The Lovingkindness of God
Psalms 119:41-48
• The difference God’s true work in our lives is amazing.
Religious people are not very impressive to the world and are really
not very impressive to themselves.
When God does His work in our hearts then it is the greatest
possible experience we can enjoy.
(41) May Your lovingkindnesses also come to me, O Lord, Your salvation according to Your word.
1. The first essential is to be sure what you got is what God gives. Paul told us to ‘test ourselves to see if we are in the faith’. True Salvation is:
a. God’s Gift(His lovingkindness to us)
b. Consistent with His Word(don’t twist God’s arm but claim His promise to find salvation)
1) Saved by God’s terms – based on His promise
2. When you are truly saved then you have something in your life the world needs to hear.
(42) So I will have an answer for him who reproaches me, for I trust in your Word.
3. What are your answers when the world scrutinizes your so-called relationship with God?(just wait, you will get yours!)
Emotion? Excitement? More blessings than they have?
Church membership? Sinless life?
a. Those people down at that church are sinners just like me. EXACTLY: That is the whole point of the Gospel. We all have sins but the question is where are they now?
b. I trust in Your word: Lit. I have a ‘confident expectation’ because of your promise.
1) I know that you won’t PULL THE RUG out from under me.
2) It is to ‘attach yourself’ firmly to something for support.
3) CHAIR. (Anybody not putting all their weight down right now?) Home after a hard day…not put all your weight into that lazy boy?
FOUR WAYS TO KNOW WE ARE TRUSTING GOD
1. The Way we WAIT (43) And do not take the word of truth utterly out of my mouth, for I wait for Your ordinances
a. How do you wait on God? What word is in your mouth as you wait for God’s timing? Doubt, bitterness, anger?
b. When we are truly trusting God then our faith with demonstrate itself through our choice of words.
c. What would you might have said if your were:
1) Noah pounding a nail
2) Joseph counting prison bars
3) David looking for rocks
4) Job scrapping scabs
They all inspired faith in spite of their circumstances.
d. Proper waiting bring a greater capacity for service; SCHOOL/Trials
ISA 40: 31 Those who wait upon 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.
GAIN NEW: a changed strength….that which passes from one to another….new realm of strength
TIRED: Weary in the work
2. The Way we WALK (44) So I will keep Your law continually, forever and ever. (45) And I will walk at liberty, for I seek Your precepts.
a. Waiting is not meant to be a time we do nothing. (Doctor’s WAITING ROOM). Waiting is aggressive cooperation with God’s will at the point that I know it. HOLD YOUR BLOCK
b. Every moment is a preparation for the next in God’s plan. When we don’t see the big picture then we don’t understand the small parts(JIGSAW).
Faith means leaving the big picture as God’s concern. My part is:
1) Continual Obedience: Lit; ‘without interruption’
2) Eternal Obedience: forever!
c. Does obedience to God mean we live confining lives?
1) WALK AT LIBERTY! Wide place, at ease,
2) World is caught in the bonds, confinement of sin. It intrudes into every relationship and every endeavor.
Only a saved person in God’s will knows what freedom really is.
3. The Way we WITNESS (46) I will also speak of Your testimonies before kings and shall not be ashamed.
a. Who does this verse remind you of in the Bible? Paul/ Daniel/ Nehemiah/Joseph/Esther ‘for such a time as this’.
b. Who do you see in our day like this? Willing to tell it like it is, take a stand regardless of the cost? Political correctness
c. What is your testimony? what you have done? Go to church/live a respectable life…. Or what God has done? Speak of YOUR testimonies
4. The Way we WORSHIP (47) I shall delight in Your commandments, with I love. (48) And I shall lift up my hands to Your commandments, which I love; and I will meditate on Your statutes.
1. How long is the list of the things that you really get excited about? Family, NFL football, favorite show, tax rebate?
a. Where is knowing God’s will on that list?
2. DELIGHT: ‘I boil’. Have an intense emotion towards. I worship on the inside.
3. I worship on the outside: Lift hands to a Jew was to make an oath, palms up towards God.(TO US SURRENDER)
