living in this world. And when people look at our lives, may they not see that as Christians, we're in disarray, because we will be when we're leaning on our own understanding, and when we're doing things our way in our own pride, but that we will just humbly be walking with the Lord and saying, Lord, show me your way today. Teach me. Help me to know the words I need to speak.

I was talking with this guy down at the railroad tracks yesterday. He was probably somewhere on the spectrum of autism, you know, of some kind of special needs. But I mean, this guy, he, he knew his stuff about trains. He told me everything in a very short window of time that I wanted to know. I thought, you need to be a college professor somewhere about this subject. He knew his stuff, and he was ready. He didn't miss a beat when he spit it out. I thought, man, we really need to be like that as Christians. We need to be ready to give an answer for our faith. We need to have God's word right at the tip. He had it all at the tip of his tongue, and he was ready to articulate it. And as Christians, we need to have God's word in our hearts so much that we're just ready to tell people about it.

And, you know, what a, what a blessing that is would be that we, that when people listen to us, they could say, or they look at us, they, they hear us talk and say, he knows the Lord. He really knows his God. He, he must, he's been with Jesus. Like they said to the apostles, that people would be able to see that. Just as they look at the creation, they say, wow. There must be a designer here. There must be a creator. They're honest when they see it.

So God help us. And it will all depend on, are we humble? Are we sensitive to God's reproofs, his correction, his converting our thinking and restoring us in things that we've sinned in, that we would just get it right with God so we can be what he'd have us to be.

Let's pray. Father, help us. To be, help us to be clean and stay close to your side so we can reflect and be ready to tell and talk of all your goodness, to share your word out of a pure heart, with a clear mind and a ready mind for those that would ask, ask about our Savior. Help us, Lord. Lord, not to retaliate and speak according to our own wisdom, but help us to be filled with the fear of the Lord. Help us to be living daily in the delight of your, delighting in your word. Help us to hide your word in our hearts that we might not sin against thee. Keep us, Lord, from secret faults. Cleanse us and purge us of any, any errors that are in our lives by pointing them out to us and helping us to see them. Help us to stay close and, and humble that we would be ready to see those things if you would point them out to us, Lord. And, and then help us ultimately, as we are sensitive to you, keep us from committing those presumptuous high-handed sins against you, Lord. We, we, we don't want to, we, we, we can't afford to waste time, our time, but your time. We, we know that the, that we may not have much time left here. We can't live like we've just got forever. We've got a limited amount of time to bring glory to you. So help us to use the time we have remaining well. And we pray these things. We ask them in Jesus' name. Amen.